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February 21, 2010

Anonymous The Kokomo Tribune Sun Feb 21, 2010, 03:43 PM EST

A bill aimed at reforming the way Indiana draws its legislative and congressional districts is stalled.

In fact, measures to establish a commission to oversee the process remain where they were three weeks ago – the House Rules Committee.

Some have suggested that with the budget issues facing the state, it’s the wrong time to take on an issue like redistricting. House Speaker Pat Bauer calls it a distraction.

As we said earlier this month, now is the perfect time to address this issue.

Every 10 years, legislators are required by law to draw new districts in line with the new population numbers produced by the census. That process will take place next year.

But the time to reform the process is this year, before lawmakers know which party will be in control of the Indiana House and Senate. If reform doesn’t happen now, it won’t happen this decade, and we’ll be stuck with this same broken process for another 10 years.

For too long, the main objective of the map-making process has been to create districts that will protect the interests of incumbents.

As a result, we have districts that look more like snakes or dragons and an overwhelming number of legislative and congressional races with no real competition. In many cases, would-be challengers don’t even bother to file.

Senate Bill 80 calls for simple, compact districts that are respectful of neighborhoods, county lines and communities of interest. It passed the Senate 47-1.

Our hope is that the bill will pass this session of the General Assembly, but in the long term, we hope lawmakers will push forward a constitutional amendment that would eliminate politics from the process entirely.

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