Wednesday, August 8, 2001
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Wednesday, August 8, 2001 |
| Demos vote
3-way split for Fayette
By DAVE HAMRICK And JOHN MUNFORD
Fayette residents may never have heard of Mike Crotts, a Republican from Conyers, but many will get to know him better if the state Senate's Reapportionment Committee has its way. If the committee's proposed map of new state Senate districts is approved, Crotts will be the sitting senator in a district that covers parts of six counties, including an unincorporated portion of Fayette between Fayetteville and Starr's Mill. "It's awful ... absolutely awful," said state Rep. Kathy Cox of Peachtree City following Monday's special session of the state Legislature. "I can't believe the audacity of it." Under the proposal, Fayette would be carved up among three Senate districts. Peachtree City and Tyrone would be in the 28th with most of Coweta County, while Brooks and Woolsey would go into the 17th along with parts of Spalding, Henry, Newton, Rockdale and Walton counties. The 17th currently includes Henry, Butts and parts of Newton and Rockdale counties. Crotts, a Republican, was first elected in 1992 and has been reelected twice without opposition. The 34th District would continue to have a portion of north Fayette and western Clayton County with very little change. It is currently represented by Greg Hecht of Jonesboro, a member of the Reapportionment Committee. Hecht voted along with 13 other committee members in favor of the map, but said Monday he had objections that he hopes will be ironed out as the full Senate debates the matter. "I think you'll see a lot of debate on the floor," he said, "probably this week. There were some things that I wanted to try and change, and I spoke to some of the people on the committee about them, and they said they didn't want to change it but it could be changed later," Hecht said. He didn't notice the size and shape of the 17th District, Hecht said, but added it's not unusual for a district to touch six counties. "There are some with nine," he said, but added that the 17th "may be a bad district which will need revision." Following the Senate session Tuesday, Hecht said there was a lot of discussion among members, but no floor debate on the proposed districts. That will come when the map is introduced on the floor, he added. "When the map goes to the floor, I'm sure there will be proposals for amendments, and we may see amendments requested by members of both parties," he added. He also predicted when the districts are finally drawn, there will be lawsuits from individuals in both parties. Cox said that partisanship in the proposed map is obvious. "This is the definition of gerrymandering," Cox said after viewing the proposed map for the first time. "And Fayette's not the only district that will knock your socks off." Members of the Republican Caucus complained that most of the Republican districts drawn by the committee are pushing the maximum population limits allowed by law, limiting their number, while Democratic districts are near and in some cases below the minimum requirement, increasing their number. Hecht said he isn't aware of detailed population numbers on each district, but "I belive the districts [as drawn] prserve most of the present legislative seats." He also disagreed with Republican criticisms that the proposed map violates the federal Voting Rights Act by decreasing minority population in existing districts held by minority members. The committee followed guidelines recently used by the Virginia Legislature in redrawing its district, and the Virginia plan has been approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, he said. State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, who represents part of Fayette County, said he hopes his fellow legislators can come together to develop a better map for the citizens of Georgia. Seabaugh pointed out that 88 counties would be split by districts with the map approved by the committee, while currently only 23 counties are split by districts. "We should be trying to keep counties whole," Seabaugh said. "... Or people won't know who their state senator or state representative is." One of the new districts created stretches across 11 counties from north of Augusta all the way to Macon, Seabaugh noted. That district, currently held by Joey Brush, was being called a tourism district, Seabaugh said. "How can a senator who gets parts of 11 counties really be able to serve all those counties?" Seabaugh said. "I know how difficult I find it just to serve three." Seabaugh said the new map would cause his district to lose the Fayetteville and Woolsey areas while gaining a part of Tyrone and keeping Peachtree City and Brooks. While that isn't ideal for Seabaugh, he admits that other Republican senators fared much worse. "There's no way that even if I'm in the Democratic Party I would vote for it because of the way it was drawn," Seabaugh said. "Not even all Democrats have had an input into this map. When the map vote was taken Monday, the four Republicans on the redistricting committee voted against it. The other 20 members of the committee are Democrats, but some of them walked out or refused to vote.
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