The census figures for this decade are in. Our eight Congressional seats have been preserved. Now, let the battle over who represents whom for the next ten years begin: redistricting, or reapportionment of Minnesota’s Legislative and Congressional districts.

Should the every-ten-year redrawing of our legislative and Congressional districts be done by the people who represent them as current law requires? Congressional reapportionment and state redistricting for legislative offices has always fallen to the Legislatures themselves. But funny things have happened on the way to those redrawings: invariably, incumbents of both parties appear to have been protected and the competition minimized when those who hold those office are also responsible for drawing their districts. Obviously, on reflection, these reformers see a major conflict of interest and history shows that redistricting has become an incumbent-protection mechanism, no matter which party is in control. Moreover, the element of competition is essentially erased under the present system, competition once seen as critical to democratic elections. As it is, some 90% of Congressional incumbents are returned to office every two or six years.

In MInnesota, challenges to initial redistricting plans every decade have more often than not led to judicial intervention, anyway. That is, court challenges by one party or the other have been all but inevitable for the last four , so egregious have the parties felt legislators have been in preserving their seats through redistricting. 

Or should this process be reassigned to what many insist would be a more neutral body – a panel of retired, theoretically apolitical judges? It’s an idea supported by a raft of former office holders of both major parties, some of them judges, including former Vice President Walter Mondale, former Governors Al Quie and Arne Carlson, and former Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz, none of whom would qualify themselves for such a panel, given their political histories. Two of them, former Senate Majority Leader Roger Moe and former Speaker of the House Steve Sviggum, the former a DFLer, the latter a Republican who used to do battle now standing shoulder to shoulder in favor of the independent panel.

Not likely that all political animals support a bill that would remove redistricting from the grip of the state Legislature. Who might those folks be? Listen below as we talk with Speaker Sviggum, Sen. Moe and Mike Dean of Common Cause about why they support what some consider a drastic move to take legislators out of the redistricting equation following each decennial census.

TTT’S ANDY DRISCOLL and CO-HOST MICHELLE ALIMORADI will query these legislative luminaries about their reasons for this historic move.

Guests:

Former SPEAKER OF THE MINNESOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STEVE SVIGGUM

Former MINNESOTA SENATE MAJORITY LEADER ROGER MOE

MIKE DEAN – President, CommonCause/Minnesota

MINNESOTA REDISTRICTING ACTION SITES:

DRAW THE LINE MINNESOTA

“WHAT’S AT STAKE” MEETING APRIL 7 – Women’s Consortium Building-St. Paul

FIND THE NEWEST POPULATION DATA FOR YOUR COUNTY NOW

COMMON CAUSE’S DRAW MINNESOTA SITE