Wednesday, August 22, 2001
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Wednesday, August 22, 2001 |
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Redistricting round 2: Bell rings today By DAVE
HAMRICK
With Republican lawmakers still seething over last week's passage of new state Legislature districts that they consider unfair, a new special legislative session begins today to redraw districts for Georgia's U.S. representatives. Because the state's population has grown, Georgia will have two new congressional seats for a total of 13, and the Legislature's task will be to divide the population as evenly as possible among the districts. State Sen. Greg Hecht, who represents north Fayette and east Clayton in the 34th District, is hoping that, when the dust settles, there will be a new south metro district that will favor him in a run for Congress. He has raised over $100,000 in anticipation of a possible run, but told The Citizen he won't formally announce until he sees how the districts shape up. Hecht said Tuesday that the talk around the state offices is that the congressional redistricting process will be even more acrimonious than redrawing the state House and Senate districts was. "Special sessions get worse and worse the longer you go along," he said. Hecht, the lone Democrat in Fayette's legislative delegation, voted for the state redistricting maps, while Republicans Sen. Mitch Seabaugh and Reps. Kathy Cox and Lynn Westmoreland voted against. The new maps place north Fayette in a huge four-member House district that includes most of south Fulton County, and Cox will be in a two-member district that has three sitting Republican representatives living in it. A small part of Fayette also is in a new Senate district that stretches over six counties. The county, currently represented by a four-member delegation, will have a delegation of six House members and three senators. Hecht defended the changes, saying Fayette will be more influential in the Legislature with more representatives to call on. (Hecht's detailed defense of the new maps is on the Opinion page, 4A, in today's Citizen. Rep. Cox's speech in opposition to the maps starts on Page 5A.) His Senate colleague, Seabaugh, told The Citizen he pleaded with Hecht to vote against the maps. "I know Fayette County was very unhappy about those maps," Seabaugh said. "I tried." Seabaugh also spoke on the Senate floor, saying the redistricting plan that was passed "does not unite people or communities it divides." "We had the opportunity to demonstrate positive leadership ... and work together to come up with a map that would minimize the effect on communities," Seabaugh said later, adding he believes the U.S. Justice Department will reject the maps. Republicans will ask the Justice Department to reject the maps on grounds that they violate the Voting Rights Act, which forbids redistricting that dilutes black voting strength. Failing that, they have vowed to file lawsuits. Meanwhile, sitting congressmen will be watching this week's redistricting process with intense interest to see what their chances are of reelection in the new districts. Hecht said he believes both the House and Senate reapportionment committees will submit proposed new congressional district maps, both of which will go through numerous changes in committee before being passed by the two bodies. Then the final House and Senate maps will go to a conference committee that will hammer out a single, final map, he predicted.
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