Text: Dear Senator JohnsonMinnesota Senate Building95 West University AvenueSaint Paul, Minnesota 55155I am writing you to express my deep disappointment in the process and maps drafted by theSenate Republican caucus. At the Redistricting Committee hearing on May 11th, you stated: ''Wewant to make sure this is open and fair as possible." Unfortunately, the process that yourcommittee has undertaken has not been as open or as fair as Minnesotans should expect.First, none of the members of the Redistricting Committee - DFL, Republican, or Independent -were able to vote on or amend the redistricting principles used to create your proposed maps. It isnot consistent with your own words, nor is it in the spirit of transparency in the Redistrictingprocess to withhold redistricting principles without allowing members of the committee to voteor offer amendments.Next, the committee has not heard testimony from people hailing from a broad swath ofMinnesota. As a committee, we heard just over two hours of testimony from individualsrepresenting only three regions of the state. This pales in comparison to the numerous hours oftestimony provided to the House over the course of eleven hearings. To have an open,transparent, and fair process, we should have heard testimony from more Minnesotansrepresenting different areas of the state prior to drafting new maps.Finally, it is clear that the wishes of those who did testify were not taken into considerationduring the Republican map drafting process. What testimony did we hear in support of dividingMankato or Northfield into two districts? What testimony did we hear in support of splittingRochester or St Cloud into three districts? It is inevitable that we will need to make difficultdecisions to divide a single community into multiple legislative districts but proposing to splitcommunities without sufficient testimony in support of those proposals is harmful.The DFL members of the Senate Redistricting Committee have been willing and able to meet todiscuss the principles that guide our redistricting process and to consider more testimony fromthe public to ensure that we have the information necessary to draft fair maps. We are committedto empowering Minnesotans to choose their legislators, not the other way around The flawedprocess followed by the Senate Republicans will only further erode the public's trust that ourredistricting process is open and fair.Sincerely,Senator Jason IsaacsonSD 42