Senate GOP Again Rejects Independent Redistricting Commission

Senate Republicans rejected a bid Monday to create an independent commission to redraw Indiana’s legislative district lines.

A two-year study committee recommended the creation of such a commission a few years ago. But the Senate GOP caucus has long spurned the idea.

Still, Senate Democrats continue to try. Minority Leader Tim Lanane (D-Anderson) says an independent redistricting panel would help remove politics from the process.

“The party in power engages in gerrymandering, engages in partisan drawing of the lines," Lanane says. "We’ve seen that.”

But Senate Elections Committee Chair Greg Walker (R-Columbus) signaled there’s not enough interest in his caucus.

“This is a heavy lift that I just can’t support," Walker says. "We haven’t had those conversations in committee nor in this body to move this language forward.”

The Democrats’ amendment failed mostly along party lines.