UPDATE
Legislative restricting, which include the state Senate plan below, has now passed both chambers, clearing the House Thursday by 58-39 margin. Crittenden County's legislators, both Democrats, were left on different sides of the partisan-fueled redistricting plans. In the House, districts were redrawn to favor Democrats, who control the chamber. In the Senate, lines were reshaped to favor majority Republicans, leaving several of their Democratic counterparts scratching their heads at their new districts.
Rep. Mike Cherry voted in favor of the final measure, which favors House Democrats, and Sen. Dorsey Ridley opposed the plan, which leaves him representing a portion of Lexington that includes the University of Kentucky, where he has a son attending college. Ridley, who lives in Henderson 200 miles west of Lexington, will represent his new District 4 until re-election in 2014.
Thursday's House passage now sends the bill to the governor for his signature, making it law until redistricting rolls around again in 2022.
Ridley responds to redistricting
From The (Lexington) Herald Leader: Under the bill, central Lexington would be represented by Sen. Dorsey Ridley, a Democrat from Henderson, in far Western Kentucky, through 2014.
From The (Lexington) Herald Leader: Under the bill, central Lexington would be represented by Sen. Dorsey Ridley, a Democrat from Henderson, in far Western Kentucky, through 2014.
Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, said the move was "a perversion of
democracy" and urged her colleagues to vote against the measure. Rep.
David Watkins (D-Henderson) was the only other Democrat in the House to
follow her lead.
Stein said she would not move from Lexington and was keeping her options open.
One scenario discussed Thursday could have kept Stein in the Senate, but it was shot down quickly.
Under that scenario, Ridley would file to run for the state House seat
held by Watkins in Henderson County. If he won the House seat in
November, Ridley would resign from the new 4th Senate District in
Lexington, setting up a vacancy. The governor would call a special
election to fill the vacancy, and Stein would run.
But Ridley said Thursday that he had "no plans at all" to run this year for the state House.
Asked again whether he might run for the state House this year, Ridley said, "Not just 'no,' but capital 'N,' capital 'O.'"
House Bill 1 redraws Congressional and state House, Senate and Judicial districts. Congressional and state House plans have already been approved by both legislative chambers, but the Senate passed its own plan Tuesday with a 22-14 vote split almost entirely down party lines. The map is expected to be approved by the House today.
Sen. Dorsey Ridley (D-Henderson) who currently represents Crittenden, Livingston, Caldwell, Union, Webster and Henderson counties, would not even represent his home county in the redistricting plan. His District 4 has been shifted to Fayette County, leaving him to represent Lexington residents until his term ends in 2015.
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LRC PUBLIC INFORMATION
Sen. Joey Pendleton (D-Hopkinsville) (center), discusses
legislation with Sen. Joe Bowen (R-Owensboro) (left) and Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, in the Kentucky Senate. |
"I plan on representing these people just as I have these others in the past," Pendleton said on the floor Tuesday in being the only minority Democrat breaking ranks to vote for the bill. "I cannot stand here today and tell these new counties I have gained that I'm voting against you."
Sen. Ridley voted along with other Democrats who declared the GOP remapping was politically charged in order to punish the opposing party by essentially adding as many as four more seats to the 22-15-1 majority Republicans already have in the chamber.
"I've been here through several redistrictings and I understand the process," Pendleton said of the highly controversial plan.
