Drawing the Lines
State lawmakers are drawing new maps for the State House and Senate, as well as U.S. Congressional Districts. What will this mean for Central Oregon? Against the backdrop of Census data delays and a packed legislative session, Oregon lawmakers are embarking on the once-a-decade process of redistricting, in which they redraw the lines for state House and Senate districts, along with the U.S. Congressional Districts based on shifts in population. In order to evenly distribute the population, each Oregon Senate district will need to be around 138,00 people and each House district will need around 69,000 people. Central Oregon s districts are far over those marks and will need to shed numbers. But while experts predict that these districts will shrink, they will likely stay true to shape.
SALEM â The fuzzy future of Oregon politics east of the Cascades went public last week â no diagrams, charts, data â really nothing tangible at all to show how new legislative and congressional districts will be drawn.
âWe donât have any maps,â said Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, chair of the House Redistricting Committee. âWe donât have any numbers from the census.â
Salinas and her Senate counterpart, Sen. Kathleen Taylor, D-Milwaukie, said they were making a good faith effort to hold the legally required 10 public hearings on new political maps.
Maps that donât exist â at least, not yet.
The hearings are collateral damage from the constitutional car crash headed to the Oregon Supreme Court.
Oregon s 2020 political redistricting: Fuzzy math and absent maps lagrandeobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lagrandeobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.