The City of Franklin's new districts have been created, at least temporarily, and will be discussed at the Common Council meeting on August 2nd. With the new boundaries, if approved, the Common Council could see new representatives in 2013, since one of the aldermen will be just barely kept in the district he represents, and another could lose what some argue as a significant portion of his voting base.
In the 5th District, Alderman Doug Schmidt was barely kept in his district by a mere few homes, with the properties directly across the street from his residence proposed to be in the 4th District, represented by CCP Steve Taylor.
Meanwhile, the 1st District sees some significant changes, with Forest Meadows Drive splitting multiple subdivisions between the 1st and 2nd Districts. These subdivisions serve as the primary voting bloc for Alderman Steve Olson. In past elections where Alderman Olson had an opponent, Olson's support in those subdivisions proved decisive, as subdivisions in the southern half of his district tended to cast a stronger vote for his opponent. Furthermore, the 1st District now goes eastward, grabbing additional homes and condos that were built between 68th & 76th Streets, which are now represented by CCP Taylor. Since CCP Taylor has represented those residences for 2 terms, and has a knack for knowing as many constituents as possible, it is likely that these new 1st District residences will not heavily support Olson, due to Olson and Taylor disagreeing on many issues.
There also is the 2nd District, represented by Alderman Tim Solomon, that will see significant change in terms of new residences. This will likely be a negative for Alderman Solomon, whom has had no challenger the past two election cycles in which he was up for re-election. If Alderman Olson plans to stick around in Franklin politics and decides to run again in 2013, there could be motivation among those in the homes formerly represented by Olson to challenge Solomon.
Additionally, while the 3rd District boundaries did not change the population and number of households are higher than the other 5 aldermanic districts based on the new Census data. This means the aldermanic representative for the 3rd District will have more doors to knock, additional campaign costs, and less ability to reach out to all constituents in that district.
In closing, the logic on both sides of the fence is to gain as many Council seats as possible. The 2013 elections should prove this to be the case, especially if aldermen like Olson wish to gain additional influences back on the Common Council that are currently predominantly held by the Council bloc influenced by Mayor Taylor.
