INDIANAPOLIS — The newly released map for the Indiana State Senate looks likely to support a continued Republican supermajority in the legislature, raising more concerns about partisan redistricting among those opposed to the state’s process.
For Hancock County, the changes aren’t major, with the county remaining entirely in the Senate district of Sen. Mike Crider, R-Greenfield. Crider’s district was reshaped slightly, including fewer precincts from the east side of Indianapolis. That area was an urban blue spot in an otherwise red and rural district.
The district will also go farther to the south in Shelby County and pick up the township that includes Shelbyville.
You can look over the new map here.
Crider was elected to the state Senate for the first time in 2012, so he has only run in the district in its current shape. Since senators serve four-year terms, he’ll have time to get to know his newly reshaped district before running again in 2024.
“I think it’s one of those situations where you’ve just got to see if you’ve got competition and get out and knock on doors,” Crider said.
Julia Vaughn, policy director of Common Cause Indiana, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to democracy reform issues including ending so-called gerrymandering, was critical of the proposed map, saying it worsened the trend of dividing Indiana cities into multiple districts to dilute their voting power.
Vaughn was also skeptical of the process itself. She said voters should have more time to comment on the proposed maps before they are put to a final vote. It’s especially concerning, she said, that the Senate maps will be voted on by the House as an amendment before the public comment session, making it appear the testimony is just a formality to legislators who have already made up their minds.
Vaughn said Crider’s district, which is frequently used by redistricting reform activists as an example of gerrymandering, retained its odd shape despite minor changes.
“It’s still got that weird arm going into Marion County,” she said.
Crider said the process of redrawing districts in a way that satisfies all the requirements is a difficult one, and that it’s not as straightforward a partisan process as many who have objected to Indiana’s process think it is.
“It’s really a math problem,” Crider said, and suggested that those who are skeptical about the maps legislators have drawn should try using online tools to create their own.
Analysts said the new map creates one new seat that would likely go to the Democrats, a reflection of population growth in Indianapolis and shrinkage in most of the state’s rural counties. However, that won’t make much of a dent in the Senate’s current 39-11 Republican majority.
Republican Senate leaders said the new maps keep more counties in a single district while accounting for the shift in population from rural areas.
On Monday, Sept. 20, the state House voted on party lines to approve the maps drawn by Republican legislators for House seats as well as for congressional districts.
An analysis by political scientist Christopher Warshaw, commissioned by the group Women4Change Indiana, found that those maps appear substantially gerrymandered. Both are be among the top 10% most biased maps in the past fifty years, according to his analysis.
“In the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden received about 42% of the two-party vote,” Warshaw wrote. “However, he would have only won 22% of the congressional districts and 30% of the state house districts in the proposed plans. This would lead to substantially more wasted Democratic votes in Indiana congressional and state house elections than wasted Republican votes.”
Crider said the Senate will likely vote on its map next week. Voters will be able to make public comments on the proposed map on Monday, Sept. 27, at the Statehouse.
Like the House maps, the Senate maps drew immediate criticism from Democrats.
“What we saw was Republicans continuing to manipulate the system against Hoosier voters,” the spokesman of the state Democratic Party, Drew Anderson, said.
Anderson said Crider’s district continues to stand out as an example of gerrymandering and that there is no reason for any part of Marion County to be included in the district. He added that the maps appeared to use a similar tactic to divide other areas that lean Democratic, like parts of Carmel and Fort Wayne.
“Their strategy is to break apart cities across the state that are Democrat-leaning,” Anderson said.
Theresa Bruno, Crider’s Democratic opponent in his 2020 race, will no longer be in his district. Most of Warren Township, where she lives, was shifted to a newly constituted District 46, which legislators moved to the center of the state from its position centered on Clark County in southern Indiana. Territory in the former District 46 was placed in two adjoining districts.
Bruno, who contended in running against Crider that he did not adequately represent the interests of constituents on the east side of Indianapolis, isn’t happy with her proposed new position. She said Lawrence and Warren Townships should have been kept together in one district; instead, they were divided into four.
“That really disappoints me, because that’s really robbing the east side of a voice,” Bruno said.
To Bruno, the proposed map appears to be a clear effort to divide and dilute the power of Indianapolis votes because the city’s residents tend to vote for Democrats.
“These maps just make me sad,” she said.
There is little groups unhappy with the new maps can do to challenge them. The Supreme Court has ruled that gerrymandering is unconstitutional if done on racial lines, but not on partisan lines. The court has repeatedly declined to take up cases that could challenge partisan gerrymandering.
Vaughn said that Common Cause isn’t opposed to making court challenges when it believes a law or policy is unjust, but challenges to redistricting are especially difficult. The group will, she said, analyze the maps further to determine whether there’s evidence minority populations are being disenfranchised.
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You can see the proposed Senate district map by visiting https://www.indianasenaterepublicans.com/. You can also find a link with the online version of this story.
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