Aug. 23—Keene Rep. Joe Schapiro doesn’t have an opponent in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary for Cheshire County House District 16, so he hasn’t begun to campaign in earnest yet.
“From the few events that I have attended, however, and from conversations with friends and acquaintances, it is becoming very clear to me that redistricting has created an enormous amount of confusion,” he said Monday.
Every 10 years, district boundary lines are redrawn based on updated population figures from the US Census. The new boundaries, approved by the Republican-controlled NH Legislature this year after contentious public hearings and signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu, will leave some re-elected lawmakers with a new set of constituents.
For example, Cheshire House District 16 used to take in the entire city of Keene and was represented by Schapiro and Amanda Elizabeth Toll.
Now it comprises Keene’s Ward 2 and nine other communities — Alstead, Gilsum, Harrisville, Marlborough, Marlow, Nelson, Roxbury, Stoddard and Sullivan — and will have one representative instead of two.
“Understandably, people don’t know why a representative from Keene is running in the small town of Stoddard,” Schapiro said. “People are considering which candidates to vote for in a primary when their Keene ward is not included in that district.”
Schapiro will take on Fred Ward of Stoddard, the lone Republican candidate in the district, in the Nov. 8 general election.
Schapiro said some of the candidates themselves may be confused about which areas they are seeking to represent.
“I walk around my neighborhood and I see all these signs for people who are not running in this neighborhood because they’re in a different ward,” he said.
Schapiro approached a man coming out of a house with signs for a candidate not running to represent that part of Keene and asked the man if he realized that.
“He said, ‘No,’ and he just had a confused look in his eyes,” Schapiro said.
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Keene’s four other wards plus Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Surry, Walpole and Westmoreland are in the new District 15, which will have two representatives. The Democratic candidates are Toll, Renee Monteil and incumbent Rep. Paul Berch.
The winners of that primary will take on the two top vote-getters in a Republican primary race featuring Malia Boaz of Westmoreland along with Joseph Mirzoeff and John Schmitt, both of Keene.
Another perplexing thing, Schapiro said, is that for the first time some people living in small towns, such as Alstead, Richmond, Stoddard and Gilsum, now find themselves in two overlapping multi-town districts.
“It seems that when redistricting is written about, the attempt by the party in the majority to take advantage is the major theme, as it should be, but the amount of confusion created often goes by the wayside,” he said.
A foundational principle for redistricting is keeping communities of common interest in the same district. But issues may differ when a city and a rural town miles away are lumped into the same district.
Logistics can also be a little more complicated when trying to represent 10 communities, Schapiro said.
“Really to properly serve 10 different entities, I should really know the people on the school board of all those towns and the people in the local governments of all those towns and that’s a complicated thing to do,” he said.
An examination by the ACLU of New Hampshire and performed by the FLO Analytics consulting company, which has an office in Beverly, Mass., found that the House districts in HB 50, the redistricting legislation, will yield a 9 percent increase in GOP-leaning seats.
However, Schapiro said he’s not sure whether the effects in Cheshire County will change the partisan makeup of local representation. The county’s House delegation has 18 Democrats and five Republicans.
The NH Secretary of State’s website provides sample ballots and polling places. Municipal clerk offices, including Keene’s, also provide information for voters including ward maps.
Rick Green can be reached at RGreen@KeeneSentinel.com or 603-355-8567