New Minn. legislative maps pair 46 incumbents

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota's new legislative district maps pit 46 incumbents against each other and create 23 open seats.
The new House maps released Tuesday pair 30 incumbents against each other and create 15 open seats. New Senate maps pit 16 incumbents against each other and create eight open seats.

Duluth state lawmakers will get to keep their home districts, but the western Iron Range and Carlton and Pine counties will see some shakeups under the plan.

To the north and east in the new Senate District 3, which wraps around the core Iron Range, Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Tower, will keep most of his old district (including Cook, Lake and eastern St. Louis counties), adding Koochiching County but losing some areas near Duluth. DFL Rep. David Dill of Crane Lake becomes the incumbent in the new District 3A to the north.

Perhaps the area with the most tumult spreads from Grand Rapids to Bemidji and south to Walker, where two old Senate districts — and the four House districts inside them — have been mashed together.

Incumbent lawmakers in paired districts could move into an open district to run for re-election, choose to retire or face another incumbent in the fall election. But, unlike members of Congress who can live anywhere they want, candidates for state Legislature must live in the district they run in for at least six months.