Are Council Democrats Suffering From Premature Evaluation
Some of my Democratic friends on the Indianapolis City-County Council are not happy campers right now. They are upset that outgoing Council President Ryan Vaughn is moving forward with a plan to draw new council maps. The first public hearing was held Monday. In-coming Council Vice President Brian Mahern called the move an act of war on bi-partisanship and think it is a power grab by the GOP. Not to monsoon on anyone’s political parade, but sometimes a cigar really is a just a cigar (sorry Angela, I couldn’t help myself). And I do think if Mahern and the Democrats took a closer look at the maps they would want to buy election attorney David Brooks dinner.
You see, instead of drawing a map that diluted Democratic voting strength and impaired minority voting powers, the maps (which I spent a good chunk of time Monday pouring over) not only meets the legal requirements set down by the state and federal governments and doubles the amount of minority participation by creating six Council districts with minority populations of more than 50% and two with more than 45%; one of them is 24% Hispanic.
In addition, based on 2010 recorder race numbers the maps at best create 10 districts each where Democrats and Republicans have a baseline of 55% of the voters and 5 districts which could be considered competitive. If you increase that number to 60% baseline, Democrats actually do better than Republicans.
The Districts are straight squares anymore, however, don’t forget that when the Indiana Supreme Court drew the maps 10 years ago there were about 900 precincts, now there are 600. I would also point out that in 2001 when new maps were drawn, then Mayor Bart Peterson spent about $170,000 on the process, adjusted for inflation in today’s dollars that would be about $210,000. The contract was for about $225,000.
This is why I am somewhat confused at my Democratic friends’ outrage. I am assuming that if these maps were to be pulled that Democrats would draw better maps with equal minority participation and competitiveness? It would be one thing if the Republicans pulled a Texas and purposely diluted minority and Democratic voting strengths, but from everything I as able to gather by actually sitting down and pouring over the data, Marion County is still as Democratic as it was last year. And if Democrats can field credible, intelligent, thoughtful candidates, they can win.
So once again, what’s the big deal?
