Friday, May 06, 2011

Redistricting - For Ramsey, SD 48 in the GOP first draft will be SD 29, etc.

PiPress reports, here. The GOP caucus posts a link to the State's GIS site. It is their first shot at things, so they'd be the ones to link and toot their horn.

I don't know what change if any will impact federal congressional districts.

Starting from the GIS intereactive map site, you can put your address into the blank and find out what your legislative districting is. However they change boundaries, Jim Abeler will keep his turf, that's clear from the start of things without the DFL controlling both houses and the executive.

The interactive map is slow-loading, but it scales. The bulk of Ramsey is proposed for a House district 29B; this map screenshot (where the bounds of proposed 29A differ from current 48A, but the map needs rescaling to lower resolution to see that district's bounds). The star on the map is between Sunfish Blvd and Ramsey Blvd, near where Sunfish ends at Nowthen Blvd. North of Alpine Blvd. It is apparent some of Ramsey is carved apart on the east - the Waco Blvd deep pocket turf perhaps - and some of Sherburne County is in proposed 29B. As always, click to enlarge the image.


_______________UPDATE______________
For more detail than you ever wanted to know about redistricting in Minnesota, the Code Revisor has posted a slide series, presumably from an earlier presentation-discussion, this link.

____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
From the captioning, the Code Revisor's materials may have been for a CLE session.

Further reporting, MPR at this link, opening its report:

First wave of Minnesota redistricting fights arrives
by Tom Scheck, Minnesota Public Radio
May 3, 2011


St. Paul, Minn. — On its face, the process of redistricting is complicated and difficult to understand. But it comes down to a simple concept: one person, one vote.

The Legislature and governor are tasked with designing political boundaries that ensure equal population and equal representation. In other words, no legislative district can have a significantly larger number of people than another legislative district.

Every 10 years, the boundaries have to be adjusted based on population figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

"You have to look where we had population loss and population growth and take those in consideration in putting together a map," said Republican Rep. Sarah Anderson, the chief author of the House Republican plan. [...]

Emphasis added. Some have speculated that the one person, one vote decision, Baker v. Carr, may have been the landmark decision of the Warren Court - in importance reaching even beyond Brown v. Board of Education, and Miranda.

______________FURTHER UPDATE____________
This link, for info about redistricting fairness needs and requirements for local government.