On Thursday, the DAC met and voted to move the Democratic commissioners’ compromise map –HDP8– forward for public comment later this month, and for good reason. HDP8 met every single one of the adopted criteria and goals better than the Republican map HDP7 in every quantifiable way.
Here’s a link to the map, for folks who’d like to take a look, as well as a breakdown of the election statistics of the map. For a deeper dive, take a look at this Twitter thread by Commissioner Kendra Miller.
In the closing statements, the Democratic commissioners laid out the strength of their map and how it is more fair, splits fewer counties, splits fewer municipalities, has more competitive seats, and is more compact than the Republican counterpart.
When it was the Republicans’ turn to defend their own map, the commissioners instead went after the very criteria that they had voted for. They argued that the criteria were simply technicalities, not agreed-upon requirements. They made the frankly bizarre claim that by voting for HDP8, the chair was somehow undermining faith in the Courts.
The process is far from over – HDP8 now goes to public comment. Montanans will have the chance to provide critical feedback on the tentatively-adopted map. We are excited to hear from the voters themselves on December 10th.
What next?
The map now moves to Public Comment on December 10th.
At the Public Comment session, the commissioners will be hearing from the public about the House map that was voted on, how the Senate pairings should look, and the assignments for holdover senators. The Republicans have made it clear they will try to pair the Senate districts to give their party undue partisan advantage. It also looks like they will try to make changes to the map to protect incumbents. As always, the commissioners take these public comments seriously, and it’s important to have your voice heard! Politicians don’t get to choose their voters, and we need to remind Republicans of that.
Montana Democrats will be sending out talking points for folks who’d like to get involved by providing comments. Please sign up to receive that email: Sign up for Talking Points