Posted on 07/28/2011 5:13:19 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Mike Beebe and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel released their final House redistricting maps today, two days before the state Board of Apportionment’s scheduled vote on redrawing legislative district lines.
The maps, which are identical, contain only small changes from the House maps Beebe and McDaniel released previously. They released their final Senate maps on Tuesday.
Like the earlier House maps, the Beebe-McDaniel plan would reduce the number of black-majority House districts from 13 to 11 and would pit incumbent against incumbent in four districts.
Incumbents who would find themselves in the same district are Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, and Gary Stubblefield, R-Branch; Efrem Elliott, D-Altheimer, and James Word, D-Pine Bluff; Garry Smith, D-Camden, and David Fielding, D-Magnolia; and Lori Benedict, R-Salem, and Linda Collins Smith, D-Pocahontas.
Eubanks, a first-term House member, said he was disappointed with the map and thought it could have been drawn better. He said he had expected to run for a second term in the House, but now he may look at running for the state Senate next year.
“Gary Stubblefield and I are good friends, and I don’t intend on running against him,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe we’ll flip a coin.”
Word, a second-term House member, said he was not happy about being in the same district with an incumbent under the Beebe-McDaniel plan, but he was even more concerned about the impact on minority representation in the House. He and Elliott are among the House’s 11 black members.
“It’s going to reduce the number of minority members in the House of Representatives. That’s one of the reasons that I feel that it could have been a lot different,” Word said. “But I guess we’re going to have to live with it.”
Beebe has said population shifts made reducing the number of black-majority districts necessary.
Secretary of State Mark Martin, who also serves on the three-member Board of Apportionment, has released a map that would increase the number of black-majority House districts to 15. Beebe has said that map would weaken the black voice in other districts.
Beebe and McDaniel, both Democrats, have the votes to control the redistricting decision. Martin is a Republican.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor’s office will continue to accept comments from the public and reserves the right to make last-minute tweaks, but “right now this is the map we’re planning to go with.”
The board’s final vote on redistricting is set for 9:30 a.m. Friday in the old state Supreme Court chamber on the second floor of the state Capitol.
The Board of Apportionment is charged with redrawing state legislative district lines every 10 years in accordance with U.S. Census data. Congressional redistricting was completed earlier this year by the state Legislature.
I’m surprised about this, when I lived in Arkansas the place I worked had a lot of contact with McDaniel. I never realized he was a Dem. How could I have missed this - guess it was never discussed, he was considered a good guy, but my employer was strongly Republican, anti-union, etc. Weird.
The Dems can delay, but not stop, the realignment in Arkansas.
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