Every 10 years, the Albuquerque City Charter requires that the Council appoint a committee composed of an equal number of representatives from each Council District to review and make recommendations redistricting each City Council Districts based on information from the Federal Census. Seven maps have been submitted to the citizen-led redistricting committee.
Six of the maps make adjustments that are minor and essentially “tweak” the existing Districts, respecting the existing borders and neighborhoods. One map submitted by Democrat City Councilors Pat Davis and Tammy Fiebelkorn they came up with by themselves is the most radical map of all the 7 maps under consideration. The map divides and guts both their council districts.
It is not at all difficult to figure out what progressive Democrats Pat Davis and Tammy Fiebelkorn want. The Davis/Fiebelkorn redistricting map can only be considered an abomination. It is a prime example of gerrymandering at its very worst designed to protect incumbent Tammy Fiebelkorn while the departing city councilor Pat Davis thumbs his nose at his own City Council District 6.
If Fiebelkorn wants to represent the Nob Hill area by excluding a large portion of her own existing district, or for that matter wants to represent the International District and speak for the marginalized, she had no business running for City Council District 7 a few months ago. She now wants to gut the district she represents, jettison a large portion of the district and raid another council district for supporters.
City Councilor Fiebelkorn said of the Davis/ Fiebelkorn concept map submitted would give the International District’s “large, culturally significant population” a more united voice on the council, yet she does not represent them. She said she thinks International District residents may have more in common with residents just north of Lomas than with the current district that includes Nob Hill, which she called a “completely different demographic.”
Fiebelkorn said this:
“One of the baselines of redistricting is that we find ways to make marginalized communities have a voice. … I want … what would be the best to make sure everybody is represented in a fair and equitable way. … we [must] find ways to make marginalized communities have a voice. … [and give] large, culturally significant populations [a more united voice on the council].”
Fiebelkorn is not talking about her own district when she says she wants to help the marginalized. She is referring to the International District, a minority area she does not want to be included in her own new district. Fiebelkorn does not currently represent the Nob Hill area, yet she is now advocating just that by cutting it out and placing it in District 7 ignoring those she currently is supposed to be representing. Simply put, Fiebelkorn wants to “raid” District 6 and absorb the highly progressive Nob Hill area, knowing full well it will increase her own reelection chances.
City Councilor Pat Davis for his part had this to say about the proposed Davis/ Fiebelkorn map:
“I think we should have some different voices on the City Council. … If you look at it now, the entire east side of the city is represented by white folks, and I think that shows the current districting is leaving some people out of the process.”
Pat Davis needs to look into a mirror and while he is at it tell Tammy Fiebelkorn that she is not a woman of color. They are both one of those “white folks” that Davis complains about. Both pretend to know “marginalized communities” and stick their noses into minority issues when they both can be considered “white privilege”. Councilor Davis has said he is not likely running for a third term and inclined to honor his commitment to only run for two terms.”
Both City Councilors Pat Davis and Tammy Fiebelkorn act like the city council districts they represent are their personal property they can carve up and pick and choose who they want to represent. They show a definite lack of respect for the constituents who put them in office reflecting a lack of understanding what public service is all about.
Fiebelkorn should resign now from the City Council so she can move into District 6 and run next year to replace Pat Davis. As far as Pat Davis is concerned, he should also resign so that a person who really wants to represent the district can be appointed, perhaps a person of color and not some “white folk” or some self-righteous “white privilege dude”
Pete Dinelli is a native of Albuquerque. He is a licensed New Mexico attorney with 27 years of municipal and state government service including as an assistant attorney general, assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes, city of Albuquerque deputy city attorney and chief public safety officer, Albuquerque city councilor, and several years in private practice. Dinelli publishes a blog covering politics in New Mexico: www.PeteDinelli.com.