Wednesday, December 5, 2001
|
Wednesday, December 5, 2001 |
| Local GOPers
condemn 'splatter art' redistricting of House, Senate
By DAVE HAMRICK
Georgia has been carved up into something resembling a "war zone," state Rep. Lynn Westmoreland said in a town hall meeting in Fayette last week. Westmoreland, a Coweta Republican who represents part of Fayette and is the minority leader in the House, is traveling the state and plans to have town hall meetings in every county to explain how each will be affected by the recently completed redrawing of state Legislature and U.S. Congress seats. About 30 local Republicans, and a few Democrats, showed up at a 7:30 a.m. Fayette meeting last week to hear how the local political scene will be affected. A special session of the Legislature redrew the districts this past summer to account for population changes revealed in the 2000 U.S. Census. "You've got to understand that reapportionment is a political process," Westmoreland told the group, adding that he is "trying not to be partisan" in the informational sessions. But he didn't quite succeed in holding in his opinions as he lectured the crowd using about a dozen different maps to show all the changes. "It's hard to believe that a grown person drew this," he said, pointing to the new congressional district map. "In the next reapportionment [in 2011], if Republicans are in charge, I hope we will take our oath seriously about doing something for the benefit of Georgia, and won't do something like this here," he added. Westmoreland said that before the reapportionment process began last summer, state Republican leaders canvassed the state asking for citizen input before submitting their proposals for new districts. There were 50 to 60 speakers at each forum, he said, adding, "We didn't have any of them say, 'Split the precincts in our county;' we didn't have any of them say, 'Put in multi-member districts. ... Disenfranchise our cities from our counties ...' They said, 'Don't do it in secret.'" On day one of the session, Westmoreland said, Republicans submitted about 20 proposed maps. "Democrats submitted zero maps," he said. On the days when the final maps were approved, he said, the maps devised by Democratic Party leaders were revealed and voted on in one day with no chance for public input. "The Democrats have had control of Georgia for 130 years," Westmoreland said, "yet it took them only 60 days to carve Georgia up into what looks like a war zone." Most of his remarks were directed toward changes that affect Fayette County, but to illustrate his opinion on the "partisan" nature of the redistricting, Westmoreland pointed out places all over the state where he said slender fingers of land had been extended from one district into other districts in order to incorporate the address of a sitting Republican into the district of another, or into a district with a vast Democratic majority. In many cases, similar strips of land were incorporated in districts in order to pick up small sections of black population to bolster voting strength in Democratic districts. He pointed to a bridge of land that he said is 700 feet wide and two miles long connecting two former districts. In drawing districts for the U.S. Congress, Westmoreland accused Democrats of having only one criterion "six districts with 54 percent Democratic performance" in previous elections. The result, he said, is a new 8th District in which incumbent 3rd District Rep. Mac Collins, who represents Fayette, will have to run as a non-incumbent because of the change in number, and a district that meanders around other districts in such a confusing fashion that "Mac needs to buy him a GPS [global positioning system] so he'll know if he's in the district." New multi-member state House districts will be so large that they'll double or triple the cost of running for office there, Westmoreland said. The mostly Republican audience nodded knowingly as Westmoreland characterized the redistricting as blatantly partisan, and one woman, who did not identify herself, said the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Gov. Roy Barnes. "He gets an 'F' in geography and a 'needs improvement' in getting along with others," she said. "I've seen splatter art that's better than this."
|
||