Road Trip!!
Redistricting "exceptional transparency tour" offers good and bad.
I’m busy catching up this week - because last week I was racing around the state on an unplanned journey to gather public input and achieve “exceptional transparency” about future political boundaries in 14 cities over 5 days, with nary a week’s notice.
I’m only going to spend a minute griping - then I’m going to give you detailed instructions on how you - John Q. Kansan - can get yourself all up in the planned redistricting process.
Sometimes a person has to call things as they are. And in this case, there’s no one to blame for the shoddy, hastily scheduled and overly managed, “listening” tour than House and Senate leadership. As I wrote before, similar tours in the previous two redistricting sessions (2002 and 2012) took place over four months, and two months. Spread out over time, with members of the Kansas Legislative Research Department saving Kansas taxpayer money by reserving blocks of hotel rooms, organizing a bus for travel, and getting local groups to foot the bill for at least some meals. This year, we launched a tour with little forethought, before the U.S. Census data was even available. And in the state’s most populous county - Johnson - people got a mere 2-minutes to express concern about something that lasts 10 years. Some legislators seemed put out that the bulk of the testimony focused on transparency, honesty, and process - a general lack of trust - but what else could people talk about? Folks had little new information they could offer - so they spoke about their legitimate fear that the dog-and-pony show in front of them was a harbinger of things to come during redistricting.
It’s also important to note that while legislators sign up for the unexpected, staff does not. This whole thing was unfair to legislative support staff, some of whom had little notice to cancel plans, change plans, and clear their schedules. I can tell you that legislators weren’t packing around boxes of equipment to make this road show happen. I’m always reaching new levels of surprise at the callousness with which this body treats some staff - without whom we couldn’t do our work.
But, what’s done is done. And I was happy to hear of what we heard across the state. If there’s an overarching theme from the past week, it’s that Kansas doesn’t trust the Kansas Legislature to fairly and equitably manage an important task like redistricting. There’s legitimate fear that we’ll deploy Gerrymandering (with good reason, thanks to former Senate President Susan Wagle’s statement that she saw a clear path to draw an all Republican state).
Throughout the week, there was talk that we might see another round of meetings across the state. That may or may not happen. That will depend on Republican leadership’s resolve.
Regardless there’s reason for you to be very excited. Because it’s 2021, and the tools of political engagement are more readily accessible than ever before. While such tools existed in 2012, they weren’t as easy to find and use as they are today. This year every single person who cares can draw their own redistricting maps and submit them as testimony.
Think about this - no longer is this important role left to the hushed hallways of Topeka. You - whoever you are and where ever you live - have within your power the tools needed to draft maps that best represent your community. Maybe I’m overstating it, but I think it’s pretty amazing - and holds the potential to present an unprecedented counter to the Kansas Legislature and any effort to draw Gerrymandered districts.
So, how do you draw your own maps and submit them as official testimony?
First, it’s worth your while to understand the rules that have traditionally governed redistricting. While there’s no guarantee the rules will remain intact this year, there is good evidence that the Legislature tends to follow precedence. This, from 2012:
A. Each district is within +/- 5 percent of the target population of 23,503 per House district, 74,447 per Senate district, and 734,500 for each of Kansas’ four congressional districts. This is non-negotiable - we’re required to meet these thresholds, and the line is even tighter on congressional districts.
B. There should be no effort to dilute minority voting populations.
C. The building blocks of each district for the next drawing of the map is the previous map that has been in use.
D. Districts should be compact and contiguous as possible.
E. Communities of interest should be considered, and efforts should be made to consider interests articulated by residents and community members.
F. Districts should be easy to identify and understand.
G. Maps shouldn’t be drawn to run incumbents against one another. (This is fairly controversial - but it’s the rules that’s been in place for at least the last two cycles.)
Here’s a PDF of the guidelines.
So, now you know the guidelines, what are you supposed to do? Here are my suggestions.
Gather your community groups and start talking. Every group you can think of. Neighborhood Associations, local business groups, students, residents, community organizers, activists, and influencers. Disability advocates, harm reduction advocates, those who work for LGBTQ rights, those who advocate for any minority population. Anyone who cares about your community. Pull them together and start talking. The session will be here before you know it.
Discuss what makes your community you. Think about what your community of interest is? Is it social, ethnic, economic, socio-economic? Are you tied together by an identity - a city, a school, geography, urban, rural, economy, or some other activity or interest.
Think about the physical boundaries of your community - the things people outside of your area wouldn’t know or understand. For example, in Hutchinson, we all know that 17th Avenue is the “line.” People are generally encouraged to buy houses North of 17th. People (and I’m one of them) who live South of 17th know how the worlds can be different north and south of that line. You know your community better than anyone. You know what natural divisions exist. You know where the supposed right and wrong sides of the tracks lie - identify them, and keep them in mind as your draft your own maps.
Once you’ve considered your community, look to a variety of open-source tools to draw your maps. Right off the cuff, there are three I’ve found that seem pretty easy to use:
https://www.districtbuilder.org/
https://redistrictingdatahub.org/
What’s great, is these tools seem to contain nearly identical tools we use in the legislature. You can create a bunch of data layers to draft your maps - and it’s all based on the same U.S. Census data that lawmakers rely on. Really, there’s no reason for you not to draw your own map. You have the power; it’s up to you to use it. Probably a good exercise even if you don’t plan to submit maps on the record.
Once you’ve drawn up your maps, and gathered a decent amount of consensus around them - submit them to the Kansas Legislature as testimony. This used to be a somewhat cumbersome and intimidating process - but no more! Thanks to email and videoconferencing, anyone can be more involved in the process than ever before. Email your maps and testimony to both the House and the Senate.
Link to the House Redistricting Committee http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/committees/ctte_h_redistricting_1/
Link to the Senate Redistricting Committee http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/committees/ctte_s_redistricting_1/
Pro-Tip: Make sure you have your testimony written and ready to go as soon as you submit your maps. One sneaky little thing that people like to do is call an impromptu committee hearing - without much notice. And rules about providing extra written copies at least 24 hours in advance vary by committee chair. If people don’t have testimony ready to submit - including printed copies - they can be cut out of the process. Make sure you have everything ready at once - submit it, and sit on a handful of printed copies, just in case. (Fun fact - this practice of requiring multiple printed copies of testimony in advance to committee chairs didn’t come into play until 2010. Prior to that, day-of testimony was fairly common). Just make sure you have a clear understanding of the committee rules and expectations.
Be ready to come make your case in Topeka, or online. Your written testimony will be entered into the record, but it’s always more impactful if you’re there in person to speak about what you’ve submitted.
Here’s where to track the legislative schedule. The House Calendar generally spells out what hearings take place on what days. But that’s not always accurate. If in doubt, call or email the committee assistant or the chair’s office daily to find out what’s on the schedule for that day and the week.
Be ready to fight for your cause. Because if you don’t someone else will fight likely fight against it. I see this every session - people who are in the building have an advantage over people who have other lives to live. Find a surrogate if you must, but have someone at the ready throughout the session who can run to Topeka on a moment’s notice if needed to plead your community’s case. Have a point person to track what’s going on. Be ready to push, and demand to be heard. This is your state, and you have an absolute right to be heard and considered on something that will affect your community for the next 10 years. (Not to be confused with you have an absolute right to get what you want. There are nearly 3 million of us, after all, and not everyone will be happy when this is over. But your interests should be heard, genuinely considered and applied in the process).
Build alliances and partners. It’s one thing if you or your group says you’re a community of interest. It’s another altogether if you have a number of people and groups from your area expressing the exact same thing. Also, publicize your maps on every platform you can. The more those maps are out there, the harder it will be for the legislature to ignore or discount them.
Follow through. The legislative process is a mess, and it’s been bastardized over the years - to the point that it’s hardly recognizable from what it was just a few decades ago. From submission of your testimony all the way through to landing on the Governor’s desk and to the review of the courts, you’re involvement is crucial. Don’t let up at any point in the process.
This is no way a comprehensive list of how to influence redistricting, but a start.
Happy Drawing!
A few additional documents for your review.
2012 Guidelines for Redistricting
2001 Special Report on Redistricting (summary of what was heard around the state)
Combined minutes from 2011 listening tour
Slideshow presentation from former Sen. Anthony Hensley on Gerrymandering
fav city from the tour?