Update on Redistricting

Photo from Anoka County Union Herald Feb 22, 2022

--Compiled by Wes Volkenant, Treasurer, LWV ABC
 
I was asked to share my observations about the impact of redistricting in the Anoka County and northern Hennepin County areas that our League of Women Voters - Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids serves.  The number of legislative districts in our area has increased, and many incumbent legislators have been impacted:  There is a detailed description of the changes later in this post.
 
The next step in redistricting is local redistricting.  LWV-ABC has a small committee composed of myself, Mel Aanerud and Colleen Werdien working on creating one or two draft Anoka County Commissioner district maps to submit to the County Board by early-April, as Cities prepare their new precinct lines by March 29, and the County Board and School Boards prepare their new maps by April 26.  Watch this blog and the LWV ABC newsletter for an update in May.

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Looking at the new lines… the judicial panel that issued new Congressional and Legislative maps clearly stated that substantial re-drawing of the district lines is the job of the Legislature; as a judicial panel, they tweaked existing lines to account for population shifts only.  In our area, we see that the one Congressional change was moving Anoka and a sliver of Ramsey (south of Highway 10), to the 3rd Congressional District.
 
The principle of tweaking the existing districts continued at the Legislative level, but led to, what I would characterize as, considerable change.  The first thing I would point out is that versus the six partial or full Senate Districts Anoka County was previously divided into, it will now be divided into eight full or partial districts - 27, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 and 39.
 
Many incumbent legislators have been impacted:  Sen. John Hoffman will be solely in Hennepin County, Sen. Jim Abeler adds most of Coon Rapids, Sen. Jerry Newton will unretire to campaign in 35B House seat; DFLer Zack Stevenson and Republican John Heinrich were paired Representatives in 35A; Rep. Nolan West will run in the more northerly 32A; and with Republicans Peggy Scott and Cal Bahr paired in 31B, Rep. Bahr filed for the open Senate seat.  Contests that will have neither a current Senator or Representative running are House seats 31A and 32B, and Senate 32.
 
Are you still unsure about your new District?  Use this handy informative tool that was developed by MPR:   https://dhmontgomery.shinyapps.io/redistricting-widget-final/.  Interactive House and Senate maps of the Districts are located at:   https://www.gis.lcc.mn.gov/redist2020/plans.php?plname=L2022&pltype=court.    We have a more detailed discussion of the changes to the lines for our new legislative districts - click Read More.

Here’s a more detailed discussion of the changes to the lines for our new legislative districts:
 
Champlin, which was formerly part of a district with Brooklyn Park that crossed the river to cover western and southeastern Coon Rapids, is now in District 34, a westward-facing House District, that extends along the Mississippi River through Dayton and across Rogers to the Hennepin County west border.  
 
Parts of the old District 31 will be in the new District 31;  parts of the old District 35 will be in the new District 35.  The new District 31 will cover Ramsey, much of Andover, northern Ham Lake, eastern Oak Grove, East Bethel and Athens Township in Isanti County.  
 
Its neighbor to the south, District 35, retains Anoka and most of Coon Rapids, as well as the southeast corner of Andover.  Parts of this area were in the former 35A and 35B and 36A. 
 
Northwestern Anoka County has been spliced into portions of two new Districts that primarily lie outside of Anoka County.  The western portion of Oak Grove and the city of Nowthen have been placed into House District 30B, while the remainder of District 30 is in northern Wright County, in the St. Michael-Albertville area.  
 
St, Francis and Bethel have been drawn into strongly Republican district 27B, which goes west to Zimmerman in Sherburne County and then north to Princeton, which straddles Sherburne and Mille Lacs Counties.  The A side of the District extends up to the outskirts of St. Cloud.
 
The new District 32 will extend from Blaine northward through southern Ham Lake, Columbus and Linwood Township.  At its southeast end, Lexington is also included in District 32.  This new District covers much of the former District 37 and a portion of the former District 31.
 
The former District 41 in southern Anoka County and northwestern Ramsey County remains mostly unchanged as new District 39, but all of Spring Lake Park was added and the A, B house lines were drawn differently.  The former lines put Fridley and northern New Brighton in one House seat and Columbia Heights and southern New Brighton and St. Anthony in the other.   The new District 39A extends from Spring Lake Park through Fridley and Hilltop to northern Columbia Heights, as far south as 44th Ave NE.  
 
Finally, the former District 38A in eastern Anoka County, has been incorporated into a newly shaped District 36.  Eastern Anoka County - Lino Lakes, Circle Pines, Centerville form a portion of the District with Gem Lake, North Oaks and White Bear Township.    The 36B side of the district is in White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights and a portion of White Bear Township.