CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – State legislative Republicans started the special redistricting session with a couple of ready-made “excuses.”
Today, the State Senate needs all the reasons possible to explain inept public policies.
The ready-made excuses for failure included the fact that Republicans are in charge of redistricting for the first time in nearly a century. Yes folks, Democrats in 2010 had more experience and it showed.
Secondly, the Census Bureau itself reported statistics late. Maybe the Republican Senate would have done better with more time and less stress.
In order to hold 2022 elections in a timely manner, they need to get on with the required ten-year redistricting. It’s tough. Obviously.
In a nutshell, the House of Delegates completed redistricting our two congressional seats and their own 100 state House seats in two days of session.
If left to the House alone, the special session and its related costs would have likely ended in three days; five at the most.
But the Senate. Ah yes, the Senate. That august body whose membership often looks down its collective nose at the House. They can’t figure out where to put 34 members in a week.
Keep in mind that senators, theoretically at least, had an easier job that the House.
House members were mandated to radically change their districts to one-member bodies. That came after multiple-member districts prevailed heretofore.
The Senate merely needed to move district lines to reflect new population figures. That was too much to ask apparently.
On Monday the Senate actually had “a proposed map,” such as it was. I’ve already pointed out in a previous column that maps early in this session were woefully unsatisfactory. It took a computer whiz to figure anything out. It really still does a week later.
Many, including Cabell County Democrat Senator Mike Worfel, said the first Senate map was a farce. It was just a decoy provided to further confuse an already confused situation. He was apparently right.
By Friday, alternate maps abounded. Nobody seemed to know which version could garner votes for passage.
By the time the Senate made it clear they still had no consensus Friday afternoon, the House said they’d had enough.
So while the Senate said it would have a serious chance at producing a genuine map by Monday, the House said, “we’ve got better things to do than twiddle our thumbs waiting for the Spirit to move you.”
So the House adjourned “until the call of the Chair.” That means they will not reconvene until Speaker Roger Hanshaw of Clay calls them in with the assurance the Senate is on board.
It was not a stellar week for Senate leadership.
We’ll have more to say Sunday.