State Senate Democrats are pushing for an overhaul of the redistricting process by putting an independent commission in charge of drawing the new lines for House and Senate districts.
The idea is a good one but the Dems are two years too late. The time to propose changes was shortly after the 2008 elections that produced major gains for the Democrats.
At that point, they could have argued that they were willing to forego their newfound political power in order to create a fair, nonpartisan system.
By proposing a change now, after a disastrous 2010 election for the Dems that gave the Republicans a 26-12 supermajority in the Senate, the proposal will be viewed as laughable in many political circles.
The legislation would create a commission made up of 9 members — four appointed by Republicans, four by Democrats, and one appointed by the nonpartisan Auditor General. The commission, not legislators, would draw the lines.
The commission would be required to hold at least six public meetings around the state, develop a web site, and post any redistricting plan 72 hours before taking a vote on it. Six members must agree on a plan for it to be presented to the Legislature for final approval.
Bringing the process out in the open is certainly a change that the GOP should be pressured to make. The secretive shenanigans in Lansing, which produces an incumbent protection plan, is far more opaque than the process used in each county to draw commissioner districts.
“Redistricting is one of the most critical functions of our democracy and it deserves to be done outside of the politics that occur within our Legislature,” said Sen. Steve Bieda, a Warren Democrat. “I ask my Republican colleagues and Gov. Snyder to avoid merely protecting incumbents and instead support our efforts to show Michigan’s citizens that their right to fair representation is not clouded by partisanship and political games.”
Good luck with that, Steve.
