{"id":31967,"date":"2011-09-19T08:35:04","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T14:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=31967"},"modified":"2011-10-10T08:36:14","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T14:36:14","slug":"democrats%e2%80%99-work-on-redistricting-taking-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/09\/democrats%e2%80%99-work-on-redistricting-taking-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats\u2019 work on redistricting taking shape"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)<\/p><\/div>\n

For comparison with the proposed changes throughout this article, you can look at existing districts by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

One reason Republicans haven\u2019t seen much work<\/a> from Democrats during the current redistricting special session is that Democrats have been negotiating behind the scenes to draft plans they hope can pass with or without Republican support.<\/p>\n

Looking at the Democrats\u2019 redistricting plan for the state House of Representatives<\/a>, you can see that a lot of behind-the-scenes work has taken place.<\/p>\n

For example, look at House District 53<\/a>, which is held by Republican Rick Little from Alamogordo. Little unseated Democrat Nate Cote in last year\u2019s election largely because of overwhelming support from two precincts in Otero County.<\/p>\n

Cote has already stated his intention to try to retake the seat next year. And in the Democrats\u2019 redistricting plan, those Otero precincts are no longer in District 53.<\/p>\n

You can see hints of some possible wrangling among Democrats as well. Much of Rep. Rodolpho \u201cRudy\u201d Martinez\u2019s District 39<\/a> is taken away by Rep. Dona Irwin\u2019s District 32<\/a> in the proposal, and the new Martinez district would stretch all the way from the Arizona border into Do\u00f1a Ana County \u2013 making it the eighth House district located wholly or in part in the state\u2019s second largest county.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably not favorable for Martinez, who under the new plan might face a primary challenge from a Las Crucen.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s lots of shifting in Albuquerque. Perhaps most notable is the moving of House District 26<\/a> \u2013 a seat currently held by Democrat Al Park \u2013 from the east side of Albuquerque to the west side. Park doesn\u2019t plan to seek re-election next year, so moving his district to accommodate a growing population on the west side was a no-brainer for Democrats.<\/p>\n

A redistricting plan for state Senate seats has yet to move past any committee, but one Democratic proposal<\/a> moves Republican Carroll H. Leavell\u2019s District 41<\/a> away from Eddy and Lea counties and into the Albuquerque metro area.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t change much in Do\u00f1a Ana County, except to give Sen. John Arthur Smith\u2019s District 35<\/a> some precincts there, creating the potential in the future for another state senator from Las Cruces. It also takes some Republican-rich precincts in Sierra County out of Democrat Steve Fischmann\u2019s District 37<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Congressional and PRC redistricting<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

There\u2019s work on the congressional front too. Rep. Joseph Cervantes has introduced a congressional redistricting bill<\/a> co-sponsored by many Southern New Mexico Democrats that makes each congressional district more competitive. It takes Democrats out of the left-leaning Third Congressional District in the north and moves them into the southern 2nd Congressional District, and moves some Republicans from the 2nd District to the 3rd.<\/p>\n

The left-leaning, Albuquerque-area 1st District moves north and east but, even though it moves toward Santa Fe, it also becomes more competitive.<\/p>\n

The Senate Democrats\u2019 congressional redistricting bill<\/a> is moving forward as well, and should be discussed by the full Senate today. It\u2019s a fairly status-quo bill that doesn\u2019t dramatically change the political layout of any of the three districts. You can read about two Senate committees\u2019 Sunday discussion of the bill here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Senate Democrats\u2019 Public Regulation Commission redistricting bill<\/a> shifts voter registration percentages toward Democrats in three of five districts \u2013 including both held by Republicans.<\/p>\n

The same bill is making its way through the House as the Democratic caucus\u2019 bill<\/a>, and Republicans there aren\u2019t happy about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still lots to do<\/h3>\n

There\u2019s lots to still be worked out among Democrats. The House doesn\u2019t yet have caucus unity behind congressional or PRC redistricting plans. They may not be able to unify behind a congressional plan, since there\u2019s lots of division over whether to make the southern 2nd District a safe seat for Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce in exchange for keeping more registered Democrats up north.<\/p>\n

And, as Capitol Report New Mexico<\/a> told us this weekend, the House Democratic caucus may not have the votes to pass its redistricting plan for the state House of Representatives. Some 35 of 36 Democrats signed on to the plan, but one \u2013 Rep. Sandra Jeff \u2013 and independent Andy Nu\u00f1ez don\u2019t appear to be on board. Without them and the Republican caucus, the Democrats\u2019 bill would die on a tie vote.<\/p>\n

Democrats would like to send redistricting plans to the governor by Friday, which requires her to act on them before the session is currently scheduled to end on Monday. If they don\u2019t send the bills to her by then, she doesn\u2019t have to act on them until after lawmakers have adjourned.<\/p>\n

Expect lots to happen this week, both behind the scenes and in full view of the public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One reason Republicans haven\u2019t seen much work from Democrats during the current redistricting special session is that Democrats have been negotiating behind the scenes to draft plans they hope can pass with or without Republican support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[219,217,207,107],"class_list":["post-31967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2nd-congressional-district","tag-prc","tag-redistricting","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31967\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}