Court examines new Michigan Senate map after redrawing
Michigan’s redistricting commission on Wednesday selected a new map for the state Senate to submit to a three-judge panel of federal judges for consideration for adoption after the panel ruled that the group of mapmakers drew the current lines through the Detroit metropolitan area primarily on the basis of race.
Last year, the court invalidated several Detroit state districts in response to a lawsuit filed by voters in the districts that run through Michigan’s largest city and one of the largest black cities in the country. The three-judge panel ordered the commission to redraw the maps and has already approved a new map of the state drawn by the commission.
It is now being examined whether the Commission’s new Senate map will also be approved.
The commission named the map that the judges are to examine “Crane A1.” The proposed map was created after several rounds of voting that spanned two days and in which cartographers weighed more than a dozen drafts.
After five rounds of voting failed to produce a map with enough Democratic support to send it to the court, the commission moved to a round of ranked choice voting, with each commission member ranking the maps in order of preference. The “Crane A1” map received the highest rating, garnering enough support from Democrats, Republicans, and independent members of the commission.
The voting process was at times marked by internal disputes and extensive debates over which boundaries would best reflect the communities in the Detroit metropolitan area with shared interests while avoiding any favoritism towards one political party over another.
How many districts would be changed by the Commission’s map?
The court ordered the commission to redraw six Senate districts:
- Senate District 1, currently represented by State Senator Erika Geiss, D-Taylor
- Senate District 3, currently represented by State Senator Stephanie Chang, Democrat from Detroit
- Senate District 6, currently represented by State Senator Mary Cavanagh, D-Redford Township
- Senate District 8, currently represented by State Senator Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak
- Senate District 10, currently represented by State Senator Paul Wojno, D-Warren
- Senate District 11, currently represented by State Senator Veronica Klinefelt, D-Eastpointe
In addition to these districts, the Commission also rezoned eight other districts in the Detroit metropolitan area:
- Senate District 2, currently represented by State Senator Sylvia Santana, Democrat from Detroit
- Senate District 4, currently represented by State Senator Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton
- Senate District 5, currently represented by State Senator Dayna Polehanki, Democrat from Livonia
- Senate District 7, currently represented by State Senator Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield
- Senate District 9, currently represented by State Senator Michael Webber, R-Rochester Hills
- Senate District 13, currently represented by State Senator Rosemary Bayer, D-West Bloomfield
- Senate District 23, currently represented by State Senator Jim Runestad, R-White Lake
- Senate District 24, currently represented by State Senator Ruth Johnson, R-Holly
Were incumbents drawn into the same constituency?
The map presented by the commission did not group any incumbents eligible for re-election to the state Senate in the same electoral district.
Is the redrawn Michigan Senate map fair?
When Michigan voters passed a constitutional amendment in 2018 to wrest control of redistricting from the state legislature and put it in the hands of a citizen-led commission, they created an obligation for independent mapmakers to draw fair lines that would not give a disproportionate advantage to one political party. National redistricting experts considered some of Michigan’s previous districts to be among the most politically skewed in the country.
The commission used four criteria for partisan fairness to evaluate its map. On three of these criteria, the map showed a slight bias in favor of the Republicans and on the other criterion, a slight bias in favor of the Democrats.
An expert on the commission tasked with evaluating the partisan fairness of the maps raised no serious concerns about the maps the group examined. On two of the partisan fairness measures the commission examined, the new “Crane A1” the court is asked to adopt would be slightly more Republican than current lines, while on another measure it would reduce GOP bias somewhat.
Court approves new Michigan House map: New map approved before election to decide which party controls the chamber
What happens next?
The three-judge panel has set itself a July 26 deadline to approve a new state Senate map. Before deciding whether to accept the revised map submitted by the commission, it will review a report from a court-appointed redistricting expert who will examine whether the commission’s map takes into account the constitutional violations identified in the court order that illegally redistricted several districts in the Detroit metropolitan area based on race.
The process to redraw the state’s Senate districts comes after the commission redrawn several Detroit state House districts that were also rejected by the court. After the commission went back to the drawing board to adjust those districts, the court approved the commission’s new district.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at [email protected] or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @clarajanehen.
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