Black caucus: Legislative map would enhance local control

• Legislative Black Caucus unveil its legislative redistricting proposal Tuesday
• U.S. Supreme Court ordered federal panel to revisit its 2013 approval of current maps
• About 40%2C000 people in each of Alabama's 105 House districts

In arguing for a new version of the state's legislative maps, black legislators are speaking less about race and more about trying to allow counties to have a clear voice in the Alabama Legislature.

The Legislative Black Caucus Tuesday unveiled new redistricting maps that they say will address concerns raised by the U.S. Supreme Court last month over the approval of the state's 2012 redistricting plan by a lower court. However, the caucus argued that its approach would split fewer counties and keep metropolitan areas – including Montgomery – whole, with fewer representatives from outside the city boundaries.

"We tried to preserve as many counties as we could, in particular focusing on making the metropolitan counties whole," said James Blacksher, an attorney representing the Legislative Black Caucus in a lawsuit over the current map. "But we're also not breaking up any Black Belt (counties), and as few small rural counties as we could."

But majority Republicans who would have the final word on any new maps believe their approach, which won U.S. Department of Justice approval in 2012, will be upheld by the courts and better adheres to voting principles.

"I believe we will prevail on that," House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said last week. "I don't think we'll have new district lines until the next census."

Political cartography

The U.S. Supreme Court last month ordered a three-judge federal panel to revisit its 2013 approval of the state's current legislative maps. The high court ruled that the lower court should have looked at the impact on voters in individual districts, and how the lines would affect their ability to elect the candidates of their choice.

The five-justice majority also said there was considerable evidence that race was the predominant factor when majority Republicans drew Senate District 26, represented by Senate Minority Leader Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery.

"Once the legislature's 'equal population' objectives are put to the side — i.e., seen as a background principle — then there is strong, perhaps overwhelming evidence that race did predominate as a factor when the Legislature drew the boundaries of Senate District 26," wrote Associate Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

The maps the Legislative Black Caucus unveiled last week aim to address the situation by embracing a looser deviation standard for drawing districts and adhering to whole county principles in the Alabama Constitution.

Generally speaking, there are about 40,000 individuals in each of Alabama's 105 House districts, and about 137,000 in the 35 Senate districts. When drawing new maps, political cartographers — the legislators themselves — decide a standard known as deviation that determines how close they adhere to those targets.

Republicans who drew the maps in 2012 — like many of their Southern counterparts — chose a very strict deviation of 1 percent, arguing at the time that it was the best way to meet requirements of the Voting Rights Act and address population losses in predominantly black districts.

Democrats, who advocated a looser 5 percent deviation, said the GOP standard moved black voters into overwhelmingly black districts, a process they called "packing and stacking" that made it harder for black voters to form alliances with like-minded white voters. Blacksher also argued that the stricter standard made it easier for lawmakers to split counties, and draw districts that favor their re-election.

"There is no way to rationalize redistricting in the Legislature in Alabama unless you return to first principles that are there in the Alabama Constitution," he said. "County boundaries will not prevent gerrymandering. But it will constrain it some and will make representatives and senators more responsive to the counties that elect them."

The caucus says its House plan would split 27 of the state's 67 counties, while its Senate plan would split 12. In the 2012 redistricting, Montgomery County lost a House seat and saw the southern portions of the county moved into districts centered elsewhere.

"It will return more local control to the counties," Blacksher said.

The whole county approach is one the Association of County Commissions of Alabama broadly agrees with, though Sonny Brasfield, the executive director of the organization, said Thursday the membership had not taken a position on the current issue.

"There are a lot of negative issues related to local legislation, the larger delegations grow," he said. "As delegations grow, local legislation becomes harder to pass."

Preserving the boundaries

Republicans in the Legislature defend the standard they used, and both Hubbard and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said they do not expect to see the current maps altered before the next round of statewide elections in 2018.

"We believe in the one-man, one-woman one-vote (principle), and we believe you reach that better with a plus or minus 1 percent rather than 5 percent," said Marsh on Thursday.

Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, who played a major role in drawing the maps in 2012, said the black caucus' plan did not address the Supreme Court's issues. Unlike the Republicans' plan, the Democratic plan also puts incumbents in the same district, something Dial said he tried to avoid in the 2012 maps.

"If you start changing one district, it's almost impossible not to change everybody," he said. "They tried to focus on Senate District 26, Sen. Ross' district. If they're willing to sit down with us, there might be some deviation. (But) the only thing you're going to do to change his district is put more white people in his district. Sen. Ross doesn't want that."

Ross said Friday that Dial "does not speak for me."

"I feel comfortable with any type of district I'm presented with," he said. "I like to think I have the ability to represent a wide range of individuals."

Under the caucus' proposed redistricting plan, Ross' district, which currently resides in Montgomery County, would be drawn to include portions of Lowndes and Autauga counties. Ross said he could run in an election in a "fairly drawn" district.

Outside of a court decision, the parties could negotiate a settlement over the map. Those discussions have not advanced very far, Blacksher said. The caucus would be willing to negotiate the boundaries and possibly a deviation level, but he said they would be firm on the whole county idea.

"It's time to go back to first principles and provide stability to the process," he said.