Concord to Consider Redistricting Lawsuit

The voted on April 9 to have City Solicitor investigate whether or not the city should consider filing a lawsuit over a controversial new redistricting plan for the state of New Hampshire.

Concord Mayor called for the vote after he and Councilor received a letter from Speaker , R-Mount Vernon, explaining why the Legislature created the plan and later, overturned Gov. veto of the plan.

Officials have two issues with the redistricting plan. The first is Ward 5 is combined with Hopkinton for a multi-candidate district instead of having a single representative for the district, like a number of other city districts in the new plan. The second, as Bouley noted during the meeting, was that Concord has historically had 13 representatives in the house, in varied formations. With the current setup, a minimum of 12 representatives will be from Concord but potentially not 13, if voters in Hopkinton and Ward 5 elect only representatives from Hopkinton.

Some other cities and larger towns, like Manchester, Pelham, Lebanon, and others, have been split up in similar ways and are also considering lawsuits, Bouley said. He said that the city had three options: file a lawsuit alone, join with other cities, or do nothing.

“It’s a question we have to ask ourselves,” he said.

Moving quickly but cautiously seemed to be the consensus position of most councilors.

“I do find it disturbing the way the redistricting was proposed … the way it currently sits,” Ward 7 Councilor stated. “I’m in favor of getting a little more information.”

Ward 1 Councilor said if the city did decide to take action, it would need to do so soon.

“This is time sensitive,” she said. “We need to make a decision quickly.”

Blanchard said she would like to work with other communities rather than having Concord going it alone.

“I want to be cautious about this,” At-Large City Councilor said, agreeing with Nyhan while requesting specific information about the length of time and the cost of legal options. “I would feel comfortable going the next step.”

Ward 10 Councilor said he didn’t understand a lot of the politics “across the street,” but when he received the letter from the Speaker, it both sent up red flags and was worthy of more study.

“I want to know more about this,” he said. “I don’t know a lot about it.”

Ward 5 Councilor said it was important to join with other communities if the city could. He said the most important thing to him was “retaining the integrity of our communities.” Werner said he was not happy with the new redistricting plan.

At-large City Councilor , who is also a state representative, noted that the change had “a tremendous impact on the people of Ward 5,” adding, “anything that impacts part of our city impacts our entire city.”

The council then unanimously approved of a motion to have the city solicitor look into all the options.

After the meeting, Kennedy said he had no idea what the timeline would be for when he would have all the information available for the council and had no idea how many other communities were actually interested in looking into a lawsuit about redistricting.