New legislative district maps were unveiled Monday, and some current legislators will likely find themselves battling each other in the next election cycle. The Indy Star reports:
In Congress
Marion County would be represented by two members of Congress, rather than the current three, under the maps agreed upon by House and Senate Republicans.Under the proposal, the 7th District — now represented by Democratic Rep. Andre Carson — would become more Republican. Instead of encompassing the center of the county as it now does, the district would cover all but the top quarter of the county.
That would put the most Republican parts of Marion County — Beech Grove and Decatur Township — into the 7th District, while the top section, including some reliably Democratic areas, would move to the 5th District. That’s represented now by Republican Rep. Dan Burton.
One voter who would find himself in Burton’s district: Republican Rep. Todd Rokita. His 4th District no longer would include his northwestern Marion County home.
Still, the 7th and the 1st districts, in Northwest Indiana, are expected to remain Democrat-leaning. Not so the 2nd District, the only other congressional district currently held by a Democrat, Rep. Joe Donnelly of South Bend. By removing Kokomo from it, among proposed changes, the 2nd is expected to tilt Republican.
Undergoing some of the biggest changes: the 9th District. It now is an Ohio River district, including all of southeastern Indiana. It would become an I-65 district, stretching from Johnson County on the northern end to Harrison County on the southern end.
That means someone who lives a block south of Marion County would have the same congressman as someone who lives on the banks of the Ohio River. Continue reading