How redistricting will shape politics in the West for the next decade By for Deseret News
There’s a big difference between states with independent commissions that redraw election district maps and states without them
States across the West are finalizing their new election district maps for the next decade based on 2020 U.S. census data, and their decisions will have far-reaching consequences.
In California, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes announced he won’t seek reelection after redistricting put him in a much more competitive district, exchanging a shot at the chairmanship of the influential House Ways and Means Committee to work for former President Donald Trump’s new media company. In Oregon, where Democrats control the redistricting process, they reduced the number of competitive districts for Republicans, while Utah Republicans did the same with the state’s lone remaining competitive district.
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“Politicians, wherever they are, blue states, red states, they’re going to gerrymander if they have the opportunity to do that,” said Joe Kabourek, senior campaign director for RepresentUs, a good government and anti-corruption group.
The group’s 2021 Gerrymandering Threat Index found Western states including Nevada, Utah and Wyoming are at an extreme risk of gerrymandering because politicians are involved in drawing them, while states with independent redistricting commissions, like Arizona, California, Colorado and Idaho, are at a lower risk.
According to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, maps drawn by a commission are receiving an average grade of B+ when rated for fairness, while maps drawn by a state legislature are getting an average grade of D. But not all commissions are creating equal.
Independent commissions that are isolated from politicians and have strong structural constraints that prevent partisanship have the best shot for avoiding gerrymandering. Arizona has a bipartisan commission that’s required by the state Constitution to draw legislative districts that are contiguous, geographically compact and follow city, town and county boundaries.
In Utah, an advisory commission suggests new boundaries, but the state legislature is free to disregard them for their own plans, which happened this year. The state’s competitive 4th Congressional District, which has flipped between Democrats and Republicans since being created a decade ago, was redrawn by the Republican legislature. In Utah, political consultant and Deseret News opinion writer LaVarr Webb said Republicans weren’t worried about ignoring the commission-drawn maps because in their districts, most voters didn’t support the commission in the first place.
