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At long last, Montana is the final state to finish drawing new legislative maps [1]

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Date: 2023-02-13  

Montana's new state House map

Montana at last became the 50th state to complete the legislative redistricting process this decade when the state’s bipartisan redistricting commission finalized new maps over the weekend. The panel’s tie-breaking independent member once again sided with its two Democratic commissioners to approve a plan that largely reflected a preliminary version the commission adopted in December along the same partisan lines. The commission must now file its maps with the secretary of state within 30 days, at which point they’ll automatically become law.

They could, however, be challenged in court: Republicans have complained bitterly about not getting their way and have suggested they might file suit. Democrats have argued that the maps should reflect the state’s overall political lean, which the commission calculated at 57% Republican and 43% Democratic based on an average of recent statewide races. According to reports released by a Democratic commissioner, these new lines would actually offer Republicans an even greater advantage than that, creating a 31-18 split in favor of the GOP in the 50-member Senate (with one true tossup seat) and a 60-40 divide in the 100-strong House.

Republicans, however, insist they should be entitled to even more seats. “A map will generally and naturally lead to an increase in districts for a majority party,” claimed one GOP commissioner. Currently, Republicans enjoy supermajorities in both chambers, with 34 seats in the Senate and 68 in the House, but these maps would likely allow Democrats to roll them back—which likely explains much of the GOP’s hostility to them.

So why did Montana wait so long to finish remapping? An arcane provision of the state constitution requires the commission to submit legislative plans to lawmakers at the legislature’s “first regular session” after its maps are complete. But since the legislature only meets for in odd-numbered years, for 90 working days starting in January, there’s no way for the commission to finish its work for the session that starts immediately after a census year—in this case, 2021.

As a result, legislators only got to review these maps at the start of this year. (The delay is also pointless, since their review is purely advisory—only the commission has the power to draw and approve maps.) This state of affairs likely violates the constitution’s guarantee of “one person, one vote” because, by the end of each decade, some districts are severely overpopulated while others are badly underpopulated, but no one has challenged it yet.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/13/2152760/-At-long-last-Montana-is-the-final-state-to-finish-drawing-new-legislative-maps

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