MARK KIESLING: Who lives by the redistricting, dies by the redistricting

There threatens to be a big flap over the redrawing of the Lake County commissioner districts, but I can't figure out why.

Its critics say it is strictly political, that the Republicans have grabbed control of the remapping and are using it to their advantage for the elections following 2013.

But for 2012, the next election in the district most likely to be affected, the boundaries of the 2nd District still favor the Democrats as part of a compromise reached between the two parties.

The election next year will most likely favor either incumbent Democrat Gerry Scheub, of Schererville, or his opponent in the May primary, former Sheriff Roy Dominguez, of Crown Point.

After that, the boundaries will be redrawn in accord with the wishes of Schererville Republican Dan Dumezich, who chaired the redistricting panel and came up with the compromise.

"It's politics!" cry the detractors who see something foul in this, and on this I call baloney.

Hark back to the olden days. Envision Lake County as a rectangle with its top at Lake Michigan and bottom at the Kankakee River, its western border as Illinois and eastern border as Porter County.

At one time, it was cut laterally across the middle, then the top portion was cut in half. This basically guaranteed the Democrats would get the two upper county districts, while the Republicans would get the lower half of the county, a bigger geographic area but more sparsely populated.

That was when you had, for example, Democrats N. Atterson Spann, of East Chicago, and Steve Corey, of Hobart, in the north and Republican Ernie Niemeyer in the south.

Then, Democrats took over redistricting, and slashed the county into three vertical districts, pretty much guaranteeing the Democratic majority in the north would overcome the Republican minority in the south.

And we ended up with what we've got now, three Democratic commissioners.

So now we have Republicans coming up with a plan that will likely restore some check and balance to a board of commissioners that has been Democratic since the last redistricting.

Well, to the detractors I say boo hoo. He who lives by the redistricting also dies by the redistricting, and no one with any political memory should profess shock or outrage at this new look.

To those who say Scheub or Dominguez cannot or will not represent a district just because it has a new Republican majority sells both men woefully short.

Scheub has for many years represented a district with a large Republican constituency. Dominguez has represented the entire county for the last eight years. Let's give both men a little more credit than that.

And to cry about political parties being served rather than voters? Who do you think the voters are?

They're Democrats and Republicans. They are the political parties.

And as long as no one is shortchanged in the deal, there's no more reason to weep over this decision than there was when the Democrats stormed the ramparts and changed the boundaries.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.