A retired state district judge is proposing two options for revamping political districts of the state House of Representatives to comply with directives from New Mexico's highest court. 

One of the plans suggested by retired District Judge James Hall will cost the Santa Fe area a legislative seat held by House Speaker Ben Luján, who plans to retire after serving 19 terms in the House. 

Hall is giving lawyers until Thursday to comment on the proposals. He will adopt a final redistricting plan by next Monday. 

The Supreme Court overturned a redistricting plan Hall approved last month and directed him to draw a new map. The state's highest court on Tuesday released a written opinion giving a detailed explanation of its redistricting order made earlier this month. 

District boundaries must be realigned to adjust for population changes during the past decade. The goal is to equalize district populations as much as possible to comply with the doctrine of one person, one vote -- ensuring that each New Mexican's vote is of equal weight. 

The Supreme Court instructed the judge to develop a more "partisan neutral plan" and to consider other changes, including revamping a Clovis-area district to ensure that Hispanic voting strength wasn't diluted. 

Democratic and minority voters had challenged the plan ordered by Hall, contending that boundary changes caused more districts to potentially tilt in favor of Republicans in future elections. 

Hall's latest proposals, just like the plan overturned by the court, will create three new seats in fast-growing portions of the state -- the west side of Albuquerque and the nearby community of Rio Rancho. To allow for that growth, other parts of the state will lose seats as districts are consolidated and incumbents are lumped together in a new district. 

Hall's plans are similar, except in the Democratic incumbents who are paired because of district consolidation in north-central New Mexico. One proposal combines the districts of Rep. Nick Salazar of Ohkay Owingeh and Luján, whose current district includes parts of the Santa Fe area. The other proposal pairs Salazar and Thomas Garcia of Ocate, whose current district includes parts of Colfax, Guadalupe, Mora, San Miguel and Taos counties. 

The plan overturned by the Supreme Court would have consolidated the districts of Salazar and Garcia. 

Hall's original plan would have merged the districts of two Republicans in southeastern New Mexico -- causing Roswell Republicans Bob Wooley and Dennis Kintigh to be in the same district. That's retained in his latest proposals. 

Hall made a change in how he dealt with slow population growth in a portion of Albuquerque. His latest proposals merge the districts of retiring Democratic Rep. Al Park and Republican Rep. Conrad James. That creates a swing district that will equally favor a Democratic or GOP candidate. In the plan overturned by the Supreme Court, Park and Republican Rep. Jimmie Hall were lumped together in a new GOP-leaning district. The justices said the newly created district needed to be fair to both political parties. 

In the Clovis area, Hall's latest proposals will keep heavily Hispanic areas of the community in House District 63, which is represented by Democratic Rep. George Dodge of Santa Rosa. Those areas were placed in a GOP-leaning district in the plan tossed out by the Supreme Court. The justices ruled that the historically Hispanic majority district should have a minority population large enough to ensure that Hispanics have a chance of electing the candidate of their choice. 

Overall, the judge's latest proposals will create 38 districts that favor Democrats, based on voting behavior in recent statewide elections, and Republicans will have an edge in 32 districts, according to a tally released by the court. That's the same political tilt that occurs in current districts. In practice, however, Democrats hold a 36-33 majority in the House, and there's one independent member. 

The redistricting plan overturned by the Supreme Court had a 36-34 split in the Democratic-GOP voting performance of districts, but there were more swing seats that offered at least a slight edge to Republicans.





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