EDITORIAL: GOP's turn to draw legislative districts

on May 11, 2012 at 7:10 AM, updated May 11, 2012 at 7:13 AM

Lawmakers are expected to return to Montgomery next week to redraw the boundaries of their 105 seats in the House and 35 in the Senate.

But it would be more accurate to say that Republican lawmakers, who have controlled both houses since November 2010, will determine what Alabama's legislative map will look like for a decade. This exercise is called redistricting, and Democrats had their way for the 136 years that preceded the last general election.

Democrats controlled the House 68-37 and the Senate, 24-11 in 2000. Republicans now have a 66-39 majority in the House and 22-12 majority (and one independent) in the Senate.

After each federal census, election districts must be redrawn to reflect population changes in the districts for Congress, the Legislature, the state school board and local governments.

The ideal House district would have 45,521 residents, and a Senate district, 136,564, reflecting the one-man, one-vote principle. The actual population of a district may vary a couple of percentage points from the ideal.

Overall, Alabama's population grew sluggishly in the decade before 2010, so the lines separating many House districts may not change much. This isn't the case for the state's few pockets of growth, including Madison and Shelby counties.

Madison County would pick up a House seat to add to the seven it already has and may gain a portion of its sixth Senate seat. This would give the county that much more influence in Montgomery.

Under one proposal, the new House seat would be kidney-shaped and pick up parts of west Huntsville near Redstone Arsenal as it stretches north through Cummings Research Park toward Monrovia.

The House seat held by Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, would need to grow by 3,141 people to bring it to the ideal figure. That district might extend to the west through Harvest and take in a part of Rep. Phil Williams' seat.

Sen. Bill Holtzclaw's Senate District 2 must be drastically overhauled because it now has 46,122 residents more than the ideal. That's even more people than the target for a new House district. The district lines for the county's other five Senate seats will require changes, too.

When they controlled the Legislature, Democrats had the opportunity to redraw the districts as much to their liking as the law allowed, and now Republicans have the chance to play tit for tat.

The proposed district for Sen. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, who represents Colbert and Lauderdale counties, sounds like it was drawn by someone giddy after a couple glasses of bourbon. She could wind up in a district that represents an area as far east as Memorial Parkway in Huntsville.

The district would embrace lots of Republicans as it cuts east from the middle of Florence, across Lauderdale and Limestone counties before it takes in part of heavily Republican Madison County. Republicans would take Democratic-leaning Colbert County away from her. Democrats have some absurd gerrymandering in their history, too.

The Senate and House members sponsoring the redistricting plans said they could be changed before the Legislature goes into special session.

But Springville Republican Rep. Jim McClendon, a co-chair of the Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment, did note that the number of majority-black House districts in Alabama would increase from 27 to 28.

Overall, Republicans will push to draw district lines that will strengthen the chances for GOP lawmakers to be elected or re-elected - and weaken Democrats' opportunities.

But to the extent practical, lawmakers should respect reasonable boundaries, roads, rivers, county lines and the like, and not just follow voting patterns.

Much about redistricting doesn't sound like a fair way to determine representation, and sometimes it isn't. That's politics.

By Mike Hollis, for the editorial board. Email: