A Kansas House committee is expected to hold
hearings on a new Senate redistricting plan similar to one that
failed to get enough votes from senators.
House Speaker Mike O’Neal said the House Redistricting Committee
would hear testimony Friday with the goal of endorsing a plan early
next week. The move breaks from legislative tradition where each
chamber draws its own political boundaries.
A new Senate map approved by that chamber Wednesday was defeated
Thursday in the House over concerns that it diluted minority votes
by collapsing two western Kansas districts. That map put Republican
Sen. Garrett Love of Montezuma in the same district as Democratic
Sen. Allen Schmidt of Hays.
Legislators must redraw political boundaries to account for
population changes.
