By Sid Salter
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Back in 1990, Mississippi lawmakers could not reach consensus on drawing new state legislative districts because of concerns over the House speaker's election that would follow the 1991 general election and the racial makeup of legislative districts.
The result? The Legislature was forced to run in their old legislative districts in the 1991 general election and again in new legislative districts in a 1992 special election.
The 2010 Legislature would love to avoid a repeat of that maddening bit of history. In economic hard times - with state government finances reeling from revenue shortfalls and suffering under deep budget cuts - lawmakers really don't want to have to face the voters twice in back-to-back elections.
The general anti-incumbent mood that seems to grip the country right now and voter anger over what they consider wasteful spending makes that prospect less than desirable for state legislative incumbents.
To that end, legislative leaders guiding the state's congressional and legislative redistricting efforts want desperately to avoid having federal judges eventually take over the process. That can only happen if the majority of both the state House and state Senate can agree on a redistricting plan.
Leading that daunting task are House Elections Committee Chairman Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, and Senate Elections Committee Chairman Terry C. Burton, R-Newton. Reynolds has one of the keenest legislative backgrounds on state election law and the redistricting process and Burton is an able, veteran senator who is trusted and respected.
One positive note is that congressional redistricting isn't the bombshell it was after the 2000 Census. Mississippi isn't projected to be losing a congressional seat as it did in 2000, so redrawing the state's congressional lines should be a matter of tweaking the existing lines.
But remapping state legislative district lines aren't going to be that simple. Why? Because of intense population growth, heavily Republican DeSoto County is set to gain two state representatives and one state senator. Other GOP enclaves like Madison and Rankin counties made substantial population gains as well.
The Mississippi Delta suffered substantial population decreases. Hinds County lost some 3,000 residents. Harrison and Hancock counties on the Gulf Coast saw losses as well.
What the numbers appear to suggest is that while the number of black majority legislative districts should remain static, the redrawing of the districts to accommodate urban and suburban growth will pit members of the Black Caucus and rural white lawmakers against each other.
That apparent political reality sets up potential partisan havoc in a House speaker's race that will be required after the 2011 elections.
What does that mean? It means that despite the very best efforts of Reynolds and Burton and the general agreement among legislators in both houses from both parties that nobody wants to face the voters twice in back-to-back elections, that outcome may well prove politically unavoidable.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended voting rights to minority groups. The key sections included Section 4 - providing for automatic coverage of jurisdictions with low minority voter participation - and Section 5, which required Justice Department preclearance of all voting law changes, prescribed federal examiners to guarantee the right to vote and federal monitors to observe elections.
Mississippi elections have been inextricably intertwined in Justice Department preclearance and monitoring for more than 45 years and those safeguards remain today.
Contact Sid Salter at (601) 961-7084 or e-mail ssalter@clarionledger.com. Visit his blog at clarionledger.com. His talk radio show, On Deadline with Sid Salter, is broadcast on the SuperTalk Mississippi network.
