A day late, but not a redistricting plan short, or so says Keen. - Redistricting chances better than even, GOP leader Keen says on Monday afternoon.
The AP's Dick Pettys reports that House Majority Leader Jerry Keen of St. Simons said Monday that chances are better-than-even and "moving up" that lawmakers will draw a new congressional district map this year.
As reflected in the 2-9-05 post, Keen has been a big advocate of redistricting currently, and has been more optimistic than some other Republicans that it would occur this legislative session.
"There has been at least consensus that perhaps we should address the congressional maps. How we do that, we're working through," Keen told reporters Monday afternoon.
The current maps feature an assortment of bizarre shapes and were drawn in 2001 when Democrats were in control of the statehouse. They admitted they designed the districts to help them elect more Democrats to Congress.
Currently the state has seven Republican and six Democratic members of Congress.
With both houses of the Legislature now under GOP control, some Republican congressmen are pressing state lawmakers to change the map, hoping that will make their next election campaigns easier.
"I don't think there's any secret we've looked at two or three maps," Keen said. "Our chairman has been working on a map."
Keen said the first step would be to pass a "principles of redistricting" resolution through the House which would spell out the rules for making any changes to the map.
The resolution likely would specify that districts should be compact, contiguous and avoid bizarre shapes, as Republicans have contended for years.
"If that goes through the House and people buy into that, then I think the next step would be to go ahead and begin looking at the possibility of changing the map," he said.
All that could fall apart if the Senate balks, he said.
And as noted in the above-noted post, Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens has continually cast doubt on the idea of redrawing the map this year
"There's no reason to go through the exercise of redistricting in one chamber if the other chamber's not on board. If we introduce a map, it would be with the intention that both chambers are going to debate it."
Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, the Senate redistricting chairman, said, "I do know there has been discussion about it. But no definite decision has been made."
With the session not yet half over, Keen said there is plenty of time for lawmakers to take up redistricting, "as long as we get moving this week."
Waiting until next year is not an option, he said, because there wouldn't be enough time before the election cycle began to get approval of the changes from the U.S. Department of Justice.
As reflected in the 2-9-05 post, Keen has been a big advocate of redistricting currently, and has been more optimistic than some other Republicans that it would occur this legislative session.
"There has been at least consensus that perhaps we should address the congressional maps. How we do that, we're working through," Keen told reporters Monday afternoon.
The current maps feature an assortment of bizarre shapes and were drawn in 2001 when Democrats were in control of the statehouse. They admitted they designed the districts to help them elect more Democrats to Congress.
Currently the state has seven Republican and six Democratic members of Congress.
With both houses of the Legislature now under GOP control, some Republican congressmen are pressing state lawmakers to change the map, hoping that will make their next election campaigns easier.
"I don't think there's any secret we've looked at two or three maps," Keen said. "Our chairman has been working on a map."
Keen said the first step would be to pass a "principles of redistricting" resolution through the House which would spell out the rules for making any changes to the map.
The resolution likely would specify that districts should be compact, contiguous and avoid bizarre shapes, as Republicans have contended for years.
"If that goes through the House and people buy into that, then I think the next step would be to go ahead and begin looking at the possibility of changing the map," he said.
All that could fall apart if the Senate balks, he said.
And as noted in the above-noted post, Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens has continually cast doubt on the idea of redrawing the map this year
"There's no reason to go through the exercise of redistricting in one chamber if the other chamber's not on board. If we introduce a map, it would be with the intention that both chambers are going to debate it."
Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, the Senate redistricting chairman, said, "I do know there has been discussion about it. But no definite decision has been made."
With the session not yet half over, Keen said there is plenty of time for lawmakers to take up redistricting, "as long as we get moving this week."
Waiting until next year is not an option, he said, because there wouldn't be enough time before the election cycle began to get approval of the changes from the U.S. Department of Justice.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 6:52 PM
1 Comments:
You know--I wouldn't be too upset to see some kind of reform in the way the state chooses its congressional districts. Unfortunately, I doubt I'd be too happy with any of the "reforms" that would pass through the current legislature.
I think it'd be great if there were some kind of non-partisan panel that decided these things based on objective criteria.
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