Tag Archives: redistricting

Redistricting, retirements mean less clout in Congress

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By Eric Freedman
Capital News Service

LANSING – Regardless of which candidates win the November election for Michigan’s congressional seats and which party secures control of Congress, two important changes will be visible on Capitol Hill in January with serious implications for the state’s national clout.

First, Michigan’s delegation will shrink by one seat – from 14 to 13 – due to redistricting.

That’s because Michigan’s population stagnated during the past decade while the population of other states grew. In total, seven states are each losing one seat, including neighboring Ohio, with their reallocation to states in the West and South.

That grim reality sets a messy stage for the second major change: the departure of at least three familiar faces.

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, Michigan’s longest-serving representative, will not run for another term.
U.S. House of Representatives: U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, Michigan’s longest-serving representative, will not run for another term.

Redistricting led U.S. Rep. Benda Lawrence, a liberal Democrat from Southfield, to retire rather than seek a fifth term. She’s the only African American in the Michigan delegation and a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee.

“As we have a new redistricting map, a new generation of leaders will step up,” Lawrence said in announcing her decision.

Redistricting also induced U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, the state’s longest-serving member, to withdraw from a contentious primary with fellow U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Zeeland. Redistricting put the two conservatives into the same district.

Upton, now in his 18th term, chaired the Energy and Commerce Committee when the GOP controlled the House.

But he faced a steep uphill battle to stay in Congress because of his vote to impeach then-President Donald Trump, who has endorsed Huizenga.

Announcing his retirement on the House floor, Upton said, “Even the best of stories has a last chapter.

“This is it for me. I’ve done the zillions of airline miles back and forth, have signed ‘Fred’ to over a million letters, cast more votes than anyone in this chamber while here and, by most accounts, have succeeded in making a difference accomplishing what I have set out to do with more unfinished work still yet to come.”

In suburban Detroit, liberal U.S. Reps. Haley Stevens of Rochester Hills and Andy Levin of Bloomfield Township are fighting each other in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary. Both chair subcommittees, Stevens in the Science, Space and Technology Committee and Levin in the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Only one will survive the primary.

Bill Ballenger, the publisher of the political newsletter “Ballenger Report” and a former state legislator and Cabinet member, said the changes will make it tougher for Michigan when it comes to federal appropriations, COVID relief and other aid from Washington.

U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, will not seek a fifth term after redistricting.
U.S. House of Representatives: U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, will not seek a fifth term after redistricting.

“It’s got to hurt the state’s ability to leverage influence in the Congress in the state’s direction,” said Ballenger, who once ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House in a Republican primary.

He said the state’s clout is already much weaker than in the 1990s and early 2000s when the delegation contained long-serving members who chaired powerful committees and subcommittees, U.S. Reps. John Dingell of Trenton, Dale Kildee of Flint and John Conyers Jr. of Detroit.

Upton and Lawrence are far from alone in stepping down. As of April 6, 48 House members had announced they aren’t running again, according to Ballotpedia.org.

The average two-year election cycle sees 71 House members leaving, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a recent report.

“Members leave for a variety of reasons,” the report said. “Those could include resignation, death or chamber action,” a reference to expulsion for misconduct. The number includes defeated incumbents and ones who opted to seek other offices.

In addition, there’s no guarantee that voters will return all the state’s other incumbents to Washington.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit and GOP Reps. John Moolenaar of Midland, Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids, Tim Walberg of Tipton and Lisa McClain of Romeo all face primary opponents.

 

Neither of the state’s Democratic senators, Debbie Stabenow of Lansing or Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township, are up for reelection this year.

Eric Freedman is professor of journalism and former associate dean of International Studies and Programs. During his 20-year newspaper career, he covered public affairs, environmental issues and legal affairs for newspapers in New York and Michigan, winning a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a legislative corruption scandal. He teaches environmental journalism and serves as director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism. He also teaches public affairs reporting, international journalism, feature writing and media law and serves as director of the school’s Capital News Service

Michigan’s redistricting commission setting meetings, looking for input

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The timeline for the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. (Supplied)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Thirteen Michigan residents will be coming together to draw the lines — the lines for the state’s U.S. Congressional district and Michigan’s House or Representative and Senate seats.

The 13 members are part of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, a group that was formed when Michigan voters passed Proposal 2 in 2018. The proposal stated voters and not legislators would be responsible for nonpartisan redistricting. The result was the 13-member commission, most of whom hail from the east side of the state with the closest West Michigan person from Battle Creek. 

“Wow. We lost that lottery,” said Wyoming City Council Member Kent Vanderwood during the city’s April 19 Wyoming City Council meeting. “Kent County is a big place. This is the second largest part of the whole state and to have nobody west of Battle Creek is unfortunate.”

Edward Woods III

The council received the presentation about the Commission or MICRC from the MICRC Communications and Outreach Director Edward Woods III. Woods noted that the selecting of the 13-member commission was done by lottery performed by a third party. There was 9,367 applications received for the commission with 627 applicants from Kent County. The largest applicant pool came from Oakland County with 1,777. Wayne County had 1,450 applicants.

Woods said the selection process was completely random and that there was no consideration made for geographical and ethnicity representation. He said there has been comments made about the fact that there are no Hispanics or African-American males on the commission as well as geographical representation. 

The commission is made up for four Democrats, four Republicans and five Independents, all of who went through that random selection process. 

Redistricting is done every 10 years after the U.S. Census has been completed. The commission started its work in September, scheduling its required meetings to receive public input before any redistricting plans can be drawn, according to Woods. The commission is required to have 10 public meetings and is planning to host 16 in total which includes a July 1 meeting at DeVos Hall with a second meeting planned for Grand Rapids in the fall. The group also will host meetings May 13 in Kalamazoo and June 29 in Muskegon.

 

The MICRC is responsible for redistricting the U.S. Congressional districts, In 2010, the U.S. Congressional districts had about 711,000 people in each district. Currently, Michigan has 14 U.S. Congressional districts.

 

“It is being reported that Michigan may lose a seat for the fifth time in a row,” Woods said.

The commission also is responsible for redistricting of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives. There are currently 38 state senate districts which have about 212,400 to 263,000 people in each district. There are 110 state House of Representative districts, with each having between 77,000 to 99,000 people.


 

“The concern is how do you want your lines drawn,” Woods said. “Obviously with the congressional district, those are a little bit bigger, but when it comes to the state house and the state senate, that is a little bit different. Are we keeping municipalities together? Are we keeping counties together? Do we split along a business district or an art district or on waterfront communities?”

This is the type of information that the commission will be seeking from residents, Woods said, adding the commission also will be sharing information about the redistricting process which includes the criteria for redistricting such as equal population, the Voting Rights Act, geographically contiguous, no disproportionate advantage to any political party, no favor or disfavor to an incumbent, elected officials or candidates, reflect consideration of county, city and township boundaries, and reasonable compact.

Woods said the commission encourages residents to present ideas, send questions and engage in the process by email redistricting@michigan.gov or mail to MICRC, P.O. Box 30318, Lansing, MI 48909.

Learn more about Michigan’s new redistricting process or to obtain more information about the upcoming public hearings, visit www.michigan.gov/MICRC.

The Commission must adopted the new election district maps by Nov. 1, 2021 with the maps becoming law Dec. 31, 2021. The new districts would be for the 2022 election.