On Friday, the New Mexico Citizens Redistricting Committee is set to meet in Farmington to discuss redrawing state House, state Senate, congressional, and Public Education Commission maps.
This redistricting year is the first in the state’s history where citizens are allowed to submit their very own district maps along with written testimony for free.
Far-left extremist groups seeking to expand seats to fulfill their partisan advantage, such as the Center for Civic Policy, have proposed heavily gerrymandered maps that would cut communities of interest into sections and partition seats into strange shapes to meet a partisan advantage. One such map is Concept H, which is an extreme partisan gerrymander, making all three congressional districts in New Mexico solid blue by chopping up the South Valley of Albuquerque into the southern Second District and taking away the oil patch from the Second to add to the Third District, making it stretch all the way from Eddy and Lea Counties to Santa Fe and west to McKinley and San Juan Counties.
Concepts A, B, C, or G should be advocated for at the meeting for their non-radical changes to the congressional plan.
In the group’s state House and Senate maps, districts would be heavily gerrymandered to span across many counties. In the extremist dark money group’s state House plan, Clovis is chopped up into three districts while District 49 on the western side of the state would span four counties. District 67 would span five counties while many other districts have twisted shapes, indicating an extreme partisan gerrymander.
Citizens are encouraged to attend this vital meeting (in-person or via Zoom) to oppose these extreme gerrymandered plans, which are proposed and funded by dark money groups to skew the maps politically — a grave violation of the Committee’s purpose: to create fair maps. State House maps to advocate for include Concept B or the Megan Richardson map proposed in the application “Districtr,” which would all create fair maps. Please show up to attend via in-person in Gallup or Farmington or via Zoom.
The meeting details are below:
The Citizen Redistricting Committee will hold a public meeting on Friday, October 8, 2021 from 3pm to 7pm or until adjourned, to provide members of the public an opportunity to share public comment and testimony to the Committee on the proposed concepts of district maps for New Mexico’s offices to be redistricted.
Satellite locations that will be broadcasting this meeting and providing opportunities for public comment are as follows:
University of New Mexico Gallup Campus, Calvin Hall Auditorium, Room 248
425 N 7th St, Gallup, NM 87301
For more information, click here.To submit a public comment, or statewide district plan online, visit the CRC’s Public Redistricting Portal.
For in-person attendance at meetings:
Masks are required for those who have not been vaccinated and encouraged for those who have been vaccinated. You are also encouraged to practice social distancing.
To attend the meeting virtually, please see the details below:
Agenda & Meeting Materials: https://www.nmredistricting.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Agenda-for-2021-10-08-CRC-Meeting-Farmington.pdf
Please click this URL to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83550539072
Webinar ID: 835 5053 9072
No Password
Dial-in Numbers:
+13462487799,,83550539072# US (Houston)
+16699009128,,83550539072# US (San Jose)
The Gallup meeting on October 8 from 3-7 p.m. at the University of New Mexico Gallup Campus, Calvin Hall Auditorium, Room 248, meeting is a satellite location happening simultaneously with the CRC meeting taking place in Farmington, NM meaning that the CRC members will not be physically present in Gallup. The CRC hosts satellite locations to provide community members the opportunity to make public comments or provide testimony on redistricting issues in person with other community members when they cannot make it to the CRC’s in-person meeting locations and or have limited internet access.
John Block, Great presentation yesterday at the CRC meeting. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Chris!