A task force dedicated to reforming how New Mexico’s political maps are made said Wednesday it is no longer considering changes to the maps used to elect members of Congress and will instead focus only on those used to elect state officials.
The task force is an independent group brought together by Fair Districts for New Mexico and the nonpartisan advocacy group League of Women Voters of New Mexico. One of the task force’s goals is to resume a push to create an independent redistricting commission and strip lawmakers’ authority in redrawing political maps.
Pointing to a national political battle around redrawing congressional districts, Rep. Cristina Parajón and Sen. Harold Pope, both Albuquerque Democrats, resigned from the task force on Aug. 18. Fair Districts for New Mexico Project Coordinator Kathleen Burke told Source NM on Thursday there have been no further resignations.
Two elected Democratic lawmakers remain on the task force, along with four elected Republicans lawmakers. “Democrats from the Legislature don’t have an equal footing here,” Sen. Angel Charley (D-Acoma) told the task force at its second meeting on Aug. 19.
With the resignation of one party’s members, the task force has “lost its foundation of nonpartisanship,” Fair Districts said in a news release on Wednesday. Partisan battles over congressional redistricting “have become extreme,” the group said, but are separate from efforts to reform how maps for state offices are drawn.
“What began as a genuine effort at collaboration to address voter suppression and promote fairness has been undermined,” New Mexico League of Women Voters President Hannah Burling said in a statement. “Without full representation, the Task Force can no longer fulfill its promise of fairness and balance.”
Fair Districts Project Manager Dick Mason said in a statement that New Mexico’s prior reform efforts have centered on state-level offices, so the task force’s proposed joint resolution “deliberately excludes congressional districts and instead would establish an independent commission to draw fair maps for the New Mexico Senate, House, and other state offices requiring redistricting.”
Sen. Natalie Figueroa (D-Albuquerque) told the task force that she has volunteered to carry a yet-to-be-written joint resolution in the 2026 legislative session to create an independent redistricting commission. She said the task force was planned long before Texas decided to gerrymander its congressional maps.
“It is incredibly disappointing that we couldn’t gather legislators to step up for this work because like it or not, the Census is coming and redistricting is going to happen,” Figueroa told the task force.
Fair Districts said the task force will continue as a public “educational panel” at two webinars later this month.
