Editorial: Analyzing the new district map

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Minnesota House districts 22A and 22B remained unchanged with Tuesday’s redrawn districts in one important way — state legislators Joe Schomacker (22A) and Rod Hamilton (22B) stay in the same districts they currently serve. District 22 Senator Doug Magnus also remains in his current district.

There are, however, notable changes to the legislative map that will indeed affect District 22. Hamilton, a Mountain Lake Republican who is in the midst of his fourth term serving District 22B, won’t represent the eastern half of Jackson County should he returned to St. Paul in November. Additionally, the split within District 22 between 22A — which is being served by Schomacker, R-Luverne, in his first two-year term — and 22B will now vary slightly. The new division will take place along the border of Rock and Nobles counties, and into a northwest segment of Nobles (visit http://bit.ly/xXMYf1 to see the new map, which also includes the addition to District 22 of the southern part of Lyon County).

What do these changes mean? For starters, they reflect population shifts that are taken into account in the wake of each census. From a political standpoint, meanwhile, they represent yet another opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to quarrel. As a result of the parties’ inability to agree on revised maps, a judicial panel has done the job for them four of the last five times (and did so this year). And, of course, the changes mean legislators will have to go out and familiarize themselves with different communities, and new constituents.

Politicians throughout the country may fret when redistricting time comes around, but it simply comes with the territory. In the case of Minnesota, the new map appears to have been created in about as fair a way as possible. Perhaps the job should simply go straight a judicial panel in 2022.

Tags: opinion, editorials, minnesota, politics, legislature, schomacker, hamilton, magnus