Moments ago, a judicial panel released the new redistricting plan for Minnesota. This is a process that is traditionally started by the legislature, then when they finish disagreeing on it for a while, it is handed over to some judges, who make the final decition.
Michele Bachmann’s place of residence has been placed in the same district as Betty McCollum. McCollum, a Democrat, is very popular in her district, and Bachmann, a Republican, is also popular in hers. Very likely, McCollum would beat Bachmann, and Bachmann sees the writing on the wall. Therefore, she is going to run in a different district than the one she lives in, but essentially in the same district she’s already representing, plus or minus bits and pieces around the edges.
The districts are not all that different than they were before at the large scale. The fourth district, McCollum’s has grown a bit and eaten part of the 6th district, Bachmanns. Meanwhile, the 6th district has been extended to the west a bit, into a region that I think is simply more Bachmann-country. In addition, the sixth has been extended to the south, into an area that may be mixed with respect to Bachmann’s support base. On balance, I think (subject to correction) that Bachmann has lost some of the pesky liberals from the area in which she actually lives, and gained some likely supporters in other areas. In other words, if she was going to be hard to unseat, she is now harder to unseat.
Meanwhile, my district, where I’m supporting DFL candidate Sharon Sund, has changed a bit as well, including a larger area to the south. It is unclear to me what this will mean in terms of relative support for the Republican incumbant vs. the DFL challenger. At first glance, I don’t see a lot of change.
Here is the judicial branch web site on redistricting.