IN Redistricting Advances to Final Vote12/09 06:13

   

   (AP) -- State senators in Indiana advanced a proposal to redraw the state's 
congressional boundaries Monday, although it is not clear if it has the support 
to become law in a final vote expected later this week even after months of 
pressure from President Donald Trump.

   The legislation was designed to favor GOP candidates in the next year's 
midterms. Republicans control the state Senate, but many have been hesitant or 
openly opposed to the idea of mid-decade redistricting. About a dozen have been 
threatened over their stance or refusal to immediately declare support over the 
past several weeks.

   Still, the Senate's elections committee voted 6-3 to advance the measure, 
with one Republican and two Democrats lawmakers opposing it.

   The final vote of the whole chamber is expected Thursday and could test 
Trump's typically iron grip on the Republican Party.

   During committee debate Monday night, state Sen. Greg Walker, an Indiana 
Republican who is against redistricting and voted against it in committee, 
spoke about threats made against him in recent weeks.

   "I refuse to be intimidated," Walker proclaimed in an impassioned speech 
during the committee meeting. "I fear for all states if we allow intimidation 
and threats to become the norm."

   The map, introduced just last Monday and passed by the Republican 
supermajority in the state House on Friday, would split the city of 
Indianapolis into four districts distributed across other Republican-leaning 
areas. It also groups the cities of East Chicago and Gary with a broad rural 
region.

   The contours would eliminate the districts of Indiana's two Democratic 
congressional representatives: longtime Rep. Andr Carson of Indianapolis, the 
state's only Black member of Congress, and Rep. Frank Mrvan, who represents 
northwest Indiana near Chicago.

   Republicans currently hold seven of the state's nine districts.

   Why redistricting?

   Democrats are hoping to flip control of the U.S. House in the 2026 elections 
and they like their odds, since midterms tend to favor the party out of power.

   Redistricting usually happens once a decade after the census, but Trump has 
pushed Republican-led states to create more GOP-leaning districts. Texas, 
Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have followed suit, while Democrats in 
California and Virginia have moved to draw their own favorable maps.

   Not many states, outside of those with smaller or single-member 
congressional delegations, are represented solely by one party.

   Republicans in favor of making it easier for Republicans to capture all nine 
of Indiana's seats through gerrymandering often point to Massachusetts, where 
Democrats hold all nine seats, or Connecticut, where they hold all five. 
Republicans hold all five Oklahoma seats and eight of Tennessee's nine seats, 
while Democrats hold seven of Maryland's eight seats.

   But the idea of redrawing a congressional map last approved just four years 
ago has made many Republicans in Indiana uneasy. The Senate's leader, a 
Republican, previously said there were not enough votes to support 
redistricting.

   A few of the Republican senators who voted to move the legislation forward 
Monday said it deserved to be debated by the full Senate, but indicated they 
may vote against it's final passage.

   "I reserve my right to change my vote on the floor," said state Sen. Linda 
Rogers, a Republican on the committee.

   The Senate elections committee heard testimony on the legislation from about 
100 people Monday for more than four hours, the vast majority who spoke against 
the bill.

   Kandy Baker told lawmakers she worries about her 5-year-old granddaughter's 
future since the new map, she fears, would dilute the political power of 
nonwhite voters.

   "I am afraid she will not have representation," Baker said during her 
testimony against the bill, emotion choking her voice. "I don't think what's 
happening is a short-term thing."

   Before he voted in favor of moving the legislation forward, GOP State Sen. 
Mike Gaskill, chair of the elections committee, called political gerrymandering 
an "uncomfortable" practice. But he said the Republican Party has act to stop 
Democratic policy in Congress and act against gerrymandering in Democratic 
states.

   "This is a very small part that we can play and rebalance the scales on a 
national basis," he said.

   After Senate leader Rodric Bray said the chamber would reject the governor's 
call for a special session on redistricting last month, Trump attacked Bray and 
other senators on social media and vowed to endorse primary challengers against 
any lawmaker who opposes redrawing the map.

   In the following weeks, about a dozen state lawmakers were targeted by 
threats and swatting incidents, in which a hoax call attempts to prompt a 
police response to a private home.

   Redistricting proponents need at least 25 votes in the Senate, where 
Democrats are vastly outnumbered and hold just 10 seats, to give final passage 
to the map. That would trigger a tiebreaking vote from Republican Lt. Gov. 
Micah Beckwith, who supports redistricting.

   If the Senate rejects the new districts, it would be extremely difficult for 
proponents to revive the issue. Indiana's filing deadline for congressional 
candidates is in early February, and primary elections are held in early May.

   National redistricting battle

   A federal judge in Missouri on Monday dismissed a lawsuit backed by 
Republican state officials seeking to block a referendum on a new congressional 
map. The decision clears the way for opponents to submit petition signatures 
Tuesday that could put the map on hold until a statewide vote can be held next 
year.

   In Utah, lawmakers on Tuesday will try to reassert authority over 
congressional redistricting by convening a special legislative session.

   A judge ruled in November that a map advanced by state lawmakers earlier 
this year "unduly favors Republicans and disfavors Democrats." The judge 
imposed an alternative map that would keep Democratic-leaning Salt Lake County 
almost entirely within one district rather than split between the four 
Republican-leaning districts.

   The legislative session's agenda includes pushing back next year's filing 
deadlines from January to March, buying time until after a potential ruling on 
redistricting by the state Supreme Court.

   "I support the state's appeal and have confidence the Utah Supreme Court 
will consider it in a timely way," Republican Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday, "so 
we have clarity for the 2026 election."