Under a Republican-backed redistricting plan unveiled in legislative committee recently, Lincoln County would switch from Maine’s First to its Second Congressional District.
According to the 2010 census, the disparity is too large between the populations of Maine’s southern First Congressional District and northern Second Congressional District. As dictated by the U.S. Constitution, a panel of federal judges ordered Maine’s legislators to redraw the districts to balance their populations.
Currently, the First Congressional District is made up of York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln and Knox counties, as well as most of Kennebec County, and has a population of 668,515. The Second Congressional District is made up of Aroostook, Washington, Hancock, Penobscot, Waldo, Piscataquis, Somerset, Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin counties as well as parts of Kennebec County – including Waterville – and has a population of 659,848.
During recent debates over redistricting, Republicans have backed a plan that would move a quarter of the state’s population – about 360,000 people – from one district to the other.
Androscoggin County – which includes Lewiston and Auburn – Oxford County and western parts of Franklin County would move to the First District. Lincoln, Sagadahoc and Knox counties and some towns in Kennebec County would move to the Second District. Under that plan, all of Kennebec County would now be in the Second District.
Essentially, the Republican plan would shift Maine’s districts from a predominantly north/south split, to an east/west split.
This plan would leave a difference of one person between the two districts.
Under the Democrat’s plan, one Kennebec county town on the border between the two districts – Vassalboro, with 4340 people – would switch from the First to the Second District.
This plan would leave a difference of 11 people between the two districts.
According to recent reports, Democrats, who say their top priority is leaving the congressional map as unchanged as possible, have charged Republicans with attempting to the change the political makeup of the districts to favor republican candidates.
Republicans say their goal is to create two districts that are split as evenly in population as possible, and deny that their plan is politically motivated.
“We were looking for different things,” Rep. Les Fossel said of the two parties’ plans.
Fossel, who serves on the 15-member, bipartisan legislative committee working on the redistricting, said Republicans’ primary concern was finishing with the best possible districts, regardless of how large a shift is required to get there, and Democrats’ priority was minimizing change.
Fossel said Republicans explored dozens of possible plans using computer models, and chose the one that keeps all counties but one – Franklin – intact, has the neatest dividing line within the split county, and gets the populations as even as possible between the two districts. The Republican plan also balances the size of the two districts somewhat.
Fossel said Republicans have looked at the political composition of the districts, and the ratio of Democrats and Republicans “doesn’t change much” under their plan.
The committee working on redistricting is made up of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and an Independent chairman.
A public hearing is scheduled for Aug. 23 to allow the public to weigh in on the plans. The legislature is scheduled to vote on the issue at a special session scheduled for Sept. 27.
If the Legislature fails to pass a redistricting plan with a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court will set the districts, as they did the previous two times the state redrew the districts.
In 2003, the seven justices unanimously agreed to reject plans to shift counties between districts, and instead redrew the district boundaries to move only towns in Kennebec County, which was already split between the two districts.