Nevada is halfway to adopting new congressional and legislative districts that could cement Democrats’ control of the state for the next decade.
The state Senate on Sunday approved a controversial redistricting proposal that critics say would split up important existing voting blocs, sending the redrawn political maps to a decisive Monday hearing in the Assembly.
All nine Senate Republicans opposed the proposal, which Democrats said would be amended to reflect the last known address of roughly 1,000 inmates, as well as to accommodate changes requested by tribal communities that did not want to be divided by new election boundaries.
More:Redistricting: Democrats redraw key GOP-held districts in Reno area as debate continues
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GOP legislators loudly objected to voting on the maps without seeing the outcome of those changes, prompting a series of fiery speeches from the Senate floor.
“The majority has abandoned its responsibility to represent voters in a just and fair manner,” said state Sen. Heidi Seevers Gansert, R-Reno. “If approved and signed by the governor, these maps are an abomination to the redistricting process and will make elections, for the next decade, a sham.”
Gansert holds a swingy Washoe County seat that has sat squarely in Democrats’ crosshairs during the partisan redistricting process.
Draft maps debuted by the Legislature on Tuesday would add a heaping helping of downtown Reno Democrats to her district, dimming GOP prospects for keeping that seat in 2024. Gansert has pointed to Somersett, Verdi and Cold Springs as examples of communities that should not be carved out of her district under the new maps.
Newly appointed state Sen. Don Tatro, R-Reno, also dismissed the blueprints as a “politically engineered” effort that ignores a recent explosion of nonpartisan voters throughout the Silver State.
Senate Democrats adopted the proposal anyway, one that they said would reflect the state’s growing diversity by adding more districts that are majority non-white.
Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro said the maps were fair, legal and representative of “the Nevada that I was born and raised in, the Nevada that I love so deeply.”
Legislators later voted out a much less controversial bill setting boundaries for 12 Board of Regents districts and delaying the filing deadlines for judicial candidates for the 2022 election cycle.
The measure was unanimously approved by both statehouse chambers and now heads to Gov. Steve Sisolak for final approval.
Members of the Legislature’s lower house could vote out the rest of Nevada’s latest redistricting proposal as early as Monday afternoon.
The Reno Gazette Journal will continue to cover the planned five-day special session live from the state capital.
Hearings will also be broadcast live on the Legislature’s website and streamed on the state’s YouTube page.
Here’s a closer look at what legislators hope to accomplish by Tuesday:
What is redistricting?
Redistricting is basically a once-in-a-decade chance for politicians to pick their own voters by drawing maps that will keep them and their partisan allies in office.
The process is controlled by whichever political party holds the Legislature, often resulting in bitter partisan battles that have to be settled outside the statehouse.
Draft maps debuted on Tuesday point to the possibility of a more harmonious redistricting session in 2021, though Republicans are already taking issue with proposed changes that would cement Democratic control over the Legislature.
How does the process work?
All districts, from the smallest City Council ward to the largest congressional seat, are supposed to be populated as equally as possible — usually no more than 5 to 10 percent above or below another district.
Districts must be adjacent to one another and can’t be drawn to bias a protected class or political party. Map boundaries are supposed to be compact and, to whatever extent possible, stick to existing natural borders.
The boundaries also have to be compliant with both the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which forbids drawing voting districts on the basis of race or ethnicity; as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires officials to at least consider those characteristics so as to prevent minority populations from being squeezed into districts that diminish the power of their vote.
What happens when it doesn’t work?
Striking a bipartisan balance on compliance with redistricting laws has proven difficult in Nevada.
The Silver State’s current political maps, drawn by Democrats in 2011, were actually completed by a three-member court-appointed redistricting panel after lawmakers failed to finish the job.
The undertaking was almost equally toxic in 2001, when there was a flurry of legal challenges, then a special session called after remapping efforts repeatedly stalled in a split partisan Legislature.
A 2017 Associated Press study found Nevada’s current political maps favor Democrats, who secured a near-supermajority in the state Legislature in 2018.
Nearly a dozen state legislative races went uncontested in 2020, and currently only half of the state’s four congressional districts are considered competitive.
James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.
