[LWVNM Action] Republicans Sue over New Mexico Congressional map

[Richard Mason]

The League does not have a position on the district maps. We were very
critical of the way the Senate constructed the maps behind closed doors.
This is why we need an Independent Redistricting Commission and why the
Legislature should pass HJR9.

Dick Mason


SANTA FE — With control of the U.S. House at stake in November, the New
Mexico Republican Party filed a lawsuit in state court Friday over a new
congressional map signed into law last month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The lawsuit, which was also filed by seven other plaintiffs, argues the
Democratic-backed map redrawing the boundaries of New Mexico’s three
congressional districts for the next decade intentionally carves up
Republican voting strongholds around the state.

Specifically, the suit claims the new boundaries violate redistricting
principles established by the Legislature and previous court rulings in
order to “accomplish a political gerrymander that unconstitutionally
dilutes the votes of residents of southeastern New Mexico in order to
achieve partisan advantage.”

It was filed in the state’s Roswell-based 5th District Court and asks a
judge to strike down the newly-drawn boundaries and replace it with one
proposed by the Citizen Redistricting Committee, a group created last year
to recommend maps to lawmakers.

The new congressional map, which is set to officially take effect in March,
was passed by lawmakers on largely party-line votes during a special
session held last month at the Roundhouse, with majority Democrats voting
in favor.

It splits Albuquerque into two districts and moves some of southeast New
Mexico, traditionally a conservative stronghold, into congressional
districts now represented by U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger
Fernandez, both Democrats.

As a result, the 2nd Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Yvette
Herrell, the lone Republican member of New Mexico’s congressional
delegation, would become more Democratic.

Herrell, who is seeking re-election this year, described the new map as an
example of gerrymandering and said it shows Democrats’ desperation to “try
to save Nancy Pelosi’s majority.”

However, Democratic backers of the redrawn map have described it as a new
approach to setting congressional district boundary lines that ensures each
of the state’s three districts include both rural and urban areas.

And Lujan Grisham said after signing the new map into law that it
represents “a reasonable baseline for competitive federal elections, in
which no one party or candidate may claim any undue advantage.”

Last year’s special session marked the first time in 30 years that
Democrats controlled both chambers of the Legislature and the Governor’s
Office during a redistricting year.

Official 2020 census data pinpointed New Mexico’s population at slightly
more than 2.1 million people — a 2.8% increase from 2010. That means the
target population for each of the state’s three congressional districts is
705,841 residents.
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