Drewing lines: Edmondson favors depoliticized districts

The Oklahoman
June 11, 2009

The next governor will preside over state government when redistricting occurs following the 2010 census. A man who wants to be the next governor would like to take politics out of the equation.

Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson announced Wednesday what many have known for months: He wants to replace Brad Henry as governor and take on Lt. Gov. Jari Askins, D-Duncan, in the quest for his party's nomination. With 12 months remaining before the candidates can officially file to run for election, Edmondson said he's ready to move up.

Not only Askins awaits him, of course. The favored candidate to win the Republican nomination is U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin. Edmondson thus faces a long slog of campaigning to get past these formidable women.

How long a slog redistricting will be is an open question. Edmondson suggests that politicians shouldn't handle the task of drawing new boundary lines. Instead, it would be turned over to a bipartisan, independent commission headed by academics or, perhaps, The Oklahoma Academy. The attorney general, in a pre-announcement meeting with The Oklahoman's editorial board, admitted that his idea probably won't gain traction.

The next governor, if he or she is a Democrat, will likely have to work with a Republican Legislature when districts for Oklahoma's five congressional seats and 149 legislative seats are redrawn. A few states follow the bipartisan redistricting model, but it's hard to imagine that Oklahoma Republicans, out of the majority for almost all of statehood, would surrender their first chance to dominate reapportionment.