ADRIAN MA, HOST:
In Texas, Republicans want to redraw their state's congressional map to try and gain five more seats for the GOP in next year's midterms. Now Democrats in California and other states are considering a similar political counteroffensive. But there's a complication to that. Redistricting in some of these states is done by independent commissions in order to prevent the partisan gerrymander jockeying we're seeing now. And among those seven states is Michigan, where Katie Fahey led a successful campaign to establish an independent commission. Katie is executive director of a nonprofit called The People, and she joins us now from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Thanks for being here.
KATIE FAHEY: Good morning, I'm glad to be here.
MA: Katie, your organization is about nonpartisan solutions to what you call ineffective government. So what do you think of this redistricting tit for tat?
FAHEY: I just think it shows that politicians are focused on the absolute wrong thing. They are focused on, how can we manipulate voting districts so that we can keep ignoring what the people that are in our states actually want and the policies we want our legislators to be delivering? Instead of trying to figure out how do I make sure that I am staying relevant and keeping people happy, they are focused on, how can I just try to ignore even more people in my state?
MA: Well, just to lay out the potential scenario here, if Texas Republicans succeed, then the plan in California is to counter this by undoing the work of their state's independent commission, draw a new map created by lawmakers and present this to voters in November. Does this sequence, in your view, kind of make this redistricting more acceptable?
FAHEY: No, it absolutely doesn't, especially because the people of California, millions of them, voted to instate an independent redistricting commission, specifically saying we do not want our politicians getting to decide the lines right before an election is held. Instead, we want an independent commission that's going to focus on, how do we keep communities together, not how do we focus on helping one political party over another?
MA: I'm curious - since this redistricting fight started, have there been any calls in Michigan to redraw districts in favor of either party?
FAHEY: Thankfully, I haven't seen too many. That being said, the Democrats and Republicans have both been unhappy with our independent commission, which I take as a sign of success. I think both of them feel like their party isn't being advantaged enough like they are used to.
And what's exciting to see in Michigan is that we are seeing that voters are more appreciative of actually having a say in our elections. And because we're a 50-50 state - about half of us are Democrats, about half of us are Republicans - when voters want to change, the legislature and the majority actually changes, which is very uncommon, unfortunately, in most states in this country.
MA: And you attribute that to the independent commission's work?
FAHEY: Yes, the independent commission traveled across the state, talked to people about, how do you want to be represented in Lansing, our state capital, and what communities should be drawn together so that you have a voice in Washington, D.C.? And we see that the percentage of voters that vote for Democrats is the same exact percentage of seats that are allocated towards that party. So it really does directly impact who's being elected and, therefore, who's being responsive to what communities.
MA: Bitter fights over redistricting are not new, but does this feel different, this moment that we're witnessing?
FAHEY: Yeah, unfortunately, gerrymandering has been with us since the very beginning of America, even though we do have a unique government where we're supposed to be able to have somebody who actually cares about our little piece of America and caring about whether our community has representation. But midcycle redistricting doesn't benefit anybody. These districts are already - especially in Texas, they're already gerrymandered. They've already been drawn, ignoring communities.
So the legislators who are even in those seats trying to get to know - how do I represent 50 different communities, instead of just a couple? - is already hard to do. So then you're going to switch that up again and be restarting that process of somebody even being able to theoretically know, who are these voters? What do they care about? What do they want me advocating for?
MA: Katie Fahey is executive director of the nonprofit group The People. Katie, thanks for joining us.
FAHEY: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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