THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2021 A5
Maps
Continued from A1
Salinas and her Senate coun-
terpart, Sen. Kathleen Taylor,
D-Milwaukie, said they were
making a good faith effort to
hold the legally required 10
public hearings on new polit-
ical maps, which do not exist
yet.
The hearings are collateral
damage from the constitu-
tional car crash headed to the
Oregon Supreme Court. The
once-a-decade process of rebal-
ancing populations in legisla-
tive and congressional districts
is a smolderingly hot political
wreck. Any fix isn’t expected
earlier than autumn.
Like so many things over
the past year, COVID-19 is the
problem.
In normal times, the U.S.
Census counts people every 10
years, in years that end in zero.
The Legislature would get
detailed Oregon data by April
1. Legislators would have until
the end of their current session
on July 1 to get maps of 30 Sen-
ate, 60 House and either five or
six congressional districts to the
governor.
If they couldn’t agree on a re-
districting plan, the secretary of
state would take a shot at map-
making and turn in the maps
by Aug. 15.
But these are not normal
times.
COVID-19 crippled the cen-
sus count. The Legislature re-
ceived no data. No maps are
being drawn for the governor.
There’s no dispute for the secre-
tary of state to resolve.
The census folks in Wash-
ington, D.C. have been saying
sorry for months. But given all
the upheaval in their work, the
numbers needed to draw dis-
tricts won’t get to Oregon until
Sept. 30, six months late and
well beyond constitutional and
statutory deadlines.
To employ an overused
term during the current pan-
demic, the situation is “unprec-
edented.” Translation: Nobody
knows what to do because its
never been done before. Add-
ing to the drama: The numbers
will likely earn Oregon a sixth
congressional seat, its first in
40 years. The new district will
have to be shoehorned into the
existing congressional map.
The Legislature has a “back
to the future” solution. It’s ask-
ing the Oregon Supreme Court
to set the deadlines aside, reset
the clock, and give lawmakers
another shot at redistricting
when the data arrives in the fall.
A special session of the Legis-
lature would meet to approve
the work.
Secretary of State Shemia Fa-
gan supports the idea.
The Legislature wants up to
90 days after the data arrives to
create the maps.
Fagan does not support that
timeline. Pushing redistricting
into December would be cut-
ting things close. Any hitch and
Oregon could still have blank
maps right up to the January
deadlines for candidates to file
for the May primaries. As the
state’s official election referee,
she might have to step in.
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, and Senate Presi-
dent Peter Courtney, D-Salem,
filed a petition with the Oregon
Supreme Court this week to
stop Fagan from drawing her
own maps.
Fagan wants the Legislature
to draw districts using alter-
native data to the U.S. Cen-
sus. The Oregon constitution
doesn’t explicitly demand redis-
tricting be done with the cen-
sus numbers.
But it always has used the
census, lawmakers say. Doing
things differently than how its
been done for more than a cen-
tury would be a surefire way
to tangle with federal courts
wanting to ensure Oregon was
following civil rights and voting
rights laws.
While the court sifts through
the paperwork, the Legislature
is planning/hoping/praying the
Oregon Supreme Court will
pick its solution. A way to move
things along in advance would
be to hold the 10 required hear-
Redistricting hearing
The second virtual hearing by the Oregon Legislature’s redistricting
committees will be held on Saturday at 1 p.m.
The hearing is for residents of the 2nd Congressional District. The
hearing will deal not only with the future boundaries of the 2nd
Congressional District, but also the state House and Senate districts
in the area.
The counties included in the hearing are Deschutes, Umatilla, Jackson,
Baker, Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jefferson, Klamath,
Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Union, Wallowa, Wasco and
Wheeler and parts of Josephine County
MORE INFORMATION
Legislature’s redistricting website:
www.oregonlegislature.gov/redistricting
Map to locate your legislative and congressional representatives:
www.oregonlegislature.gov/findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html
Sign up to testify online or submit written comments:
bit.ly/oregondistricts
ings — two in each of the cur-
rent five congressional districts.
Which brings things back to
COVID-19. The usual “road
trip” of lawmakers to districts
to hear from voters aren’t hap-
pening this year because of
COVID-19. All 10 redistricting
hearings will be virtual.
Wednesday’s hearing was
Congressional District 2, a
nearly 70,000-square-mile ex-
panse that share borders with
California, Nevada, Idaho and
Washington. Anyone living east
of the Cascades, plus a chunk of
the southwest part of the state,
lives in the 2nd District.
All four of the other congres-
sional districts are represented
by Democrats. The 2nd is sol-
idly Republican, with freshman
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario, in the seat.
The hearing Wednesday
would require something of a
technical miracle. Video tes-
timony expected from Wal-
lowa County, Bend, Medford,
Klamath Falls and several other
spots in the district taxed the
Legislature’s internet capabili-
ties. Balky phone lines, echoing
microphones, stuck mute but-
tons and more led to frequent
silent spots. Many of the people
who signed up to testify either
couldn’t get through or gave up
prior to their turn in the queue.
Two who signed up discov-
ered they lived in other con-
gressional districts.
For over an hour, the com-
mittee heard three main
themes: The district was much
too large. It included different
communities with different
identities, and in the case of
Malheur County, a completely
different time zone (Rocky
Mountain Time).
Finally, the desires of peo-
ple in the district were too of-
ten ignored in the capitals of
Washington and Salem. How
they were ignored depended on
each testimonial.
In a written statement, Uma-
tilla County Commissioner
George Murdock struck a note
between hope and resignation
over the likely outcome of the
process.
“My greatest concern is that
our district could be gerry-
mandered in order to further
diminish representation for a
portion of Oregon that reflects
ideology, values, and interests
much different than the re-
mainder of Oregon,” Murdock
said.
New districts should “geo-
graphically make sense” to re-
tain an Eastern Oregon voice in
Washington and Salem.
“If Oregon gets a new seat,
we are not naive enough to ex-
pect more representation for
Eastern Oregon but we would
like to retain what we have,”
Murdock said.
Nathan Soltz, chairman of
the Democratic Party of Ore-
gon’s 2nd Congressional Dis-
trict Committee, said the sparse
population and vast landscape
made it difficult for commu-
nities to feel any mutual con-
nection.
“You can drive from Med-
ford to Enterprise — about 10
hours — and never leave CD2,”
he said.
Ann Snyder of Ashwood in
Jefferson County agreed that
the current boundaries cre-
ated an oversized area with too
many acres and not enough
people.
“District 2 is geographically
too big for one person to accu-
rately represent,” Snyder said
in written testimony. “Trying
to cover an area from Medford
to Hood River and the Cas-
cades to the Idaho border is too
much, and the people are too
diverse.”
Brad Bennington of Jackson
County said lawmakers needed
to listen more to rural voters.
“There is more to the state
than just Portland and Salem,”
he said. “There are a lot of peo-
ple who feel they haven’t been
heard.”
Bennington said he would
give the legislators the “benefit
of the doubt” in drawing polit-
ical maps.
“Democrats can keep them-
selves in the supermajority un-
til the day the sun doesn’t come
up,” he said.
But Barbara Klein of Ash-
land said she experienced the
opposite feeling. She wanted
congressional and state districts
that would have more in com-
mon with the arts town at the
foot of the Siskiyou Mountains.
“Don’t separate us from
Bend, Deschutes County,” she
said. “Communities that have
shared values, a bit more left
leaning.”
Todd Nash of Enterprise said
it would be difficult to draw po-
litical maps with so little popu-
lation to pool into a district.
“We have about 320 acres per
person,” he said.
Craig Martell of Baker City
said proximity and highway
connections should guide the
grouping of communities in
districts.
“Baker City and La Grande,
only 44 miles apart on Inter-
state 84, belong in the same
district,” he wrote. “As lines are
currently drawn, Senate Dis-
trict 30 is a grotesque gerry-
mandered monstrosity.”
Mimi Alkire of Deschutes
County represented the League
of Women Voters, which sup-
ports the creation of an inde-
pendent redistricting commit-
tee to draw the lines instead of
lawmakers.
“Redistricting has been used
to restrict and dilute voters,”
she said. “Voters should choose
their representatives, not have
representatives choosing their
voters.”
Resolutions have been in-
troduced in the Legislature
to move to a commission like
those already used in California
and several other states. Several
speakers endorsed such a plan.
But even if approved by the
House and Senate, the change
to the state constitution would
need voter approval. Any
change wouldn’t occur until the
2031 redistricting.
Joanne Mina, volunteer co-
ordinator for the Latino Com-
munity Association, based in
Bend, said it was important for
lawmakers to make sure that
the census numbers were a
complete count.
“The Latinx population has
grown from a few thousands
in the 90s to over 20 thousand
strong across all of Central Or-
egon — our region is united by
commerce, culture and values,”
she said. “Central Oregon is not
what it used to be, we are more
vibrant, enriched and bold
because of all the people that
make up our community.”
The committee will hold a
second hearing on Saturday at
1 p.m.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com