Incumbent protections violate constitution?

In the New Mexico Supreme Court opinion on New Mexico Republican Party v. Oliver lawsuit, the court cites an opinion from the Alaskan Supreme Court which states: “Gerrymandering often takes one of two forms, ‘packing’ or ‘cracking’. ‘Packing’ occurs when groups of voters of similar expected voting behavior are unnaturally concentrated in a single district; this may create a ‘wasted’ excess of votes that otherwise might have influenced candidate selection in one or more other districts. ‘Cracking’ occurs when like-minded voters are unnaturally divided into two or more districts; this often is done to reduce the split group’s ability to elect a candidate of its choice.”

The New Mexico Supreme Court’s opinion states that courts could rule on partisan gerrymandering under New Mexico’s equal protection clause. The question is: Does the equal protection clause only protect unfair partisan gerrymandering, or does it also apply when voters of specific parties and independents are deprived of an equal vote due to incumbency protection? Considering the Alaska definition of “packing” cited above, I think so.

The “one person, one vote” principle is a basic tenet of an effective democracy. Incumbency protection, as practiced by legislators in New Mexico when redistricting, violates that principle. When the two major parties collude to pack Republicans and Democrats into districts that will assure legislators’ reelections (incumbency protection), then voters of the opposite party are robbed of a fair and equal vote.

In 2021, New Mexico Senate district maps drawn and finally selected by the legislature prioritized incumbency protection over fair redistricting. For instance, the Citizen Redistricting Committee recommended maps for the New Mexico Senate had incumbents paired in four districts. The maps approved by the Legislature only paired incumbents in one district.

Incumbency protection leads to a surprisingly high number of uncontested legislative races. Opponents of the opposing party know that they cannot win a race when the two major parties have colluded to create safe districts for one or the other party. According to Ballotpedia, in the 2022 election 45.7% of New Mexico Legislative seats were uncontested. Compare this to the percentage of uncontested legislative seats in three states with independent redistricting commissions: California 2.0%; Colorado 7.3%; and Michigan 0.7%.