News

Outgoing Dem rails against redistricting

by Jordan Fabian - 12/30/10 9:05 PM ET

The redistricting process is killing the democratic process in Congress, an outgoing Democratic lawmaker said this week.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), a co-chairwoman of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition, said that redrawing of congressional districts over the years has hurt centrists in both political parties.

“I think, when I look at the moderate Republicans who lost their elections in 2006 and 2008, it’s in part because they were holding the seats that we could win. Everyone else was in a safe seat,” she said during an interview on PBS. “And when you look at the Democratic side, that’s the same thing. I think redistricting is one of the significant threats to the House of Representatives and to that as our democratic institution and representative democracy.”

The four-term lawmaker’s complaints come as 12 House seats are poised to be reallocated after Census figures showed states in the South and West growing faster than states in the North, East and Midwest.

Herseth Sandlin lost to Republican Kristi Noem in November, when the GOP
picked up more than 60 seats and took control of the House of
Representatives. South Dakota has only one at-large congressional district, meaning that the redistricting cannot apply to her state.

Reform advocates have long railed against the redistricting process, which is controlled by state legislatures in many states. They argue that partisan political bodies create non-competitive districts that can be easily held by partisan Democrats or Republicans.

With the GOP gaining control of more state legislatures and population shifting to more red-leaning states, many expect Republicans to solidify their hold on Congress when new lines are drawn.

“I have seen what’s happened to colleagues on both sides of the aisle over time,” she said. “And I think they need to at some point really join forces, because, right now, the far right and the far left and some of the special interest groups aligned with those interests really take it to centrists.”