Legislators to look at district lines

New Mexico state legislators who represent Curry, Roosevelt, Quay and De Baca county districts will be scrutinizing changes in Congressional and state legislative district boundaries starting Monday, as the legislature decides in a special session how those lines will change starting in 2022.

Redistricting every 10 years is required by state and federal law to accommodate changes in population between the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2020 federal count of population.

Between the 2010 and 2020 census counts, Curry County was the only one of the four counties to gain population, and that gain was only by 54 people. Quay County showed a net loss of 295 people, Roosevelt County lost 655, and DeBaca County lost 324.

Since district lines do not necessarily follow county lines, and sometimes split cities between districts, other counties represented by legislators whose districts include Curry, Quay, Roosevelt and DeBaca counties must also be taken into account when redistricting.

Among those counties, Chaves County showed a loss of 488 people between the censuses, Guadalupe County lost 235 and Lea County gained 9,728 people from 2010 to 2020,.

In the case of New Mexico Senate District 8 and state House District 67, the districts extend to eastern New Mexico counties that border Colorado. The eastern counties north of Curry County all lost population between 2010 and 2020. The greatest loss was in San Miguel County, which recorded a net reduction of 1,291 in population, according to New Mexico Legislature documents.

In 2021, the New Mexico Legislature created a seven-member bipartisan citizens redistricting committee, with three members appointed by the state Ethics Commission, and one each by House Minority Leader James Townsend, Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, House Speaker Brian Egolf, and Senate Minority Leader Gregory Baca.

The committee has approved three options each for redistricting the U.S. Congress, the New Mexico Senate, the state House of Representatives and the state Public Education Commission.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday called the legislature into session beginning Monday to make decisions on redistricting, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The news release also said the legislature will be considering how to spend American Rescue Plan Act funds.

State Sen. Pat Woods, (R-Broadview), expects that despite the Citizens Committee’s bipartisan makeup, the legislature’s final decisions are likely strongly to favor the wishes of the Democratic majority.

“They have a 2 to 1 margin,” he said, “I think they’re going to pull a bill out of their pocket and vote it in.”

Woods said he has looked at the options presented by the citizens’ committee and noted they all move boundaries so that Tucumcari in Quay County, a city of about 4,000, will be in District 8, whose seat is currently held by Sen. Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas.)

Currently only a small, sparsely populated area of Tucumcari is in Senate District 8.

One optional map, however, also shows that Logan, a Quay County town with a population of 991, would end up in Woods’ district. It is currently in Campos’ district.

Woods said his main concern is the effect of redistricting on capital outlay allocations due to shifting political strengths.

State Rep. Phelps Anderson (I-Roswell), whose House District 66 includes parts of Roosevelt County along with portions of Chaves and Lea counties, said he accepts changes in his district’s boundaries because Lea County grew while Roosevelt and Chaves counties shrank.

He is more concerned with U.S. Congressional districts.

He said he opposes two options devised by the Citizens Committee that propose traditionally northern Congressional Districts 1 and 3 make inroads into District 2, which he said he prefers would remain as the southern half of the state.

One option places Clovis and Portales into District 2, and another moves the boundary of District 1 as far south as Roswell.

Neither option, he said, would serve the people of his district.

District 1 is represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Melanie Ann Stansbury, and District 2 by Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez.

District 3 is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Yvette Harrell, a Republican.

“I am hopeful the legislature will make a decision that’s best for the people of New Mexico,” he said.

State Rep. Martin Zamora (R-Portales), whose District 63 includes portions of Curry, Roosevelt, DeBaca, Guadalupe and San Miguel counties, said he expects the special session to be very challenging as legislators work their way through the options presented, as well as others that may be proposed.

“I really don’t know what we’re getting into,” he said. “I am approaching with a cautious mind.”