Ex-GOP governor urges party to oppose redistricting in Indiana: Don’t ‘cave’ to White House
Former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) on Wednesday urged his fellow Republicans in the state to not give in to President Trump’s pressure on red states to redraw their congressional maps to their benefit.
“My home state of Indiana is on the national Republican target list for new lines, as part of the quest to ensure continued control of the House,” Daniels wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “While the outcome sought is one I support, the tactic being employed to get there is not, and I hope earnestly that my state’s leaders will politely decline to participate.”
Republicans in Indiana’s state Senate do not have the votes to redraw the map, the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported Wednesday. While five state Senate Republicans support it and three oppose it, the remaining 40 are undecided or have not spoken about it publicly.
Daniels urged Indiana Republicans not to “cave to White House pressure to redistrict.” Daniels said he supports the outcome, but not the path toward it.
“’We’ll be punished by the administration if we don’t cooperate,’” Daniels wrote. “That sounds like the reaction to some puffed-up White House apparatchik’s mouthing off, but in any event it’s a bluff that a self-respecting state ought to call.”
In Indiana, Republicans maintain a supermajority in the state. Thus, no “amount of line-drawing artistry” will turn the 1st Congressional District “into a Republican seat,” Daniels wrote.
“The attempt, which might not even work, would, I’m convinced, come at the expense of public disgust,” he continued. “Hoosiers, like most Americans, place a high value on fairness and react badly to its naked violation.”
The GOP redistricting push comes on the heels of successful efforts in Texas and North Carolina to garner more Republican congressional seats. In California, Democrats are seeking to do the same.
Daniels concluded his Wednesday op-ed with the observation that he does not “underestimate the pressure Indiana’s leaders are under, and I empathize with them in the predicament they face, but I hope they’ll quietly and respectfully pass on this idea.”
“Their duty is to the citizens and the future of our state, not to a national political organization or a temporary occupant of the White House,” he wrote in closing. “And doing the right thing, by the way, really would be its own reward.”