Under Redistricting Proposal, West Bloomfield Would Have New Voices in Congress, State House

Michigan Republicans have laid out their reapportionment plans and if they are approved by lawmakers, the Congressional and state House districts in West Bloomfield Township would see a lot of change.

Under the plan, House Rep. Lisa Brown's (D-West Bloomfield) 39th district would occupy a smaller portion of West Bloomfield than what it currently does. Congressman Gary Peters (D-9th District), meanwhile, would no longer serve in West Bloomfield. Mike Kowall would remain the township’s state Senator.

Reapportionment happens every 10 years following the release of U.S. Census data; it is a mandate to keep districts equal in population. The state has until Nov. 1 to finalize the district maps.

Here's a look at how the proposed reapportionment would affect West Bloomfield:

In the state House

Now: Brown, a first-term Democrat, currently occupies a large portion of West Bloomfield extending east to Bloomfield Township limits. First-term Republican Gail Haines (R-Waterford) occupies the 43rd District and the northwestern corner of West Bloomfield.

As proposed: Brown’s 39th district would close in eastward and expand in the west to encompass Wixom. The 40th district, currently represented by Republican Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) and occupying Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, and Orchard Lake Village among others, would expand to include a portion of West Bloomfield.

In the state Senate

Now: West Bloomfield is part of Mike Kowall's (R-15th District) district. Kowall, a first-term Republican, was elected in Nov. 2010.

As proposed: West Bloomfield would remain in the 15th district.

Congress

Now: West Bloomfield is part of the 9th District, led by Peters, a Democrat from Bloomfield Hills.

As proposed: Oakland County would be broken into four congressional districts (8, 9, 11 and 14).

• District 14 would include Farmington Hills (but not Farmington — that would be in District 11) as well as West Bloomfield, Pontiac, Southfield and parts of Wayne County.

• District 8 would include Rochester and Rochester Hills and the rest of the northern half of the county (from Oakland and Addison townships west to Holly and Rome townships). District 8 is currently led by Congressman Mike Rogers, a Republican.
• District 11 would almost encircle the southern half of the county and include everything from Clawson and Troy to Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham west to Milford and south to Canton.
• District 9, finally, would include Royal Oak, Ferndale, Berkley, Huntington Woods, and Bloomfield Township.

The Democrats' response

In essence, the districts of U.S. Reps. Peters and Sander Levin (D-12th District), the Democrat who leads the southern part of Oakland County, would overlap.

They issued a joint statement Friday blasting the Republicans who drafted the maps.

“Voters in Michigan have never before faced such a shamelessly partisan redrawing of congressional boundaries," the statement said. "Instead of drawing fair lines that follow community and county borders in a logical way, the Republican legislature has drafted a map so skewed that it exploits every trick in the book to gerrymander districts in ways that benefit Republican incumbents."

Frank Houston, chairman of the Oakland County Democratic Party, agreed.

“The redistricting proposal put forward by Republican leaders today probably represents the most overt attempt to gerrymander for partisan advantage our state has ever seen,” he said in a statement.

Houston also alluded to the possibility that, with the breakup of Oakland County into several Congressional districts, there may not be a Congress member elected from Oakland County.

For more on the reapportionment proposals, see House Bill 4780, which involves the congressional redistricting and House Bill 4779, which involves the state House and Senate redistricting.