Republican Party Asks Judges To Draw Congressional Maps

According to the Associated Press, the Mississippi Republican Party has asked federal judges to redraw the state’s four Congressional districts before the 2012 elections. The state is up against a tight timeline with a March primary, January qualifying deadline, and apparently no consensus on what the maps should look like. And throw in the Justice Department’s review for good measure to draw the process out further.

Here is what GOP Chairman Arnie Hederman said: “There’s no time for (legislators) to take it up during the qualifying time, so we thought it was in the best interest of candidates for Congress to have adequate time to know what their districts are going to be.”

Haley Barbour has said he won’t call a special session to handle the issue until an agreement is in place. I don’t think any agreement is anywhere close to being reached. While the legislative redistricting process was done in public with maps, votes, etc., there has been none of that regarding Congressional maps but a few rumors here and there.

Tommy Reynolds and Terry Burton have sent letters to the state’s four congressmen asking for their input on redistricting and have heard nothing back. Burton has been in communication with Rep. Gregg Harper though, and Harper offered this statement in support of the GOP’s decision: “Since early this year, I have remained in contact with state Sen. Terry Burton regarding our discussions with our state’s other three members of Congress and our inability to reach a solution on redistricting. The Mississippi Republican Party has taken this action in court to be sure that redistricting is accomplished before the qualifying deadline in January. I believe that this is the only viable option available to them to assure that the congressional lines are drawn in a timely fashion for next year’s primary election.”

Bennie Thompson and Tommy Reynolds, both Democrats, say they are against judge’s getting involved.

For Thompson and Harper, their districts appear to be the one’s that are causing the hold up. And that is somewhat ironic considering these two districts are the most partisan in the state- Harper and Thompson had the biggest wins in 2010 while the First and Fourth were flipping from Democrat to Republican.

We all understood the stakes with legislative redistricting. For Democrats, they were attempting to strengthen their hold on the House- the last place in the state where they have any real power. Republicans were/ are looking to win this last piece of the puzzle to claiming full power in the state. That is not the case with the four Congressional districts. The only scenario I saw that would actually influence an election was MS-01 and MS-02 changes if the Democrats attempted to increase the black voting percentage in the First. This would have only likely been a potential issue if Travis Childers had won re-election. Alan Nunnelee should be fine in any district that gets drawn. As should all the incumbents.