After nearly 90 people crowded into an Ivy Tech Columbus classroom for a public hearing on statewide redistricting Friday, one of the eight state lawmakers presiding over an Election Committee set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
State Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, is the sole Democrat among five House members who all represent different parts of Monroe County and parts of surrounding counties.
Since the committee came to Columbus without census data and proposed maps, Pierce said Friday’s hearing only created “the illusion of transparency.”
State law gives the Republican supermajority at the Statehouse the authority to redraw state and federal boundaries, based on shifts in population.
But Pierce said that when the Republican supermajority considers the redistricting process behind closed doors, “political consultants will input massive amounts of political and demographic data into a computer that runs hundreds, if not thousands, of redistricting scenarios, to find just the right ones that will maximize the number of legislative and congressional seats for the majority party.”
Many of these scenarios will have data about a person’s ideological preferences gleaned through their posts on social media sites like Facebook, Pierce said.
The Bloomington lawmaker also noted that Indiana House Republicans have recently hired Jason Torchinsky, senior advisor and general counsel to the National Republican Redistricting Trust, to help draw the legislative maps.
Torchinsky also represents a related group called Fair Lines America, which opposes independent redistricting commissions.
Although Indiana taxpayers are paying Torchinsky’s consultant fees, Republicans have refused to make the consulting contracts public, which prevents taxpayers from knowing how much they are paying and what the service is, Pierce said.
After giving the Bloomington lawmaker a strong round of applause, Hoosiers from as far away as Kokomo, Muncie, Madison and Aurora spoke out — many with emotion — against gerrymandering, which is the manipulation of political boundaries to give one party an advantage.
For the last 10 years, most GOP lawmakers have refused to acknowledge gerrymandering in Indiana. But former Bloomington mayor Tomilea Allison said that wasn’t fooling anyone.
“I’m too old to play games,” the 80-year-old Allison told the Republicans on the committee. “I know you drew the lines in your favor in 2011. I know you will do it again.”
After Allison asked the committee if they want to regain the trust of all Hoosiers by restoring representative government, nearly everybody in the classroom rose to their feet and applauded.
While a few Republicans addressed the committee, most of their comments were confined about thanking the lawmakers for coming to Columbus. The GOP speakers also said they believe that redistricting should be conducted in a fair and transparent way.
But most of those giving testimony were like Michael Cunningham, who said gerrymandering has made him feel like he doesn’t have a voice in government. When Cunningham asked if anyone else felt that way, nearly everyone in the audience raised their hand.
Although several audience members posed questions to the committee, they received no reply. That prompted audience member Drew Anderson to say their silence “shows this is nothing but a PR stunt.”
Senate Elections Committee chairman Jon Ford, R-Terre Haute, did tell the audience the event was a listening tour to find out if Hoosiers want redistricting prioritized by continuity, competition or “compactness,” which refers to the general principle that constituents within a district should live as near to one another as possible.
Jean Marr Wilkins of Columbus told the lawmakers that if the GOP supermajority continues, it will breed corruption that will harm all Hoosiers.
A Johnson County resident, Tom Hagan, said he’s fed up with Republican primaries becoming elections because Democrats often don’t want to run in a district gerrymandered for Republicans.
“I’d like to vote for someone with a clear conscience, but I don’t think that person exists,” Hagan said.
But one point made by Bartholomew County Democratic chairman Steve Schoettmer echoed a comment made earlier this week by Julia Vaughn, policy director for the watchdog group Common Cause Indiana.
When there is no Democratic competition, moderate GOP members usually don’t win in the primary, Vaughn said.
“Only the most extreme of the extreme can be elected under this system,” Schoettmer told the committee.
In an interview with The Republic, Vaughn predicted that the Indiana General Assembly will reconvene on Sept. 20th, and have the new legislative maps completed in about six days.
“Now, that’s not going to fly,” Vaughn said. “Citizens deserve enough time to evaluate the draft proposals that come out, figure out how they will impact them and their communities, and provide that feedback to the legislator. We don’t need to rush through this process.”