Republicans in the House of Delegates, as well as some Democrats, say a commission would take some of the politics out of the process.

Delegate Patrick Lane, a Kanawha County Republican, unsuccessfully proposed measures to create a commission during lawmakers' two redistricting special sessions this month.

"We as legislators are political creatures," Lane said. "So rightly or wrongly, we have a tendency to look to the next election and how do we maintain our seat."

Most lawmakers also look out for their friends' seats, he said.

Democrats control both the House and the state Senate.

Lane and House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, another Kanawha County Republican, say that GOP delegates will try to push the issue again in next year's regular legislative session.

Lawmakers use U.S. census figures every 10 years to draw new political boundaries that account for population change.

Thirteen states have commissions that are primarily responsible for legislative redistricting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seven have these commissions for congressional redistricting.

Other states have commissions that advise lawmakers on how to draw legislative lines. And others have "back-up" commissions if lawmakers fail to meet redistricting deadlines.

States vary widely in the way they've set up these redistricting commissions, from their size to who serves on them, said Tim Storey, a redistricting expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"Some of them are very partisan," he said. "Some of them are less partisan."

For instance, Storey said, "in Arkansas, the commission is the governor, the secretary of state and the attorney general -- all three elected partisan officials."

California's Citizens Redistricting Commission, created after voters approved a 2008 ballot initiative, is the most unusual in the nation, Storey said.

The 14-member commission, which draws both legislative and congressional lines, must include five Democrats, five Republicans, and four people from neither party. 

Commission members cannot have any conflict of interest. They cannot have run for or served in any public office, worked as a lobbyist, or contributed $2,000 or more to a candidate in any one year.

The California commission's work hasn't escaped criticism. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is considering legal action, saying the new districts don't give Latinos enough representation. Republicans want a ballot referendum to overturn the new state Senate lines.

Under Lane's proposal for a West Virginia redistricting commission, the governor when new census data is released would appoint seven members to the commission.

No more than four could be of the same political party. The commission would draft a redistricting bill, which lawmakers would have to use "as a starting point," Lane said. 

It's virtually impossible to take all the politics out of redistricting, said Greg Rabidoux, director of redistricting for Common Cause, a national nonprofit group that advocates for open government. 

"This is one of the most partisan-driven politicized processes we do," he said.

With redistricting commissions, "you're going to have people who are going to try to influence it either directly or indirectly," he said, as well as people who challenge the commission's decisions. "But certainly you can try to sever some of the obvious formal ties to politics."

When legislators draw their own lines, they can make their own districts noncompetitive, or carve out districts that pit their opponents against each other, Rabidoux said.

"[Redistricting] impacts so much, not only who's in office, but the quality of bills over the next 10 years," he said.

Delegate Virginia Mahan, a Summers County Democrat, said it might be hard to make redistricting totally apolitical, but thinks there must be a better alternative to the way the process is now. 

"I don't know how you take the politics out of politics, so to speak, but this process is beyond flawed," she said of how legislators handled redistricting this year.

Mahan has participated in two redistricting cycles in her 15 years at the Statehouse.  

"And I've had enough already," she said. "It's just entirely too political. It can be manipulated by a handful of people with little regard for any public input. I know from my part of the state, there was a lot of public input and it was largely, if not totally, ignored."

But Democratic leaders in the House and state Senate say that while they're open to discussion, they aren't very keen on the idea of creating a redistricting commission.

"I have some concerns about it just on the surface," said House Majority Leader Brent Boggs, D-Braxton, who led the House redistricting committee this year.

For instance, Lane's proposal to let the governor appoint the commissioners would give the governor too much influence over the redistricting process, Boggs said.

Senate Majority Leader John Unger, who led redistricting efforts in the Senate, had similar thoughts.

"When you say an independent commission, how independent is it?" said Unger, D-Berkeley. "Those people are going to be answering up to someone and it's not going to be the public; it's going to be the person that appointed them."

Unger was one of only a few state senators who opposed the Legislature's congressional redistricting plan, saying it was an "incumbency protection plan." But he is still wary of creating a commission.

Lawmakers can use commissions to "pass the buck," Unger said.

He pointed to the state commission that recommends lawmakers' pay increases, saying it was created "so that we as legislators can hide behind their recommendations."

"The reason the Legislature set that up was because they didn't want to get beat around with recommending their own salary increases," he said. "That doesn't sit well with the public."

Boggs and Unger said they think that making the legislative process as transparent as possible is the best way to improve redistricting.

They also said it would be better to discuss the issue during the regular legislative session, when there's more time for debate.

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.