It's interesting to me how unbothered many New Mexicans are by the decades of gerrymandering that have taken place in our state. The November 27 affirmation by the state Supreme Court of the lower court ruling upholding the 2021 redistricting plan signed into law by the Democratic legislature was similarly anticlimactic.
The all-Democrat Supreme Court simply agreed with the previous District Court ruling that well, yes, the Democratic legislature gerrymandered the 2nd Congressional District to improve Democratic performance in that district by 12 percentage points. But that wasn't an "egregious" gerrymander.
Meh. Politicians are going to politick. What are you gonna do?
And then there's my favorite response when I get on my gerrymandering soapbox: "Republicans are gerrymandering in other states."
Well then. Obviously we need to disenfranchise our own voters, too. If Republicans jumped off a cliff….
Gerrymandering is a part of our political culture that tarnishes our democracy. Essentially, we are letting our elected politicians select their voters for the next few election cycles. Typically, during a redistricting process, state legislatures redraw maps to favor incumbents and strengthen existing partisan majorities.
In a country where more and more voters are rejecting both major parties, these partisan redistricting practices are leaving more voters out in the cold.
Changing the culture in New Mexico for the 2031 redistricting process will be difficult. Redrawing district maps is a significant power and one that many legislators believe is sacrosanct. What is needed is a constitutional amendment establishing an independent redistricting commission.
Previous efforts to pass legislation for independent redistricting have failed or been diluted. It is generally supported by the more progressive members of the Democratic caucus, meaning few, if any Republicans will touch it, even though they have the most to lose every ten years given their perennial minority party status. And more than a century of nearly unbroken Democratic majority rule in the Legislature makes most Democrats unwilling to fix something that doesn't appear broken to them.
It's on us, fellow voters. Roswell is now split between two new congressional districts and aligned with Albuquerque and Santa Fe because its voters have the temerity to be mostly Republican. Roswell is not geographically close to Albuquerque or Santa Fe, nor does it share significant communities of interest with either locality. But pulling Roswell out of CD2 sure gives a boost to Democratic candidates.
As several readers have shared with me, some folks believe Republicans deserve this sort of treatment simply because they are Republicans (and don't get me wrong – there are those in my party who have a very flawed view of our election system, I know). But no one in a democracy deserves to have their vote diluted. In a democracy, multiple candidates will stand for office and voters will have the opportunity to freely vote for the candidate of their choice by secret ballot. Everyone, of every party or no party, needs to remember that.
"One person, one vote" is the law of the land. The U.S. Supreme Court has taken this up in several cases in the last 60 years, most recently in 2016. Again and again, the court has ruled to uphold the principle that redistricting must create as close to perfect equality as possible, while maintaining geographical compactness, preserving counties and other political subdivisions, and maintaining communities of interest.
Sorry, Roswell.
I encourage you to make independent redistricting a priority for your legislators. Ask the candidates running in 2024 where they stand on the issue and challenge them if they don't support it. Voters must choose their elected officials. For decades in New Mexico, it has been the other way around.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican, she lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and two of cat. She can be reached at news.ind.merritt@gmail.com.