GOP cries foul over Dem maps
Critics say Citizens Redistricting Committee’s work ignored while supporters call panel’s efforts strong basis
New Mexico lawmakers have moved swiftly during the special session this week to advance four redistricting maps that would cement the state’s political boundaries for the next decade.
But only one was recommended by an independent and nonpartisan group the Legislature had tasked with developing maps for lawmakers to consider after a monthslong, taxpayer-funded public process.
That map, which involves the Public Education Commission, has stirred little interest or controversy.
The other maps are a different matter. They lay out the high-stakes political boundaries for the state’s three congressional districts, as well as the New Mexico Senate and House of Representatives.
All three were submitted by Democrats, whom Republicans accuse of ignoring the work of the Citizens Redistricting Committee and only considering maps that favor their political interests.
In other words, gerrymandering. The charge has been a recurring gripe from Republicans that triggered a tense exchange between leaders from each party during a Senate committee hearing Thursday.
“It behooves us to tell the public and the CRC why their three maps weren’t even introduced — weren’t even considered,” said Sen. Mark Moores, R-Albuquerque. “We need to know, the public needs to know after going through that expensive exercise, why those three maps were just thrown out. One by one, we need to know what was wrong with them in the eyes of the majority party.”
Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, told Moores “there was nothing wrong with the maps” the redistricting committee adopted.
“It’s the basis of what has been used for the map that we have here that we’re discussing at this point in
time,” said Lopez, who is sponsoring Senate Bill 2, which would redraw Senate districts.
Moores pushed back.
“It sounds like the majority party has drawn these maps and had negotiations and threw out those CRC maps, but you have not given a reason for throwing out those maps,” he said. “I think the CRC deserves to know what was wrong with their maps.”
Lopez told Moores it “behooves any one of us” to introduce any of the conceptual maps the committee put forward.
Moores said “people in this chamber are picking their constituents,” when it should be the other way around.
“That’s why we need a constitutional amendment, because politicians can’t be trusted to draw their own maps, and this is a perfect example of that,” said Moores, who in 2018 pushed unsuccessfully for a constitutional amendment to create a commission to help redraw congressional and state legislative districts.
“Negotiations happened within a caucus, moved boundaries around, moved communities of interest around. The problem is it was their interest,” he said, referring to Democrats, who have majorities in both chambers in the Legislature. “We don’t even have the courage as a body to tell the CRC after working for months and months what was wrong with their maps.”
Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen, said the Legislature empowered the redistricting committee to produce maps, and senators have “yet to see even one of those maps.” He called Lopez’s proposed Senate map “a marked departure from what was envisioned.”
Sen. President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said Democrats set out to unpair incumbents.
“We were unable to pair two sets of senators, so that was one of the purposes of not just accepting the CRC maps,” she said.
Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, also an Albuquerque Democrat, said the committee’s maps have been “very helpful” in crafting the maps under consideration. He and Stewart said 68 percent of Lopez’s proposal comes from the committee’s work.
“I want to make very clear that we have not ignored the CRC,” he said, adding Lopez’s proposed map is an “affirmation” of the committee’s work.
“I think there’s a better map because of the CRC,” Ivey-Soto said.
Democrats considered whether to introduce a committee map “and then replace it,” Ivey-Soto said.
“We didn’t want the public to feel like we were doing a bait-and-switch when it got to committee and suddenly depart from the CRC map and it’s something different,” he said.
“We decided collectively in leadership” to start with Lopez’s Senate map, Ivey-Soto added.
Sen. Bill O’Neill, D-Albuquerque, said the committee’s work provided lawmakers more than a starting point.
“It was pretty amazing, all the testimony and work that went into it,” he said, adding the redistricting process from a decade ago doesn’t even come close.
“This is such a better process,” O’Neill said.
Still, O’Neill acknowledged the challenges of a politically thorny process.
“We can never take politics out of redistricting,” he said. “You just can’t.”
Minutes later, O’Neill and other members of the Senate Rules Committee voted to recommend approval of Lopez’s Senate redistricting bill. It passed 7-3, with all three Republicans on the committee voting in opposition.
Before the vote and back-and-forth among lawmakers, representatives from the League of Women Voters of New Mexico expressed disappointment that the congressional and legislative district maps developed by the committee were not under consideration.
“We would have liked to have seen the three [Senate maps developed by the committee] submitted … so the public could get their viewpoint of it and make their own decision,” said Dick Mason, the league’s redistricting project director.
During the committee hearing, Moores said he “wasn’t happy” with all the maps the redistricting committee submitted for consideration.
“But I thought they were a lot better than this map because at least it was fair and honest,” he said. “This map is politics as usual.”