Maine Overview

Redistricting Process: Maine is one of the last states to conduct redistricting—its deadline is not until the third year after the census. Therefore, it is legally possible that Maine’s redistricting plan will not be implemented for the 2012 general election.

In Maine, congressional and state legislative redistricting begin in the Advisory Apportionment Commission. The Advisory Apportionment Commission is a hybrid model, comprised of both private citizens and public officials. The speaker of the House of Representatives and the House minority leader each appoint three members of the legislature. The Senate majority and minority leaders appoint a further two legislators each. The state chairpersons of each major party or their private citizen designates join the commission, bringing its total to 12. Each party’s six members on the commission appoint a private citizen. These two private citizens in turn choose a third member of the public, rounding out the commission at 15 members.

The commission submits a plan to the state legislature, which then has thirty days to consider the plan or enact a plan of its own. The Apportionment Commission serves an advisory function, since the legislature is under no legal obligation to implement the Commission’s plan. The final plan must pass the legislature by a two-thirds majority, and is subject to veto by the governor. This confluence of factors presents a challenge to the legislature to pass a plan by the thirty-day deadline. If this deadline is not met, redistricting authority is passed to the Maine Supreme Court, which is what occurred in the 2001-2002 redistricting cycle. In the end, the court made very few changes to the existing redistricting plan, switching just seven communities from one congressional district to the other. Maine’s relative demographic and political homogeneity generally reduces the amount of conflict over redistricting.

Governor: Republican Paul LePage

Legislature: Republicans control both chambers.

Number of Congressional Seats in 2011: 2 (no change from 2010)

2011 Ideal District Population: 664,181