At least for a moment, have some empathy for the pols.

The state Capitol was filled Tuesday with an array of groups having their lobbying days: folks from electric co-ops, firefighters and adolescents. All of these people wanted time with their legislators.

And all the legislators really wanted to do was to hole up and study the redistricting maps and the details that trickled in so painfully slowly from the courts.

The big-picture maps arrived promptly over computer screens at about 1 p.m.

Republicans and DFLers both could claim advantages as the maps drawn by the courts became clearer.

DFL hails plan as ‘fair’; GOP more cautious

It should be noted that the DFL was quick to label the new map as “fair.” Republicans were showing reluctance to go that far. Off the top, then, that would seem to indicate that the early thinking has the advantage possibly tipping toward the DFL.

But this much is clear instantly: There will be big changes in the makeup of the Senate and the House following the November elections.

But redistricting is all about details. The maps that showed specific landmarks — such as streets — were “gummed up” in the system, meaning that for some time legislators were peering at maps that left them begging for so much more information.

And all the while, there were meetings with busloads of people who were making a day of it at the Capitol.

To round out the bizarreness of the day, the owners of the Vikings showed up for a meeting with Gov. Mark Dayton in still another round of the team’s quest for public support for a stadium.

The arrival of Vikings officials created a mob of reporters outside the governor’s office. They were waiting for a few sound bites on the newest chapter of the Vikings’ story. (The newest chapter is pretty much the same as the dozen previous chapters.)

State Sen. Ted Lillie

Sen. Ted Lillie, R-Lake Elmo, looked at the mass of media waiting for its daily Vikings fix and shook his head.

“I think legislators have Vikings fatigue,” he said. “Nothing can happen until there’s a bill.”

Lillie was among those politicians who had a tough day at the office Tuesday. The first-term senator, who has quickly risen to a leadership position within his caucus, was among those politicians whose world changed big-time with the redistricting map.

“I lose most of Woodbury,’’ he said of his old district. “Now I’m paired with Sen. Vandeveer. I’ve got to say, I didn’t see this coming.”

Ray Vandeveer, a Republican from Forest Lake, has been winning legislative elections since 1998.

“He’s a good senator, a trusted friend,” said Lillie. “I’m not sure what we’ll do. We haven’t had an opportunity to talk at all yet.”

The Lillie-Vanderveer story — colleague vs. colleague — was being told over and over Tuesday as the legislative maps became clearer.

23 districts pair incumbents

The new Minnesota political map creates 23 paired seats, eight in the Senate, 15 in the House.

In the Senate, there are four districts pairing Republican incumbents, two pairing DFLers and, technically, two districts pairing DFL and GOP incumbents. (In at least one of those cases, though, the DFL incumbent, Gary Kubly of Granite Falls, who is being weakened by ALS, already had announced this would be his last session. That means Sen. Joe Gimse will not be running against an incumbent.)

In the House, six districts pair Republicans and six pair DFLers. There also are three districts pairing DFLer and Republican incumbents.

In general terms, representation was diluted in each of the corners of the state and from the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. In the process, there was ever more gain in the suburbs, particularly the outer suburbs.

That big picture surprised no one, because that’s where more and more Minnesotans are living.

But if the big picture offered no surprises, those individuals stories offered huge surprises, some of them painful.

Take the case of Sen. Mary Jo McGuire, the DFLer from Falcon Heights.

A decade ago, McGuire a 14-year state rep, lost her seat in the redistricting process to her close friend, Alice Hausman. Last year, McGuire decided to return to elective politics, won a special election and moved into the state Senate.

When the map showed up on her computer screen, McGuire shook her head in disbelief.

“I first misread the map, and it was really bad,” said McGuire.

She laughed.

“Then, I read the map correctly, and it was really bad,” she said.

The new political map shows that McGuire is now paired with longtime DFL friend John Marty.

“I’m going to go home and sleep on it and hope when I wake up it turns out that this was all a bad dream,” McGuire said at the end of her long day.

But, of course, it isn’t a dream — although it must be said that being struck twice by redistricting lightning is a lot of bad luck.

Stepping out of the race against Hausman a decade ago was an easy decision, McGuire said, because the way that redistricting map had been drawn, it clearly was Hausman’s district.

This time, it doesn’t seem so clear to McGuire.

Lots of personal decisions ahead

“I’m not going to make any decision yet,” she said of whether she’ll step aside as a bow to Marty’s eight terms in the Senate. “We agree on most big policy issues. We’re friends. Both of us love our work. We both can’t do it.”

There isn’t a great deal of empathy for politicians who lose their jobs by most in the public. That’s probably unfair to pols. Yes, they can be overbearing, over-partisan, overflowing with self-importance.

But on a one-to-one basis, most legislators are just people who like their work.

Redistricting is going to equal pink slips for many, including a mix of rookies and old-timers. The judges doing the mapping clearly didn’t discriminate based on the size of the name or seniority.

For example, Matt Dean, the House majority leader from Dellwood, is paired against fellow Republican Carol McFarlane from White Bear Lake.

On the DFL side, Rep. Jean Wagenius, a 13-termer from safe south Minneapolis, suddenly finds herself paired against fellow DFLer Linda Slocum, a three-termer from Richfield.

The most intriguing Senate pairing matches two Republicans — Julie Rosen of Fairmont and one of those first-term wonders, Al DeKruif of Madison Lake. Rosen has been the Senate lead on that publicly unpopular Vikings stadium issue. Will that come to haunt her if she and DeKruif end up going head to head in a primary?

So many strange things happen on Redistricting Day. For example, Hausman, a 12-term DFLer from St. Paul, didn’t get paired with any incumbent, but her whole district changed. She lost virtually all of her current district and picked up the district of DFLer Mindy Greiling, who previously had announced this would be her last session.

Some could attempt to preserve political careers by moving — in some cases, only a few blocks.

Sen. Ken Kelash, DFL-Minneapolis, now is paired with DFL Sen. Scott Dibble. Kelash could avoid a primary with the popular Dibble by moving only a couple of blocks south into his boyhood home of Richfield.  But 25 years ago, Kelash, a carpenter by trade, built the home he and his family live in. That’s not a decision reached quickly – though legislative caucuses begin in only a few weeks.

Through all of this, the legislators were doing their best to smile at all those constituents who were having their big day at the Capitol. In most cases, meanwhile, the co-op members, the firefighters and the kids weren’t particularly interested in the once-a-decade, insider drama of redistricting.