Following the passage of the Democrats’ heavily gerrymandered U.S. House map that would scramble the state in a frenzy of chaos in the attempt to skew the board in Democrats’ favor, it looks to be backfiring. The new map passed by the Legislature weakens the Third District to a D+5 seat and the First District to a D+11 seat in the attempt at taking out Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell from the Second District.
They achieved this by pushing the South Valley of Albuquerque outside of Albuquerque and putting it into the Second District while simultaneously removing Roswell, Lovington, and Northern Hobbs from the district, creating snake-like shapes that have been given low marks regarding compactness and splitting counties — the current map splitting 9 of New Mexico’s 33 counties.
The unfair process, which has been rushed through with little to no public comment due to last-minute meetings and closed-door scheming, has resulted in New Mexicans fed up with the process that appears to have been planned from the get-go to ram through these partisan maps.
Kentren Yeh has started a petition to demand Lujan Grisham veto the bill, that would push a partisan agenda.
“Like I’ve said before, I’m against Gerrymandering. Since I never got to speak to the State Senate Committee, because of a Senator’s refusal to hear the public, I therefore make this petition. This is huge, because it’ll affect us in the next decade! Even an article recorded that both Republicans and Democrats do not like this map. I urge Governor Lujan Grisham to veto SB – 1,” he wrote.
The petition reads:
Recently, the New Mexico State Legislature has slammed a very partisan map that strongly separates communities of interest. Without a full and entire public input and yet unfortunately, it was passed unprecedently. In an obvious gerrymandered map, it would increase the difficulties of our Representatives (and future Representatives) to stay in touch with their constituents, due to the blatant mix of Urban and Rural communities. Every community of constituents deserve to have a Representative that can hear them out at the most flexible way possible. It isn’t realistic to have a Representative from Santa Fe (in CD3) to fully understand the needs of the citizens from Roswell. A rural district, deserves to have a rural voice, just as an urban district deserves to have an urban voice. It isn’t fair to both of the Congresswomen from CD2 and CD3 – that in a such drastic change, they can’t serve their constituents to the best of their ability. As the bill heads to Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk, we must get her attention to veto this bill!
Sign the petition here.
The Legislature still has yet to vote to finalize the state Senate, state House, and Public Education Commission maps, although they are expected to be passed and sent to the Governor early this week. They, too, are heavily gerrymandered to favor Democrats. For example, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the state House map an “F” rating regarding compactness, which includes 24 county splits out of New Mexico’s 33 counties — telling signs of partisan gerrymandering. It also received a“C” grade regarding competitiveness.
I have to ask if there is anyone who truly believes that MLG would veto this proposed redistricting (gerrymandered, if you prefer) map that would ‘redraw’ the congressional districts in New Mexico. Are our memories so short that we have forgotten the ‘promise’ made by Egolf within hours of the election of our Republican candidate in CD2, that he (Egolf) “would redistrict (again, gerrymander, if you prefer) CD2 so that a Republican would never again be elected to that seat”. This statement and promise I am sure had, and has the full support of our radical, progressive governor, and no amount of petition signatures will even begin to come close to changing her mind on this matter!!