JAN. 24, 2014 -- Two House Democrats say the way that state legislative districts are drawn needs to change make them more competitive and balanced.
“The citizen wins when you have more competitive districts,” said Rep. Laurie Funderburk, the Camden Democrat who introduced the measure, House Bill 4494. “The issues get vetted more. Soundbites don’t work anymore. And you have to be able to give thoughtful arguments and debate on the issues.”
Currently, South Carolina legislative leaders draw districts soon after the official U.S. Census is completed every 10 years. The process, a combination of political horse-trading and sophisticated computer mapping, often yields a lot of so-called “safe” Democratic or Republican seats -- gerrymandered legislative House and Senate districts that are top-heavy with voters who tend to back one party.
A Statehouse Report analysis in 2012 highlighted how more than two-thirds of House seats -- 88 seats out of 124-- did not have candidates from the opposing major party. That year some six months before the general election in November, the analysis projected that the House GOP would win 74 seats and Democrats would get 41 seats. The analysis concluded only nine seats were competitive. [In the 2012 elections, Republicans won 78 seats. Democrats won 46 districts.]
Funderburk said the legislative process suffered when there aren’t many competitive districts.
“A governmental body works better when there’s not such a discrepancy between the majority and minority parties,” she said. “Communication, collegiality and working together becomes necessary. That would create a better process.”
Co-sponsor Walt McLeod, D-Little Mountain, recalled how the legislative process seemed to work better in the late 1990s when the gap between the majority House Republicans and minority House Democrats was fewer than 10 legislators, compared to 32 today.
“There was more give and take, more pleasantness and less partisanship,” he said, adding that a non-partisan commission would create a dynamic that would be “better than what we have now.”
How it world work
Currently, 27 other states approach redistricting in the same manner that South Carolina does, according to Ballotpedia.org. Nine states have an independent commission. Thirteen states have a hybridized version to draw district lines. [Portions of a House map are shown at right.]
If Funderburk’s bill were to pass, members of each chamber would appoint a citizen from each of the top two political parties to an independent Reapportionment Commission. The governor would appoint two members, one from each of the two top parties. The six members would elect a seventh member to be chair, but if one were not elected after 10 ballots, the governor would appoint one.
The commission would then do the hard work to draw balanced, fair districts based on Census results. When done, they’d submit the plan to the legislature, which would vote it up or down. Once approved, the commission would be disbanded until a new one was appointed 10 years later.
Why redistricting matters
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, redistricting matters because “the lines can keep people with common interests together or split them apart. Depending on which voters are bundled together in a district, the district lines can make it much easier or much harder to elect any given representative, or to elect a representative responsive to any given community.”
Depending on how districts are drawn every 10 years, those who redraw the lines can squeeze out incumbents, keep potential challengers from running against an incumbent, make districts more partisan, dilute the minority vote, split communities and destroy civility, according to the center’s 2010 report, “A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting.”
The state of California, which turned to an independent reapportionment commission after the 2010 Census, recognized that using an independent commission to draw legislative districts changed the election process, according to an evaluation by the Public Policy Institute of California. It found:
- Fewer incumbents ran. With fewer “safe” seats, incumbents generally had 45 percent new territory in their districts, which led some not to run and many to face more competition. The number of open seats increased in the California Assembly to 44 percent, up from an average of 37 percent, the report said.
- More competition and closer outcomes. Across the board, there was more competition inside political parties and between them. For example, the number of runoffs in the same party doubled to 23 percent from an average of 11 percent of seats. Also, the average gap between first- and second-place finishers dropped from 28 percent to 19 percent.
But it probably ain’t happening here soon
State Sen. Larry Martin, the Pickens Republican who chairs the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, said Funderburk’s bill likely was a non-starter, in part because reapportionment remains a key responsibility of the legislature.
“This is not a new idea,” he said. “An independent commission has been talked about since the 1980s.”
Martin said the legislature has developed expertise in drawing plans that met the muster of courts to ensure that districts were equal in size and kept from diluting participation of minority groups.
“I think the debate on something like that would be worse than reapportionment itself,” he joked.
Martin added he didn’t think it was possible to remove politics from the process because if an independent commission did it, there would be political posturing around the appointees to the commission.
“I’m just not for abdicating our responsibility,” the senator said. “More importantly, I’m not one to pass off what we ought to be doing and do responsibly.”
Funderburk said she understood that her proposal might not make it to a vote this year, but she hoped it would get a hearing so she could make her case for it.
Sometimes, she noted, it just takes a while to get movement, as in the case of restructuring, a measure that took a decade to move from idea to the bill that passed the General Assembly this week.
“Maybe [with restructuring], we’ve got some momentum behind looking at the way we do things differently,” she said. “Maybe we can feel more comfortable about allowing things to work for the best interest at our citizens.”
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