Six state representatives would find themselves in House districts with another incumbent under a proposed redistricting plan that redraws the state’s political boundaries to represent changes in the isles’ population over the past decade.
WHAT’S NEXT
New boundaries to be discussed in public hearings:
The state Reapportionment Commission has presented its proposed maps for new political districts based on population growth over the past decade.
Commission members are scheduled to vote Friday on accepting the proposed maps. The draft plans would then go through public hearings beginning Aug. 30 and ending Sept. 16. A final plan must be adopted by Sept. 26.
Information is available on the state Office of Elections reapportionment website: hawaii.gov/elections/reapportionment
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No incumbent senators would be similarly affected — though some of their districts will shift boundaries — while the 1st U.S. Congressional District representing urban Honolulu would shift west, under the proposals unveiled Wednesday.
The state Reapportionment Committee is scheduled to vote Friday on accepting the draft plans put forth by its four-member technical committee before taking them out to public hearings on all islands beginning at the end of the month.
A final plan must be adopted by Sept. 26.
"I don’t think anybody is saying that the drafts are all necessarily perfect, but I think that they’re ready to go out for public comment," said Commissioner Calvert Chipchase IV, a member of the technical committee.
Affected incumbents include two of eight Republicans in the state House.
On Oahu, Rep. Kymberly Pine (R-Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) would face Rida Cabanilla (D-Waipahu-Ewa), and Rep. Barbara Marumoto (R, Kalani Valley-Diamond Head) would face Rep. Mark Hashem (D, Hahaione Valley-Aina Haina). New boundaries also pit two Hawaii island Democrats against each other: Jerry Chang (D, Piihonua-Kaumana) and Mark Nakashima (D, Hawi-Hilo).
"It’s the way people live and the way it shook out — there was no avoiding combining incumbents," said Commissioner Dylan Nonaka, another member of the technical committee.
As for critics who voiced concerns over political rigging and gerrymandering of districts, Commissioner Clarice Hashimoto said the software used to draw districts is very precise in defining the population blocks used to compose the plan.
"Perhaps maybe in the past we could very arbitrarily draw a line and squiggle in so and so into whatever district," said Hashimoto, who also was on the technical committee. "Because of technology and because of the census blocks that were already predetermined, we couldn’t do that."
The effect of the proposed districts on communities — and state politics — are hard to know at first glance, said Bart Dame, a Democratic activist who serves on the state party’s Central Committee and who has been an active public participant at commission meetings.
"The devil is in the details," he said.
One issue still to be determined is the boundary line for the state’s congressional district on Oahu. The technical committee submitted two proposals on where to draw the line, with both pushing farther west than the existing boundary.
The plan is based on population figures that include nonresident military members and their dependents, nonresident students and incarcerated felons — all groups concentrated on Oahu. The commission voted 8-1 to include the nonresident groups, reversing recent past practice and negating population growth on the neighbor islands that would have shifted one state Senate seat to Hawaii island from Oahu.
The state Attorney General’s Office has issued an opinion stating that if the matter were challenged, the state Supreme Court likely would rule that the nonresident groups cannot be included in the state’s population base for the purpose of redistricting.
