By Rob Moritz and John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — Lawmakers again failed to form consensus on a congressional redistricting plan today, as a second Democrat-sponsored proposal cleared a House committee while two Republican proposals failed before a Senate panel.

With a Friday deadline to recess the session looming, lawmakers are expected to continue debating one of the last major issues still unresolved today. The House is to consider two redistricting proposals and the Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee is to take up a new proposal that, as of tonight, has yet to be finalized.

“We’re still working on that,” said Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, this evening. “It’s the most difficult thing I think I’ve worked on since I’ve been down here, because you solve one problem and you create two more somewhere else on the map.”

In a strictly party-line vote Wednesday afternoon, the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs endorsed House Bill 1322 by Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell, an alternative to another of Hall’s redistricting proposals, dubbed the “Fayetteville Finger,” which the committee previously endorsed.

Hall’s latest proposal would, among other things, leave some southeastern Arkansas counties in the 4th District that would be shifted to the 1st District under the earlier plan. But HB1322, like the earlier version, still would move Fayetteville from the 3rd District to the 4th.

Also, the measure would:
—Move the southern half of Madison County from the 3rd District to 4th.
—Leave Franklin in the 3rd District.
—Split Van Buren County between the 1st District and the 2nd.
—Move Searcy County from the 1st District to the 3rd.
—Split Baxter County between the 1st District and the 3rd.
—Move all of White County to the 1st District.
—Move Lonoke County from the 1st District to the 2nd.
—Move part of Pope County from the 3rd District to the 2nd.
—Move Lincoln, Desha and Chicot counties from 4th District to the 1st.
—Leave all of Garland County in the 4th District.

Earlier today, the Senate state agencies committee considered Senate Bill 942 by Sen. Bill Pritchard, R-Elkins, and SB 981 by Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home. Both fell one vote short of the five votes needed for the panel’s endorsement.

Pritchard later described Hall’s proposals as “gerrymandering,” adding that they are designed to help Democrats win back the 1st District congressional seat, which the party lost in the November general election.
Hall said his plans seek to bring more people into the 4th District without shifting Sebastian County.

He said Fort Smith “has made a compelling argument that they’re the second-largest city in the state of Arkansas and their issues should be weighed heavier than someone who is not the second largest city in the state of Arkansas.”

Thompson, who is a member of the Senate committee, said he and other Democrats hope to present a proposal today that can get the necessary five votes to clear the committee.

“There’s a real ‘not in my back yard’ mentality with almost every one of these bills, one way or the other,” Thompson said. “But, the status quo is not an option. We can’t do nothing, we have to have a bill.”

Thompson said he thinks there is some support in the Senate for the proposals Hall has filed.

“It allows for a Delta district, and there is a lot of interest in a district that represent the voice of the Arkansas Delta,” he said. “If you have a voice in the Arkansas Delta, then the 4th has to go somewhere and the most logical place … is Northwest Arkansas. The problem is, there are no communities in Northwest Arkansas that are very excited about giving up their population.

“There are 100,000 people in Northwest Arkansas who are going to have to go to a different district, but none of them seem to want to.”

The Legislature must redraw boundaries for the state’s four congressional districts this year according to 2010 U.S. Census. Figures show traditionally Democratic southern and eastern Arkansas losing population and the Republican stronghold of Northwest Arkansas growing.

Three of the four congressional districts have Republican representatives following the election last fall.

Only the 4th District, in southern Arkansas, is represented by a Democrat, Mike Ross. The 1st District in eastern Arkansas sent a Republican to Congress for the first time since Reconstruction.

During the Senate committee meeting, Lee Powell, executive director of the Delta Regional Caucus, and Desha County Judge Mark McElroy, spoke against both of the Senate proposals, saying they wanted the Delta counties to be in one congressional district, rather than divided into two.
“We feel more in common with the people that raise cotton and live by the river and die by the river,” McElroy said.

Under Pritchard’s proposal, just two counties, Johnson in western Arkansas and Arkansas in the eastern part of the state, would be split.

The proposal would move Franklin and the southern half of Johnson from the 3rd District to the 4th and move Boone and Marion counties from the 3rd District to the 1st District. Yell County in the 2nd District would move to 4th and the southern half of Arkansas County would move from the 1st District to the 4th.

Under Key’s SB 981, just two counties, Franklin in the western part of the state, and Van Buren in north central Arkansas, would be split. Marion County and White county would move from the 2nd District to the 1st.

Also under the bill, Prairie, Monroe, Lee, Phillips and Arkansas counties would move from the 1st District to the 4th, and Newton and Pope counties in west-central Arkansas would move from the 3rd District to the 2nd.