Ind. General Assembly discusses redrawing districts

On Monday, the Senate Election Committee and the House Elections and Apportionment Committee had public meetings at the Indiana Statehouse to unveil plans for new legislative and congressional districts.

After every decennial census, state legislators are required to redraw state Senate and House districts as well as U.S. congressional districts because of population shifts, growth and decline.

For this reason, the Indiana Senate is required to redraw the boundaries of Indiana’s existing 50 Senate districts and the House is required to redraw the boundaries of Indiana’s 100 House districts. Both chambers are also responsible for redrawing the boundaries of Indiana’s nine congressional districts.

At 9:30 a.m. Monday, members of the Senate Election Committee, legislators and the public gathered in the Senate chamber for the disclosure of newly proposed state Senate boundaries and congressional district boundaries based on data from the 2010 U.S. Census.

No public testimony was heard because of the lack of a physically drafted bill. The purpose of the hearing was solely for the unveiling of the newly proposed districts.

Members of the committee, led by its chairwoman, Senator Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, positioned poster boards on easels side-by-side to visually contrast the current and newly proposed boundaries of the legislative and congressional districts.

According to data on display in the chamber, the committee aimed at a target population of 720,422 Hoosiers per each of Indiana’s nine U.S. congressional districts.

Indiana’s District 5, which currently stretches from southern and eastern city lines of Indianapolis to the northern part of the state, saw a population growth of 88,685 — higher than any other district. For that reason, its proposed revision in the Senate called for an extreme reduction of its size, in which it would lose counties to adjacent congressional districts.

Bloomington and a majority of Monroe County is situated in Indiana’s 9th Congressional District. In the proposals, the western part of Monroe County, currently located in District 4, will join Bloomington for an inclusion into the 9th District.

Proposed Senate changes included a loss of counties in the southwestern part of the district and a loss of counties in the eastern part of the district. Other changes included the loss of Spencer, Dubois and Perry counties in the southwest to District 8 and the loss of Jennings, Jefferson and Switzerland counties in the east to District 6.

Proposed House changes to Indiana’s nine districts mirrored those of the Senate.

Today, the Senate Elections Committee will reconvene at 2:30 p.m. and the House Elections and Apportionment Committee will reconvene at 11:30 a.m to hear public
testimony.