PIERRE — A plan to change the way legislative districts are drawn was defeated 6-3 Wednesday on a party-line vote.

After the federal census every decade, a committee of lawmakers redraws district boundaries to keep them relatively equal in population.

But Rep. Bill Thompson, D-Sioux Falls, urged lawmakers on the Senate State Affairs committee Wednesday to take redistricting out of the hands of lawmakers.

Advertisement

“Presently redistricting is done by a few legislators,” Thompson said. “These incumbents, Republicans and Democrats alike, work hard — but unfortunately they work hardest to keep their own districts safe or to make them even safer.”

Thompson’s proposal, SB170, would have created a bipartisan seven-member commission made up of non-elected officials to redraw legislative districts.

Four members of the commission would be appointed by the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate. Those four commissioners would appoint the other three citizens.

Each member of the commission would have to be from a different one of seven regions of South Dakota defined in the bill.

The next legislative redistricting is scheduled for 2011. The 2012 elections will be the first legislative elections with new districts.

Supporters of Thompson’s bill said handing redistricting over to non-lawmakers would help restore citizens’ confidence in their elected leaders.

“There is cynicism and there is apathy,” said Sen. Nancy Turbak Berry, D-Watertown. “(Districts) are illogical and they are a reflection of folks’ efforts at protecting their own seats or somehow trying to manipulate the electorate.”

But Republicans on the committee said they believe the current process works fine.

“I’m not sure we’re solving a problem,” said Sen. Bob Gray, R-Pierre. “Are there some districts that are gerrymandered? Perhaps.”

But Gray said outside of Sioux Falls, most legislative districts in the state are straightforward with few options to draw new boundaries.

The Senate State Affairs committee killed Thompson’s bill with all six Republicans opposing the bill and all three Democrats supporting it.

The vote came only after lawmakers sparred over language used in the debate.

Sen. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, objected to what he characterized as attacks on the legislature’s integrity by Thompson and Turbak Berry.

“One of the things that bothers me is when we throw out statements that are misleading or lead you to a conclusion,” Rhoden said. “You made the comment, Sen. Turbak (Berry), that you want to restore honor. That is an implication that the past system has been without honor, and I take exception to that.”

Sen. Scott Heidepriem, D-Sioux Falls, defended the two Democrats.

“I don’t want those comments to go unaddressed,” Heidepriem said.

“The implication that either Sen. Turbak Berry or Rep. Thompson suggested something other than we have conducted ourselves in an honorable way, I take issue with. What they mean to suggest is only that there is a proposal in front of us that represents a fairer way to do something that must be done.”