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Democrats in the Oregon Legislature have drafted a new congressional district map proposal that leans less strongly in their party’s favor in hopes of getting Republicans to participate in Saturday’s votes.
The decision to revise the map, which would determine the make-up of voters in Oregon’s six congressional districts for the next decade, precedes Monday’s deadline for both houses of the legislature to sign cards – or see the drawing. of the map, the power escapes their grip.
The map, which is posted on a state website, would create three super-secure Democratic seats, one super-secure Republican seat, one seat that leans in favor of Democrats, and one that is a virtual 50-50 tie in terms of how his constituents have sided with the main Republican-Democratic clashes since 2015, according to an analysis by The Oregonian / OregonLive.
This compares to the original map drafted by the Democrats, which would almost certainly have led to five Democrats and a single Republican winning seats in the United States House. That would give Democrats 83% of the seats, while President Joe Biden would have garnered just 56% of the Oregonian’s vote in his winning run in 2020.
Democrats had refused to budge to redraw this map one iota, even after public testimony against aspects of the map and the extreme anger of Republicans. Leading Republican lawmakers said Democrats told them they were following orders from Democrats in Congress to draw the map that way and stick to it. Democrats responded that U.S. officials in Oregon were not specifically involved in the redistribution process.
“There has been a lot of hard work over the past 24 hours,” House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat from Portland, said from the House podium shortly after 9 a.m. I want to congratulate everyone who has worked over the past 24 hours to reach a fair compromise that we hope to be able to adopt today.
The House meeting is now scheduled for 1 p.m., Kotek said. At that point, Kotek plans to ask for a quorum to see if there are enough House lawmakers present to vote.
“I’m encouraged by the conversations that are going on and want to make sure people have the time they need,” Kotek said.
The district on this new map that appears to have an almost even Republican-Democrat clash is currently represented by Representative Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Clackamas County who is in his seventh term in Congress. A moderate Democrat by national standards, he has lived in the district for decades. Members of Congress are not required to live in the district they represent.
The heavily redesigned district would include, if the plan is approved, the fast-growing Bend. The democratic growth projected there could make the neighborhood bluer over the next decade.
It would also leave the Albina area in northeast Portland untouched, several neighborhoods historically home to large numbers of black Oregonians who were divided between Congressional Districts one and three in the plan Democrats presented on September 3 and to which they had stood so far. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego and chair of the House Redistribution Committee, said it made sense for the district, including northeast Portland, to extend east of Multnomah County , as gentrification in north and northeast Portland has pushed black families east to find cheaper housing.
The proposed card should be sent to a House committee for approval, then sent to the House floor for a vote. State law requires 40 members of the House to be present for such a vote, and The Oregonian / OregonLive reported Friday night that it could be difficult for lawmakers to pull together, given some Republicans oppose a card that does not guarantee them at least two seats in Congress and 16 of the 60 House members are exempt from Saturday’s session.
If lawmakers miss Monday’s deadline, a panel of five justices appointed by the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court could draw the map of Congress, which will have a sixth district for the first time in the history of the state. For 40 years, Oregon has had five seats in the United States House. It would be the first time that Oregon’s congressional districts would be nominated by the panel of judges, a system approved by lawmakers in 2013 to address concerns about parties rushing to choose which court to hear a redistribution appeal. , reported The Oregonian / OregonLive.
The power to draw new maps for the state’s House and Senate districts would pass to Democratic Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. This is a strong incentive for Republicans to cooperate with Democrats to pass a congressional map that does not suit them, as Democrats have given Republicans a significant input on their legislative constituency proposals. The Oregonian / OregonLive analysis found that these cards were pretty close to the state’s voter balance.
The super secure seats on the Democrats’ proposed new congressional map are held by Democratic Reps Suzanne Bonamici from Washington County, Earl Blumenauer from Multnomah County and Peter DeFazio from Lane County and Freshman Rep Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Malheur County who represents all of eastern Oregon. The proposed district that leans only slightly in blue is the new Sixth District, which would include Salem, all of Yamhill and Polk counties, and some suburbs southwest of Portland, including Tigard and Tualatin.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
–Betsy Hammond; [email protected]; @OregonianPol
– Hillary Borrud; [email protected]; @HBorrud
–Marc Friesen; [email protected]; @MFriesen
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