Bill that creates redistricting commission advances

Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - A bill that would create a five-member commission to draw up new maps for congressional and legislative districts each decade advanced to the full Indiana House on a party-line vote Thursday.

All seven Republicans on the House Elections and Apportionment Committee endorsed the proposal while all five Democrats voted against it. Maps are currently drawn by the Legislature.

Lawmakers would not be allowed to serve on the panel, but leaders of the four caucuses in the General Assembly would each appoint one member, and the chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court would choose a chairman.

The commission would be required to base new district boundaries on nonpolitical factors that include population, compactness and attempts to keep communities together. The General Assembly would then meet in a special session during the redistricting year to vote on the proposal.

The bill does not include a remedy for what would happen if the plan was not approved. But state Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel, said he believed lawmakers would feel public pressure to go along with the recommendation.

Democrats said the plan would violate a state constitutional requirement that lawmakers draw new boundaries and violate the constitution's separation of powers.