Election districts redrawn

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s state and congressional election districts have a new look.
And for our local representatives, it’s going to mean a major change in their campaign strategies.
The state’s newly drawn districts were recently submitted to a civilian panel, the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, and — not surprisingly — some folks have issues with the new map.
Lawmakers and residents in Detroit are challenging the district maps in the state’s Supreme Court because they do not create even one solid black district. Detroit is over 120 square miles in size.
Among those opposing the new map is state Sen. Adam Hollier (D-2nd District), whose district includes Hamtramck.
His district, which is now the 3rd District, goes north up to the suburbs through Madison Heights, and eventually bumps up to Sterling Heights.
He told The Review:
“I think the commission did a decent job of addressing the partisan fairness in the Senate map, but could have done a much better job of balancing community interest, and not watering down Detroiters and Hamtramck voters by spreading them out across the tri-county area.”
As it turns out, Hollier announced this week that he will be a candidate for the newly drawn congressional district, which is an open seat now that Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence is retiring.
Hollier’s seat is now also open. There will no doubt be heavy-hitting challengers from the suburbs north of 8 Mile.
State Rep. Abraham Aiyash (D-4th district) also had mixed views of the new maps.
“For the first time in our lifetime, district maps were not drawn by politicians — and this is a good thing for democracy. For decades, Republicans in Lansing have gerrymandered districts to give them an advantage, and the maps show a clear shift away from this long-standing practice,” Aiyash said in an email to The Review.
‘Unfortunately, I do believe that Black voters in Detroit have had their voices diminished in this process, and we expect to see a legal challenge for this particular issue. This is probably the one part of the process I don’t think the commission got right.
“For example, in one state house district, the boundaries start in Birmingham and move south towards the western part of Detroit. The median income of this district ranges from $122,000 in Birmingham to $15,000 in Detroit.”
Aiyash’s district has been renamed the 9th District, and it now extends down further into Midtown Detroit, even including part of the Grand Circus Park area. He is up for re-election this year.
The US Congressional House District that includes Hamtramck remains the 13th District, and now extends to all of the Grosse Pointes, down to the Detroit River, and to just west of Highland Park.
Overall, the new redistricting map has been generally praised for not giving one political party a significant advantage. But not everyone agrees with that assessment.
“On every measure of partisan fairness the Commission used, its legislative and Congressional redistricting plans are biased against Democrats,” said Christina Schlitt, President of the League of Women Voters-Michigan, in a press release.
“The commission’s own lawyer told them to reduce partisan bias to zero; these maps clearly missed the mark. Yet, we know it is possible to achieve more partisan fairness because Promote the Vote created much fairer maps which met all the criteria.”
Posted Jan. 28. 2022