Legislative redistricting gets early attention of lawmakers

House 100 districts compared to Senate with 38

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – The 2022 regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly was called to order Tuesday with legislative redistricting part of the discussion on opening day in the state Senate.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, unveiled his chamber’s plan during a press conference last week, while Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, gave the outline of the plan for his chamber in a press briefing after the Senate adjourned for the day.

A major difference between the House and Senate plans, other than the House has 100 districts and the Senate 38, was that the House redistricting proposal has four redrawn districts where incumbents will be running against each other (two from each party), while Stivers says the Senate will have none.

“This map is based on Constitutional premises which are sometimes in conflict, but the courts have resolved this,” Stivers said.  “Splitting of counties being primarily in the Kentucky Constitution, the Coting rights act of 1969, and the 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution, regarding equal representation.  We feel with that being our guiding principle, that our map is very much in conformity to those principals, and with the input of the Democratic Caucus, particularly in Louisville.”

The Senate is also preparing the map for Kentucky’s six Congressional districts, and to make them as equal as possible, part of eastern Jefferson County will be removed from the Third District, which is currently held by Democrat John Yarmuth, the only Democrat in Kentucky’s House and Senate delegations. 

Yarmuth is retiring at the end of 2022, and two Louisville Democratic state lawmakers, Sen. Morgan McGarvey, the Senate Democratic Floor Leader, and Rep. Attica Scott, are among those who have announced their intent to succeed him.  Two Republicans, Mike Craven and Darien D. Barrios Morena, have also filed their papers at the Secretary of State’s office.

The redistricting bills, which are required every 10 years due to population shifts indicated in U.S. Census data, are scheduled to have its first committee hearing on Wednesday.