This was perhaps the most useful caucus I went to, focusing as it did on methods to help advocacy.
The basic question: "How do we get to yes" on redistricting proposals? How do we keep them from drawing a gerrymander, especially in non-referendum states?
It's important to leave a role for the legislature while trying to improve the process. Involve the four corners of the legislature: speaker, speaker pro tem, and leaders of both houses.
Most of the 50 bills they've looked at went for a legislature-plus model: for instance, the legislature picks some members of the redistricting committe, someone else picks other members. Most went for Democrats, Republicans and some sort of expert; a few included independents. 80% had room for judges at some point in the process. Picking the committee chair is important: often an independent picked by the four corners. Many bills excluded political data and incumbent protection. (Reading this again, I'm not sure what it means, sorry!)
NY state started a process in 2010 and had a constitutional amendment passed in 2014. How did they manage it??
In the 2014 primaries, 80% of incumbents were unopposed, with a 90% reelection rate. They had a mantra: "The legislators are picking their voters rather than the voters picking their legislator."
In 2010, they started an education campaign, and that was key. They did lots of community forums, providing local leagues with a ready-made powerpoint and training.
The part I loved most: they ran a contest showing the worst districts and challenging people to name them. They had names like "Abraham Lincoln riding a lawnmower" and "The claw". It was funny, engaged people, provided visibility and attracted attention.
The importance of this is that legislators aren't going to agree to anything unless their constituency is putting pressure on them. So you need to engage voters and get them to care about redistricting so they'll contact their legislators.
They provided PowerPoints and training for people to go around the state speaking to groups about the issue. Other groups want to work with LWVNY because they have lots of local leagues and are good at distributing information throughout the state.
Another speaker, from Ohio, spoke about their fight. They had a ballot issue that determined that popular support for redistricting change was overwhelming. They named their districts too: they had "snake on the lake" near Cleveland, "the duck", and others. It's a great way to get public support: you should not have districts you can name after animals.
You have to be relentless, get lots of people understanding the problem and supporting you, then wait for your opportunity. Legislators may be ready to compromise once they feel pressured. The legislators were upset about how much money it was going to take to defeat an amendment with that much popular support, so they were ready to bargain.
There were definitely ideas here we can use in New Mexico if we want to make a big push on redistricting.
...Akkana Peck