(Updated: Tuesday 10:30 a.m.) The House members of the Reapportionment Committee were able to reach agreement Monday on how the lines for the 151 House Districts will be drawn, but the state Senate and Congressional Districts remain a work-in-progress.
Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, said Tuesday that the Senate has been unable to reach agreement on how the lines should be drawn, but it’s not for lack of trying. He said the group even met on Sunday of the Thanksgiving holiday.
He said there are agreements on pieces of Senate districts, but “you don’t have anything until you have everything.”
There are some significant sticking points and ultimately the group is trying to come up with agreement on some basic level of fairness, but they can’t agree on what’s fair for both sides, McKinney said. He said there seems to be too much concern about individual incumbents than political fairness.
As far as the five Congressional districts are concerned, McKinney said there’s a good argument to be made that the map they came up with 10 years ago when they were forced to merge two of the districts wouldn’t stand up in a court of law today.
The merger of the 5th and 6th districts, “I don’t think anyone could look at that map and defend it politically,” McKinney said. “It’s gerrymandered.”
He said the commission should be looking at the best way to redraw those districts for the entire state and he’s proposed creating a minority influenced district.
But the commission hasn’t gotten that far and it’s not likely to get there since sources say the Congressional Districts haven’t even been discussed by the nine member commission.
Sources say the commission will meet Wednesday to vote on what it has completed, which up until this point is only the lines for the 151 House districts.
The group has until Wednesday, Nov. 30 to reach a decision. At least five members will have to approve of the district lines in order for it to pass. So far the commission has yet to release the agreed upon House District maps.
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