Who’s Representing You?

As a part of the decennial census and as required by law, the Indiana General Assembly recently passed new legislative district maps for Indiana’s state house, state senate and congressional districts. If you haven’t already seen the new maps you can do so at these links: House, Senate, Congress.

While the timeline to drawing these maps were very similar, when they are actually implemented is a whole other issue. The Terre Haute Tribune-Star brought to light this fact in a recent article.

So who are your current legislators? The Indiana House and Congress are following the standard model. For example, even if your home has been drawn into a new legislative district your current representation in the Indiana House and Congress would remain the same prior to the redistricting until after the 2012 Election when you have had a chance to vote on your new representative.

The Indiana Senate is different. Here, your state senator might change based on the new Indiana Senate district map with the decision to go ahead and implement those changes prior to the next election. The reason for this is because only half of the Indiana Senate is elected at any given election. The Senate believes that enacting those changes now will avoid confusion later.

Got it? If not, use the new Indiana Senate district map and compare it to the list of Indiana senators here to see who’s representing you.

New District Maps Will Likely Cause Legislative Shake-ups

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