Tag: redistricting

Republicans introduce proposed redistricting map for Kansas House, Democrats on hold

Rural-to-urban shift requires House, Senate power shift to Johnson County

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The redistricting showdown between majority Republicans and minority Democrats shifted Monday to the House with introduction of the GOP’s map accommodating a decade’s worth of rural-to-urban population shift and adhering to the quest for partisan political advantage.

The House GOP map of 125 districts introduced in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee during a 50-second exchange followed last week’s production of proposed Republican and Democratic maps for aligning 40 districts of the Kansas Senate.

Under the Kansas Constitution, state legislators must redraw House, Senate, U.S. House and state Board of Education districts every 10 years to make them roughly equal in population. The Legislature’s controversial map changing the state’s four U.S. House districts is tied up on lawsuits.

Rep. Chris Croft, the Overland Park Republican chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, convened the panel but didn’t dive into details of the proposed House map. It is expected to be posted by 5 p.m. Monday to the Kansas Legislative Research Department’s webpage devoted to redistricting.

“We’re not going to talk about the map right now because there are some discussions that are still ongoing,” Croft said.

He anticipated the committee’s public hearing on the GOP map or alternatives would occur Wednesday followed by committee votes Thursday or Friday. During the committee’s 12-minute meeting Monday, members discussed the potential of renumbering the 125 House districts to restore the traditional sequential assignment of district numbers from low in eastern Kansas to high in western Kansas.

Kansas City, Kansas, Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-33rd Dist., the ranking Democrat on the House committee, said he anticipated Democrats or others would introduce alternative maps for adjustment of House district boundaries.

The incarnation proposed Croft would cannibalize the district served by Rep. Steven Johnson, who is not seeking re-election but campaigning for the GOP nomination as state treasurer.

Johnson’s constituents would be scattered among several other central Kansas districts held by Republicans that lost significant population based on the latest U.S. Census court. This change would allow for a new district in Johnson County, the state’s population magnet.

“I regret that being a byproduct of me running for treasurer,” Johnson said. “Somebody has to go, The fact that I was already gone made that an easier choice.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, D-Overland Park, said the final House map should adhere to the principle that areas of Kansas losing population should have less representation.

“Areas that gain population should gain representation,” said Clayton, a member of the redistricting committee. “People vote, not empty space.”

On Friday, three strategies for redrawing district boundaries for the Kansas Senate were introduced by Senate Republicans, Senate Democrats and the Kansas League of Women Voters. The Senate is expected to have a committee hearing Tuesday on redistricting and move it to the full Senate for a vote.

Under the map endorsed by Senate President Ty Masterson, Sen. Michael Fagg, R-El Dorado, would have to run against Sen. Rick Wilborn, R-McPherson. Wilborn, chair of the Senate Redistricting Committee, may not seek re-election in 2024, which would clear a path for Fagg.

The Senate GOP map would put Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, in the same district with Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora. In addition, a new district would be added in Johnson County and a fourth district would be created in Shawnee County.

Sen. Dinah Sykes, the Lenexa Democrat leader in the Senate, introduced an “Eisenhower” map that would preserve core Senate districts in place since 2012.

“The map we adopt this year will determine the political dynamics of the Kansas Senate for the next decade,” she said. “The Eisenhower map is the product of a fair, collaborative process faithful to the guidelines established by the Legislature. It keeps our districts, and those partisan dynamics, largely the same.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/14/republicans-introduce-proposed-redistricting-map-for-kansas-house-democrats-on-hold/.

Trio of Kansas Senate redistricting maps introduced by committees with little fanfare

Rural-to-urban population shift likely adds to Johnson County delegation

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republicans and Democrats along with a voter advocacy group introduced Thursday three competing redistricting maps outlining new boundaries for the 40 Kansas Senate districts in response to population shifts during the past decade.

The Kansas House has not revealed in bill form maps outlining how the 125 representatives’ districts would be shaped heading into the August primary and November general elections.

The filing deadline for legislative districts is June 1, meaning lawmakers need to proceed deliberately with this work to account for potential political or legal challenges.

The Legislature’s recommended maps for the four congressional districts, initially vetoed by Gov. Laura Kelly, are the subject of three lawsuits in Wyandotte and Douglas counties. There are objections to splitting Wyandotte County’s diverse population between two congressional districts and plucking Lawrence from the 2nd District and moving it to the agrarian 1st District covering western Kansas.

Sen. Rick Billinger, a Republican from Goodland and chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, introduced the Senate leadership’s proposed map during a meeting of his budget committee. It was introduced on behalf of Sen. Rick Wilborn, R-McPherson, and chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee.

The Senate map has a secondary application, because those 40 districts are divided in a manner that creates 10 districts of the Kansas State Board of Education.

Billinger opened the Ways and Means Committee meeting by announcing he was introducing a Senate map. He didn’t share copies of the GOP’s map, which was expected to be published, perhaps by Friday, on the website of the Kansas Legislative Research Department.

“This is the state Senate redistricting plan on behalf of Senator Wilborn and it’s called ‘Liberty 2,’” Billinger said.

“Is this our map we’re going to start with?” asked Sen. Carolyn McGinn, the Sedgwick Republican.

“I believe so,” Billinger said. “They just asked if I would introduce it today.”

In the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, the Democrats’ version of a proposed Senate redistricting map was introduced along with a map created by the Kansas League of Women Voters.

Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, had the chairman introduce “Bluestem Plan” for the Kansas League of Women Voters and the “Eisenhower Plan” on behalf of Democrats. It was done without fanfare and without Sykes present.

“Because of weather, it’s hard for them to get in here today,” said Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican and chairman of the Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Martha Pint, co-president of the Kansas League of Women Voters, said in response to questions for this story that the yearlong process of creating a map involved nine local leagues across the state and contributions from other civic groups.

“As for the impact on current members of the Senate, protection of incumbency is a factor that the league explicitly rejects and does not consider an incumbent’s address in our overall process of creating maps,” Pint said.

The Kansas League of Women Voters is among groups that form the KS Fair Maps coalition. Other members include Equality Kansas, Kansas Action for Children, Kansas Appleseed, Kansas Interfaith Action, the League of Women Voters of Kansas, Loud Light, the Mainstream Coalition, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, which filed a lawsuit in Wyandotte County District Court to challenge a congressional map endorsed by the Legislature earlier this year.

In a statement, KS Fair Maps said the organization would review the maps and look for district boundaries that reflect public testimony, protect communities of interest, and “avoid partisan games that benefit one party over another.”

The statement urged the Legislature to meet the needs of all Kansans and commit to a transparent process.

“In January we witnessed the Legislature unnecessarily rushing the congressional map, and now we have three lawsuits challenging a racially gerrymandered map,” said Laurel Burchfield, a coordinator for KS Fair Maps.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/10/trio-of-kansas-senate-redistricting-maps-introduced-by-committees-with-little-fanfare/

Kansas attorney general asks high court to block redistricting lawsuits

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt wants the Kansas Supreme Court to block a pair of lawsuits challenging the legality of a new congressional map.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Loud Light filed separate lawsuits Monday in Wyandotte County District Court. The lawsuits argue the state constitution’s bill of rights provides protection against political and racial gerrymandering.

In a petition filed Friday, Schmidt asks the state’s highest court to determine whether the U.S. Constitution prevents state courts from considering a challenge to the redistricting of federal congressional maps.

“Plaintiffs’ political gerrymandering claim is not justiciable under the Kansas Constitution,” Schmidt wrote in the petition. “No judicially manageable standard for evaluating such claims exists, Kansas courts have not historically entertained such claims, and the Kansas Constitution has nothing at all to say about political gerrymandering.”

Sharon Brett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said Schmidt’s “argument that Kansas courts are devoid of authority to interpret their own state constitution is without merit.”

“The Kansas Supreme Court can — and indeed should — determine whether legislation passed by the Kansas Legislature violates Kansans state constitutional rights,” Brett said. “To hold otherwise would give this Legislature virtually unchecked power to violate the constitutional rights of Kansans for pure partisan gain. We will vigorously oppose any attempt to strip the Kansas Supreme Court of this important check on legislative overreach.”

This is the first time a redistricting lawsuit has been filed in a Kansas state court.

Traditionally, federal courts have resolved disputes. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, determined in 2019 that partisan gerrymandering claims are beyond the reach of federal courts.

The GOP supermajority in the Legislature adopted a congressional map that divides the Kansas City metro into two districts, and carves Lawrence out of Douglas County to place it in a district that stretches to the Colorado border. The goal of the map is to make it more difficult for the state’s only Democrat in Congress, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, to win re-election.

Schmidt, a Republican, is running against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in this year’s governor’s race.

A map produced by Republicans in the House and Senate would place Lawrence in the 1st District, which stretches to the Colorado border, and split Wyandotte County between 2nd and 3rd districts. (Submitted)

The ACLU of Kansas and Loud Light filed lawsuits on behalf of Kansas City, Kansas, and Lawrence residents who lost voting power in the redrawn map. The northern part of Wyandotte County, which was moved out of Davids’ district, has a majority Black and Latino population.

The legal argument centers on whether the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights contains specific provisions that protect voting rights.

“The constitution says very clearly that all political power is inherent in the people, and that the power of the government is for the people’s equal protection and benefit,” Brett said in an interview when the organization filed its lawsuit. “So each person in the state of Kansas should have equal ability to influence their legislators, elect the electors of their choice, and participate in the essential democracy of our state.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/02/18/kansas-attorney-general-asks-high-court-to-block-redistricting-lawsuits/.