This Week in Redistricting 1/28

It's been over a month since the last time I put up a TWIR, partly because not a lot has been happening on the redistricting front, but mainly because I've found myself in a bit of a post-election listlessness.

My interest in blogging about politics is strongly related to the proximity of the next election and I'm now firmly in the lethargy stage of of the current cycle where I am finding other, non-political, topics to be more interesting timesinks.

So now that my preamble has gotten you super excited to read this post, on with it!

• The big news is that the lawsuits have begun. The first one was filed on the 12th of January with the plaintiffs all being Democrats. This was followed by a similar lawsuit filed by Republicans.
  
  None of this is surprising and in fact is expected. Since the requirement to redistrict every ten years is found nowhere in the Minnesota constitution and is the result of court precedent, the only way for the courts to have standing to draw a new map or force a new map to be drawn is if there is a corresponding lawsuit. Which, since the 60's, there has always been.
  
  And since everyone pretty much expects that the courts will draw the map this time around too, it's just the first step in what will likely be a year-long process.
  
  
• MPR talked with GOP State Sen. Geoff Michel about redistricting this week if you're interested in hearing what the head of redistricting for the Republican Senate has to say.
  
  In everything I've heard from the GOP so far, they are saying all the right things about working with the minority in the legislature and the Governor to produce a bipartisan map. As I've pointed out before, it wouldn't be completely crazy for the two parties to want to work something out, weather that will happen or not remains to be seen.
  
  
• rougemapper over at Swing State Project took to Dave's Redistricting app to try his hand at a Minnesota map. Check it out.