By Katie Orr
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A day after the new city council district map was approved, Councilwoman Marti Emerald announced she’ll run for the new ninth district. That leaves her current seventh-district seat up for grabs. Political Scientist Carl Luna said Emerald has a better shot in the more Democratic ninth district versus the seventh, where she faced a strong challenge last election.
He said this new map could balance out the city council, potentially giving it five Democrats and four Republicans, which would be a good shift for the GOP.
“They could have a good chance of picking up the seventh district, with the Democrats holding onto the new ninth district,” he said. “But dealing more likely with a Republican mayor, it would be to their advantage to have more Republicans on the council.”
Luna said a shift toward the right is a bit counterintuitive since the number of registered Democrats in the city is increasing. District 7 is not the only one seeing change. Luna said Councilman Todd Gloria might face a tougher race in the reformed third district, which lost City Heights and gained Downtown, among other changes.