The Pierre Capital Journal has a story on redistricting today where they’ve reached out to the two political parties on redistricting, and ask what their goals are for the redistricting process:
South Dakota Democratic Party Executive Director Berk Ehrmantraut told the Capital Journal that minority representation, particularly among Native Americans, is the party’s biggest point of concern.
“I think Democrats are open to working with Republicans on the Blackbird map where we can,” Ehrmantraut said. “…We’ve seen significant issues with Census undercount in places like District 26 and District 27. I think there’s room for the Legislature to accommodate for that and provide some additional flexibility on the 5 percent up, 5 percent down rule. We know that representing minority voices is also an important consideration for drawing these maps.”
State Democrats want the legislature to deviate from the 5% deviance guidelines they’ve set to benefit minorities. And the State GOP?
In a statement to the Capital Journal, South Dakota Republican Party Chair Dan Lederman noted that his party itself is “not a participant in the process, nor are we being consulted, as it should be.”
“Like any other state resident, we’re encouraging our legislators to come together to draw district lines that provide fair and equitable representation in a process that’s transparent for all South Dakotans,” Lederman said. “As both the House and the Senate have been travelling around the state and gaining local input as they work out their respective plans, it’s a testament to the fact that redistricting as currently provided for in the State Constitution is a system that works just fine as is, and the state does not need special interest groups monkeying around with the redistricting system, creating star-chambers who are responsible to none.”
And the SDGOP notes “we’re not a participant in the process” and are not supposed to be, legislators are supposed to follow the constitution!
Blackbird 222129 by Pat Powers on Scribd
Interesting though, that the blackbird map is the one that both parties are focusing on, which might be the biggest clue to the direction that redistricting is going.
Is there any reason why they did not renumber the districts after District 2 moved from NE to SE?
I suspect since 2 disappeared, it was as good as 25 which was also out of place.
But do house and senate agree?
My wife and I attended two of the public hearings and noted there was no support for Blackbird from anyone addressing the legislators.
The two plans with the most public support were Grouse and Falcon.
in that case….bye bye blackbird
One can only hope they actually consider the public opposition to it.
8:12 where were the meetings you attended? That may factor into the opposition you heard
Sioux Falls
You weren’t listening too closely then. I clearly spoke in favor of Blackbird at the 2pm hearing in Sioux Falls. I noted at least two more people from Sioux Falls spoke favorably of it, too. It’s the only map that clearly accounts for future SF growth. Grouse and Falcon will immediately split growing precincts on the outer edges, a problem we should have learned from in 2010. The only people I heard supporting those two maps were from Union, Lincoln and Turner counties. And the testimony of two sitting lawmakers at the 2pm hearing was clearly a conflict of interest.
See above. Turner county republicans want Falcon because it gives them an inside track in the primary and general in 17. Union and Lincoln county state officeholders are worried that voters in their areas are becoming more moderate, so they want to draw up a less competitive district so they don’t need to worry about alienating centrists because they have a wider margin of error.
We attended the evening hearings, where people in District 25 voiced opposition to Blackbird, and I know people in Moody County are also opposed to moving the county from District 8 into 25.
Moody is definitely rural and is obviously not a part of the growing precincts on the outer edge of Sioux Falls, although treated as such by Blackbird. Most of Moody’s population is far enough north of Sioux Falls that it’s more closely aligned with Brookings and Madison, as it currently is in District 8.
Since I live in Moody County, I checked the historical districts and while a small portion of Minnehaha was added to Moody & Lake to form a District after the 1970 Census, Moody & Lake have always been in the same district. Sometimes Brookings county has been a part of the district and part of Moody has been a part of the Brookings county district, but Lake & Moody have never been split into different districts.
Moody, Lake & Brookings counties have a long history as sharing political boundaries since the 1980 Census.
Moody County is not, and never has been a part of the “Sioux Falls perimeter”, and, I believe, moving the county into District 25 will likely have to be reversed after the 2030 Census, so it would be better to avoid moving it temporarily into District 25 “just because the numbers work”.