It’s time to focus on constituents

To the editor:

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has called a special session of the Indiana Legislature in order to consider the idea of redistricting, out of cycle, in order to game the system in an effort to shift the two Democratic congressional districts in Indiana to attempt to swing them Republican.

As a lifelong Republican, I would certainly like to see more Republican seats held by our party, but is this the right and ethical way to do so? Would it actually have the potential to backfire? And what do the constituents of Indiana think we should do?

Ethically, my partisan view has always been that my party does things the right way, that we respect our system of government and that we’d take the high road, tell the truth and respect the voters to affirm or deny our platform. Also, I think most vote for a party because they believe in the underlying principles of the platform. That’s true conservatism.

However, our state elected officials represent the wants and needs of their state, not blindly following the whims of the president. This action would go against our process and redraw districts already confirmed by the Indiana Republican party at large. It is clearly a violation of the process and is disingenuous, at best.

Secondly, this has the potential to backfire. Looking at Andre Carson’s seat in the 7th District, he claimed over 68% of the votes in his district in 2024. The plan would be to try to divide his district and push it to three Republican districts. This means that, in effect, you are pushing a big number of Democratic votes into Republican districts. This could backfire, allowing those districts to be in play, especially if the Democrats would run moderate candidates in areas that would be made up of many moderate, suburban Republican voters. 

Finally, what do the people say? 

In a poll published by the Indianapolis Star on Oct. 14, only 21% of voters agreed we should redraw our districts to offset Democratic efforts to do the same. And 69% said there is no need to spend the time and money (estimated to be over $500,000) in that effort. The same poll cites that only 29% of Hoosier voters viewed the legislature favorably. 

The last session of the legislature produced Senate Enrolled Act 1. This law was widely unpopular, and our elected officials heard significant pushback from local officials but still followed the mandate of our governor and passed the bill. This law has had a tremendous impact on local units of government, and it only gets worse as time goes on. 

Further, from my estimation, after studying the facts in front of us, it will cost a vast majority of Jay County residents a significant increase in total taxes going forward.

It’s time for our elected officials to listen to their voters, follow the advice of former Gov. Mitch Daniels and do the right thing — not only say no to redistricting, but while you’re there go ahead and fix what you have broken in SEA 1 and serve your constituents. 

Bryan Alexander

Portland

Editor’s note: Alexander is a member of Jay County Council.