 |
| click either image to enlarge and read |
Here, for this City of Ramsey Ward-Precinct map:
Use your imagination on each for exact boundary lines, since street names are absent in each.
The quoted Crabgrass headline is from Paul Levy's Strib report, here, stating in part:
"They've been so vindictive in how they've treated me that I'm expecting this not to be pleasant," said longtime Commissioner Dan Erhart, who wonders whether fiscal conservatives Rhonda Sivarajah, Robyn West, Matt Look and Andy Westerberg will vote for a district-line placement that could determine his opponent.
But Sivarajah, the board's chairwoman, countered by saying that the board will try to draw district lines "that make sense."
[...] "As far as being political" when defining districts, she said, "you'd have to ask Dan. He's been through this."
The county's total population is not the redistricting issue; it's how the population within the county is distributed, said Cindy Reichert, county election manager. If there's more than a 5 percent population shift within a district, new lines are drawn.
For Erhart, Sivarajah and Carol LeDoux (who won a special election in 2010 and is finishing a term started by her late husband, Scott LeDoux), this was going to be an election year anyway, with or without redistricting. West, the board's vice chair, won re-election in 2010, and Look and Westerberg were elected to their first terms on the board in 2010.
Now, all are expected to run this year. Reichert and County Administrator Jerry Soma said that only Kordiak -- whose already densely populated district represents Columbia Heights, Fridley and Hilltop -- is likely to avoid having to run this November. He won re-election handily in 2010.
[bolding and links not in original]. Strib, again this link, for Levy's full report. I expect that April 3 deadline applies to Ramsey, where population numbers suggest that the line separating Wards 1 and 2 may need to be redrawn. Wards 3 and 4 appear to be balanced, and would be if the differences in the other two wards are equalized by moving some Ward 1 population into Ward 2. My suggestion, during a break in an earlier Ramsey work session meeting, was moving the northernmost part of Ward 1 into Ward 2, to put Elvig and McGlone in the same district, for the sport of things - to liven the election a bit. The thought was not well received by either McGlone or Elvig.
Given the Apr. 3 deadline and that redistricting will be done by politicians, my hope would be to see it finalized on Apr. 1, All Fools' Day. Even if special meetings need to be called, it is an apt target date.