Friday, August 17, 2001
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Friday, August 17, 2001 |
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Westmoreland's district will remain mostly unchanged By DAVE
HAMRICK And JOHN
THOMPSON
East Coweta state Rep. Lynn Westmoreland's district will remain relatively unchanged under a redistricting plan approved by the state House of Representatives Wednesday. Coweta also didn't suffer the fate of many counties, being placed in huge districts represented by two, three or four representatives. State legislators are meeting in special session to redraw district boundaries to account for shifts in population, an exercise repeated every ten years following the U.S. Census. Republicans have vowed to fight Democrats in court over both the House and Senate redistricting plans. The Senate approved its plan last Friday, leaving East Coweta Sen. Mitch Seabaugh's district also relatively untouched. The House and Senate must now approve each other's plans, and if there are any proposed changes, those details will have to be ironed out in a conference committee before final adoption. Placing representatives in multi-member districts is a practice that was common in Georgia politics in the '70s and '80s, but dropped in 1991 in response to federal concerns that it had been used in the past to dilute black voting strength. Westmoreland, who is the House minority leader, said he is happy with his new district, but not happy with the overall plan. For instance, north Fayette County is tied into a two-member district that dips into the Atlanta city limits and includes most of south Fulton County. Fayette's interests are not compatible with those in Atlanta, and the new 49th district makes no sense, Westmoreland said. "We're a suburban community," he said, adding that the whole process is "a raw deal for Fayette and Coweta counties." In the Senate districts, Fayette is tied in with Riverdale. "There's nothing wrong with Riverdale, but every zoning meeting I've attended, people have said they don't want to look like Riverdale," Westmoreland said. He also suggested that Democrats may have intended to pit him against 105th District Rep. Kathy Cox for reelection, but missed. His new district stops just across the street from Cox's Peachtree City house. "I guess they gave me a great district to cause dissension within my caucus," he added. Under the plan, Cox would have to run for reelection in a new district that includes south Fayette along with parts of three other counties: Henry, Spalding and Butts. More importantly, she would be running for one of two seats in a district that includes three sitting Republican representatives, herself, John Yates (current 106th) and John Lunsford (current 109th). Yates will no longer represent Coweta under the plan. "It's unbelievable," Cox said Monday afternoon. "What they're doing is packing Republicans into these multi-member districts and pitting us against each other." The new 84th District would be twice as large as current House districts, as large as the average Senate district with about 95,000 people, Cox said, adding that her biggest concern is the amount of money that would be required to run for the multi-member seats. All candidates in a multi-member district would run district-wide. "This would double and triple the cost of campaigning," she said. "Everybody is upset already about the money in politics. Now you have a Democrat-controlled Legislature making it hard for people to run for office. How are regular people supposed to get in there and get involved in politics? "It goes against the grain of everything our form of government is supposed to stand for," added Cox, who teaches government in high school. Democrats defend the plan, saying multi-member districts will give counties more voice and more representation. When cities and counties approach the state for funding for projects or help with issues, they'll have more than one representative to plead their case, Democrats say. Once the Legislature finishes with the House and Senate districts and reapportions county commission and board of education seats throughout the state, the next task will be to draw new districts for U.S. Congress seats. Because Georgia's population has increased, the state will have two additional congressional seats, a total of 13.
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