Mississippi Redistricting
Former GOP Chairman Jim Herring has dedicated the last couple posts on his blog to the issue of redistricting. The first post was more-or-less a background of the subject, while yesterday’s post went into more detail and looked at it from Mississippi’s perspective. He has another post on redistricting coming out soon as well.
Mississippi is in the odd position of having their state elections the same year that new Census data is released (2011). This means that this will surely be an election issue as legislators are trying to re-draw districts and run for re-election at the same time.
One thing that interested me and gave me an indication on how redistricting is going to be handled in by looking at those who is in charge of it. Here is the Legislative Reapportionment committee in the Senate:
Terry C. Burton (R), Chairman; Tommy Dickerson (D), Vice-Chairman
Members: Sidney Albritton (R); Hob Bryan (D); Eugene S. Clarke (R); Hillman Terome Frazier (D); Jack Gordon (D); Cindy Hyde-Smith (D); Walter Michel (R); T. O. Moffatt (R)
For those of you keeping score at home, there is a Republican chair and Democrat vice-chair. Seems fair enough. The other eight members are divided evenly with four Democrats and four Republicans. You might get the impression that Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant is trying to handle this in a bi-partisan way. Now, let’s look at the Legislative Reapportionment committee in the House:
Thomas U. Reynolds (D), Chairman; Adrienne Wooten (D), Vice-Chairman
Members: Willie Bailey (D); Edward Blackmon, Jr.(D); D. Stephen Holland (D); Wanda Jennings (R); Diane C. Peranich (D); Johnny W. Stringer (D); Percy W. Watson (D)
Let’s see here: Chair and Vice Chair- both Democrats along with six of the seven other members. Mister 62-60, Billy McCoy, has decided that eight Democrats and one Republican is the proper makeup for redistricting.
Also regarding redistricting, I thought this was pretty funny. This liberal blog created a way for Mississippi to receive a second black majority district. Gerrymandering? Of course they could care less about black politicians having a chance to get elected, and more about a guaranteed win for a D.
Without looking at the estimates, we know where population changes have occurred. Desoto county has continued its boom, along with other suburban counties. The city of Jackson continues to lose population. And of course the Coast remains a wild-card. It shall be interesting to see what the official numbers show and what the legislature comes up with.
