Friday, February 24, 2012

Redistricting Thoughts

No, this is not about censorship or anything Orwellian. Instead it is about political redistricting in my corner of Minnesota. Tuesday afternoon was a big day for wonks due to the state court panel presenting the new boundaries for congressional, state house, and state senate districts.

So I went from living in House District (HD) 31b to living in HD28b. What changed? Not a whole lot, though we finally have the complete counties of Fillmore and Houston in one easy to find district. It always bothered me that the cities of Fillmore and Houston were carved out to be given to neighboring districts. This makes more sense demographically and geographically. Rep. Greg Davids should be very happy with this, for he will not have to run against another member of the house like in other parts of the state.

Another bit of good news is that the Senate District barely changed and for the better along the lines of the house changes. I am glad to still have Jeremy Miller for my senator, so that was a relief. There had been a very real chance that district would be radically altered and I did not want to be paired up with Austin.

Changes to the Congressional district were bigger, but once again logical. Other districts did not fare as well. Michelle Bachmann is on the warpath over what happend to CD 6, with threats of suing. Being of the opinion that politics becomes both crazier and nastier the closer you get to metropolitan areas, none of this was surprising.

All in all, I am happy with the way things turned out locally.

No comments: