Common Council calls for creation of redistricting commission

Outraged calls of "blatant partisanship" arose after the Bloomington Common Council announced the creation of a new commission on voter redistricting. \nThe wrath toward the project came from Monroe County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Combs after the August announcement, and has continued since.\nRepublican County Commissioner Herbert Kilmer contends the committee was created "to more fairly and completely comply with Indiana state law."\nThe committee will recommend redistricting only at the county council and county commissioners' districts. It will then make a recommendation to the county commissioners, who can either amend the recommendation or create their own district map.\nDemocrat Iris Kiesling was the only commissioner to vote against the creation of the redistricting committee with Republicans Joyce Poling and Kilmer voting for it.\nThe commissioners appointed two Republicans to the redistricting committee, former council member Steve Hogan and former county auditor Margaret Cook. Democrat and former Bloomington City Clerk Pat Williams rounds out the commission.\nThe last county redistricting was done in 2001, when the Democrats were in control of the county commission, using population data from the 2000 census. Combs called it "extraordinary and unprecedented" to redistrict without new census data.\nCombs warned if the county commissioners continue to pursue redistricting it could lead to a cycle of redistricting every time a new party takes control of the county commission.\nIn a formal written statement released Aug. 17, the commissioners said the committee "shall (not) be guided ... by political considerations."\nWilliams said politics is the motivator behind the creation of the committee.\n"What I am most surprised about is that we are ... part of a discussion in which the political jurisdiction of the community is being dictated by a political party," she said. "I am sorry we are in this position."\nThe commissioner's letter to the redistricting committee instructed it to make its recommendations based on the "traditional and statutory criteria of contiguity, compactness, communities of interest, precinct preservation and equality of population."\nThe Libertarian Party said the committee should recommend its map. It is the only map representative of the interests of non-partisans, Libertarian supporter Justin Counts said.\nRedistricting causes confusion in the minds of voters as well, IU political science professor Tim Tilton said at the Aug. 31 redistricting committee meeting.\n"If there is any point in doing this at all, it is for the convenience of the voters of Monroe County," he said. "If we change the districts, voters will be confused on what district they are in."\nHe said he worries voters could end up not voting for the same person from election to election.\n"It will be hard to hold people accountable on that basis," he said.