Last Friday, the court-appointed special masters, one Republican, one Democrat and one Non-Partisan, released their proposed redistricting map. It would pretty much split up the current Congressional District 2 into two districts, a northern and a southern district. Plus, it does not create a majority-minority district for Nevada’s Hispanic population which has burgeoned to 25%. Instead of gerrymandering a district to band them all together, they would participate alongside everyone else in the communities in which they currently reside.
District 1 would encompass central, urban Las Vegas (blue area on the maps). District 2 would include what’s left of the current CD2 district (in green at the left). CD3 would cover the southern tip of the state south of Las Vegas (the lavender area on the maps). And the new CD4 would cover the southern area of the current CD2 district along with parts of norther Clark County (the pinkish orange areas on the maps). Lyon county is the only rural county that ends up being split between CD2 and CD4.
If this becomes the final map that will stand for the next 10 years, it looks like Amodei will retain a Republican stronghold in the north and Heck will find himself in a competitive District in the south. It would be up to us to build a strong enough coalition to unseat “Mr. Tea Party” in favor of someone who would speak for and truly represent “all” of the people of Nevada … not just the extreme fringes.
A Carson City judge, late on Friday afternoon, scheduled a hearing on the plan for Oct. 27. He also notified lawyers for state Democrats and Republicans that they have until Oct. 24th to file any oppositions to the plan. You can probably expect the Republicans to file an opposition petition and continue pushing the packing of Hispanic voters into one minority-majority district hoping that it will improve their chances for electing Republican representatives from the other three Districts.
And, on a different tack altogether, the Nevada Supreme Court is expected to hear a challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller on Nov. 14. SOS Miller has challenged whether any judge can resolve the redistricting. Afterall, our state constitution requires lawmakers to do it, not justices.
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