Tagged: redistricting

The House State Government committee has advanced a new redistricting map to the House floor after weeks of closed door debate.

Last year's state House and Senate districts were ruled unconstitutional by the Kentucky Supreme Court after House GOP members challenged them in court. The new House districts would create seven new districts all across Kentucky, where no current lawmakers reside. 

Those districts are: 

• House District 1 -- Fulton, Hickman Carlisle and Ballard counties, with parts of Graves County. 
• House District 19 -- Warren County/Bowling Green
• District 36   -- East Louisville
• District 49 -- Bullitt County
• District 54 -- Anderson, Shelby and part of Bullitt county
• District 88 -- Fayette County/Lexington
• District 96 -- Powell, Estill and part of Madison county.
  

Despite a request from Gov. Steve Beshear to put off redistricting until later this year, state House Speaker Greg Stumbo is moving forward with getting proposals on the divisive issue.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports Stumbo sent a letter to House members asking them to submit proposed boundaries for new legislative districts by Feb. 1.

Stumbo said after the proposals come in, lawmakers would decide whether to try to tackle redistricting during the 2013 General Assembly, which resumes on Feb. 5 and is set to end March 26. Rep. Tommy Thompson, a Democrat from Owensboro, told WKU Public Radio he hopes lawmakers take up redistricting this year instead of putting it off until 2014, when House and Senate elections will be held.

Gov. Steve Beshear is urging legislative leaders to delay General Assembly redistricting.

In a letter to House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President Robert Stivers, the governor says he’d like them to hold off redistricting in the 2013 legislative session and instead take up other important issues, such as pension and tax reforms.

Beshear is opening the door to handling redistricting in a special session instead, because the issue tends to cause hard feelings after lawmakers see their districts changing.

“If we drop redistricting on top of all of that, it might well create such turmoil that we couldn’t get anything done,” Beshear says.

Lawmakers must still re-draw their own districts — after the Kentucky Supreme Court threw out maps drawn in 2012 — calling them unconstitutional. Redistricting of Congressional districts is already finished.