Redistricting full of twists and turns

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August 31, 2010

The Associated Press Associated Press Tue Aug 31, 2010, 06:00 AM CDT

JACKSON —     During Mississippi legislative redistricting in 2002, one state senator and three House members watched their districts get shuffled out of existence.

   In addition, a new House district pitted two incumbent Republicans against each other in the Golden Triangle area in north Mississippi.

   To say the incumbents hurt by the plans were angry is an understatement.

   ‘‘That’s the biggest bunch of horse manure ever invented in this Capitol,’’ said Rep. Tom Cameron, an independent from Greenville, whose district was dissolved into three others.

   Sen. Tim Johnson, a Republican from Madison, saw his central Mississippi district evaporate so northern DeSoto County could gain a seat. Johnson, an Elvis impersonator, delivered a speech that was not only gracious but funny, saying he found it somehow appropriate that even though he wasn’t going to the Memphis suburbs, his district number was.

   ‘‘It does put me a little closer to Graceland,’’ Johnson joked.

   Lawmakers redraw Mississippi’s 122 state House districts and 52 Senate districts every 10 years to accommodate changes revealed by the census.

   The process begins again next year after the state receives the new population count.

   The Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting has been conducting public meetings across Mississippi about redrawing congressional and legislative districts.

   Congressional districts have not been immune from consolidation.

   In 2002, Congressmen Chip Pickering, a Republican, and Ronnie Shows, a Democrat, were forced into the same district when Mississippi lost a U.S. House seat. Pickering won the election.

   Lawmakers are hoping for a less contentious redistricting process.

   Few changes are expected among congressional districts, although the Delta’s 2nd District may have to pick up some population from either the northern 1st or central 3rd.

   Population shifts may have more affect on redrawing legislative districts. But even then, the mood appears to be one of getting along to avoid what occurred after the 1990 Census when lawmakers had to run twice — in 1991 in old districts and 1992 in newly drawn districts.

   ‘‘The motivation that the individual members have — apart from the common good, which is always nice — is that out of self preservation, folks don’t want to do that,’’ said Sen. Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory and former chairman of the Senate Election Committee.

   ‘‘There’s an enormous incentive for members of the Legislature to do it right, and I think they will. I think there’s a growing consensus that we need to have dramatically fewer split precincts than we did last time. And I think we’ll do that.’’

   State Rep. Greg Snowden, a Republican from Meridian, said elections are costly, and in a time when state and local governments are struggling to pay the bills, no one wants to fund election re-do’s.

   Snowden said that splitting precincts was the overwhelming concern expressed by citizens to the legislative committee at a hearing in his hometown.

   Bryan said there are different opinions over whether it is better to leave a county intact or split it up.

   ‘‘Both Jack Gordon and I ran extremely well in Clay County, and both of us were extremely interested in anything we could do for Clay County,’’ Bryan said.

   Clay County is now in the district represented by Sen. Bennie Turner, a Democrat from West Point.

   ‘‘But Sen. Gordon and I still remember all those very kind people in Clay County and we’re still grateful. So, it is not the case that if a county is divided between two districts that is necessarily bad. It depends on how it all plays out,’’ Bryan said.

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