An extreme proposal, S.B. 1, by Democrats to selectively gerrymander New Mexico’s congressional map while hiding under the guise of “representation” for Native American communities, is moving forward after it passed the Senate Rules Committee on a party-line vote of 7-4.
What the map does: The map completely changes the layout of New Mexico’s congressional map, robbing Albuquerque of the South Valley by plunging it into the Second Congressional District. The First District then eats up chunks of Valencia County, all of Torrance and Lincoln Counties, as well as bits of Otero County. The First District then extends in a snake-like shape all the way north to the outskirts of Santa Fe.
The Third District is even more strange-looking, by eating up northern Hobbs, all of Lovington, Roswell, and much of Artesia, while it extends up to Santa Fe, Taos, and the northeast corner of the state.
Why it matters: According to FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of the map, it would turn all of New Mexico’s districts to Democrat hands, with the First District a D+12, the Second a D+4, and the Third a D+4. This could rob representation from New Mexicans in rural areas by diluting their voice.
What you can do: The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on the newly redrawn congressional district map at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 9. It is unclear if public comment will be taken, but the meeting information can be found here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88289763031 to join the Webinar, or via telephone 1-669-900-9128 – Meeting ID: 882 8976 3031
Also happening today: The Senate Rules Committee will be meeting on Thursday, December 9 at 2:00 p.m. to discuss redrawing of state Senate maps, which are also heavily Democrat gerrymandered. The details to that meeting are below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88408775084 to join the Webinar, or via telephone 1-346-248-7799 Meeting ID: 884 0877 5084
Where’s the Republican Party? In other states they would have had people involved in this redistricting from the beginning. I haven’t heard a peep out of any of them.
I would be a little more sympathetic to Republican woes about gerrymandering in New Mexico if they were proposing some fair and consistent approach for all of the states. I agree, gerrymandering is bad. Note that New Mexico Democrats waited until the 10 year census to do this unlike our Republican friends in Texas and elsewhere.