Re:Maine

Redistricting is the great political game, played almost entirely for partisan advantage, and Maine has just been treated to a rousing version with the realignment of its two congressional districts.

Republicans started their redistricting campaign on a strong note. Their federal lawsuit resulting in an earlier redistricting date was really a slam-dunk. Maine had been one of only two states redistricting not for the 2012 elections, but for 2014, and the other state, Montana, has only one congressional district. No one really knows why the state constitution mandates a four-year wait, but it does. Since federal courts take the “one person, one vote” doctrine seriously, congressional redistricting was moved up – conveniently coinciding with Republicans’ new, and possibly temporary, control in Augusta.

After that, though, everything went downhill for the Republicans. They presented a map that would have moved 360,000 people across current district lines, without any plausible reason. They lost at the redistricting commission, where the chair, the only non-partisan member, sided with the Democrats’ much more modest plan. After that, the GOP refused even to release a new map in public, even as Democrats put out several.

Finally, on the eve of Tuesday’s special legislative session, they announced their intention to change state law to enable them to enact a redistricting plan by simple majority, not two-thirds. This was really awkward.

Republicans had already endorsed a constitutional amendment, to be voted on in November, that’s necessary to comply with the federal court ruling. It requires a two-thirds majority, meaning that Republicans could force through a redistricting plan this year, but never again. Democrats were almost gleeful, and their supporters also announced that, if Republicans pressed ahead, there would be a people’s veto campaign.

Having been routed on all fronts, Republicans threw in the towel, presenting a map that Democrats found not unacceptable. It’s unnecessarily messy, though. The best plan was the one Democrats first produced – moving one town, Vassalboro, into the 2nd District, which met all the legal requirements.

Instead, Kennebec County, long the designated divvying ground between districts – is cut up in jagged and contorted fashion, with Augusta, Hallowell, and Farmingdale along the Kennebec River remaining in the 1st District, while Gardiner, West Gardiner (where I live) and nine other towns are moved to the 2nd District. Waterville and Winslow, meanwhile, move back to the 1st District – something that proved crucial to the deal.

All this maneuvering has a simple explanation. From the very beginning, one consideration dominated the process – the anticipated rematch between U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and Senate President Kevin Raye. The latter, after his 2002 defeat, moved to the Senate two years later, is now term-limited, and ready to challenge Michaud again.

In redistricting, Lewiston was the big prize, the one Republicans desperately wanted to shift to the 1st District. In 2002, Michaud clobbered Raye in Lewiston, rolling up a 4,000-vote margin and carrying the city by 2-1 – better than in many other Democratic strongholds. Overall, Michaud received 52 percent of the vote, a 9,000-vote margin. Take Lewiston away from Michaud’s district, replace it with Republican-leaning towns, and you’ve got a horserace.

It’s little wonder Senate Assistant Majority Leader Debra Plowman, GOP point person, repeatedly declared the Lewiston shift “non-negotiable.” But it never made sense.

Putting Maine’s two largest cities (Portland and Lewiston) together in the 1st District would mean moving huge swaths of rural Maine to the 2nd. No one but GOP strategists liked it. They forgot that, at least in Maine, partisan motivations have to be cloaked with at least a fig leaf of public benefit.

Democrats did provide a consolation prize, though — Waterville and Winslow, also reliably Democratic. But the shift was probably acceptable because neither municipality voted in the 2002 Michaud-Raye matchup. Until 2004, they were in the 1st District, to which they will now return, eight years later. Michaud will miss them, but not as much as he would have missed Lewiston.

After the deal, Plowman verged on incoherence, telling MPBN: “In order to prevent this whole showdown, a possible people’s veto — which is very expensive to put forth and to defend — and the court, we have been told by our lawyers that this would be very defensible and probably survive the initial court challenge.” Well, whatever.

And so another round of political theater ends. I’m not happy about getting a new congressman – the old one was fine – but we’ll manage. Perhaps next time, though, the Ds and Rs could pick a different county for their war games.