On Friday, the Republican Party of New Mexico (RPNM) announced a lawsuit filed in New Mexico’s Fifth Judicial District Court against the Democrat gerrymandered congressional maps rammed through by far-left Democrats in last year’s second special session.
“The newly approved redistricting maps dilute Republican voting strength,” RPNM contends.
The current maps dilute the Second Congressional District from an R+14 to a D+5 by plunging Democrat-heavy areas, such as Albuquerque’s South Valley, into the Second District. Congresswoman Yvette Herrell (R-NM-02) currently represents the District, which includes most of southern New Mexico.
In the Democrats’ passed plan, Hobbs is split in two, Roswell is split in three, and there is a possibility that an Albuquerque-area resident could represent every single congressional district, which robs representation from the rest of the state.
“Immediately after the 2020 election, Speaker Egolf announced his intention to implement a partisan redistricting of our state to reverse Republican gains. Last month, he followed through on that threat. The Democrat’s cynical attempt to consolidate their power by abusing the redistricting process in New Mexico is illegal and wrong. We are bringing this suit to protect the voices of all New Mexicans regardless of their political beliefs,” said RPNM Chairman Steve Pearce.
“New Mexico statute provides for a non-partisan commission to listen to the people across the state and then submit redistricting plans to the legislature. The commission held public meetings, many people participated, and maps were submitted from that body to the state legislature. And yet after months of hard work and hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars spent by the Citizens Redistricting Committee, the Democrats tossed all of that away and jammed through an illegal gerrymander that ripped apart communities of interest, disenfranchised voters across the state, and set up maps where the intent is to let Albuquerque have all 3 congressional representatives. Through this suit we will stand for fairness, the rule of law, and the core principles of our democracy.”
According to the release, “The lawsuit is being filed by Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber & Schreck of Albuquerque, which is also handling the redistricting suits in Colorado.”
About time they did something.
Good! This map is in violation of Cooper V Harris and needs to ne shot down.
Here comes the snow NM. They finally did something.