JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi House split largely along party lines Friday as it passed its own redistricting plan that could help shape state politics for the coming decade.
The plan passed 65-55. Most Democrats voted for the plan and most Republicans voted against it.
The map reconfigures the 122 House districts to account for shifts in the population revealed in the 2010 Census, including growth in the Memphis, Tenn., suburbs of DeSoto County and population losses in the economically struggling Delta.
The Senate intends to release a new map next week for its own 52 districts.
Lawmakers are under time pressure because both maps must be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department, which checks to ensure that the plans don't dilute minorities' voting strength. Getting that approval could take up to 60 days, and legislative candidates face a June 1 deadline to qualify for this year's elections.
The House map still faces several hurdles. Representatives return to the Capitol at 8 a.m. Saturday. The plan was held for reconsideration, which allows another round of debate. If the plan survives, it could face challenges in the Senate because Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant has said he doesn't think the Senate should rubber stamp the House plan, as the two chambers have done for each other in the past.
Republicans raised no concerns during the one-hour debate Friday, though some said later that the plan should have been available longer for public scrutiny.
"Basically, it didn't represent the voting patterns, as we saw them, of Mississippians," said Rep. Mark Baker, R-Brandon.
The redistricting committee worked on the map several months and released it Thursday, about 24 hours before the House vote.
Democrat Tommy Reynolds of Charleston, the House redistricting chairman, said lawmakers from both parties had come to him with concerns and special requests about their own districts.
"You know in your own heart and you know in your own mind what you said, what you requested, what you desire," Reynolds told the House on Friday.
He said he tried to accommodate as many of the requests as he could, within guidelines that require roughly equal population, respect for existing political subdivisions and non-dilution of minorities' voting strength.
The only objections during the debate came from Democratic Reps. America "Chuck" Middleton of Port Gibson and Mary Ann Stevens of West, who were unhappy with the configuration of the districts in which their homes were put.
Middleton, who took office in 1996, currently represents southwest Mississippi's District 85, which stretches through parts of Adams, Claiborne, Hinds, Jefferson and Warren counties. The reshaped map gives District 85 considerably more of central Mississippi's Hinds County, which has a larger population base; it also has less of Jefferson County and none of Adams County.
Middleton said he worries that his southwestern constituents' interests aren't served by the new map.
"My people deserve better," he said.
Stevens, a conservative white Democrat who's been in the House 30 years, was put in a majority-black district with Democratic Rep. Ferr Smith of Carthage, who is black. Smith has been in the House since 1993. Their part of the state has lost population since 2000.
"I am a minority, too," Stevens said. "I feel that, for the record, that I have been discriminated against."
Some lawmakers raised their eyebrows at Stevens' remark, and Democratic Rep. Omeria Scott of Laurel, chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus said loudly from her desk: "What?"
Reynolds said the new map would reduce the number of split precincts from 449 to fewer than 200. It also would increase the number of majority-black districts from 39 to 44.
Democratic Rep. Ed Blackmon of Canton recalled that when he and two other black lawmakers helped redraw House district lines in 1991, the political fights were largely centered on race.
"That year, it was all about race," Blackmon said Friday. "It was all about black people versus white people, white people versus black people."
Mississippi lawmakers passed a redistricting plan in 1991, but the Justice Department objected to it because of questions about minorities' voting strength. A court ordered candidates to run in 1991 in the old legislative districts. Lawmakers drew new districts that were accepted, and a new round of legislative elections was held in 1992.
Blackmon said race was barely an issue this year.
"Mississippi ought to be proud of itself today," Blackmon said. "We ought to be proud because we have reached a milestone."
Rep. Rufus Straughter, D-Belzoni, was recorded as not voting on the House plan Friday. He said he supports the new map but his machine didn't record his vote.
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The resolution is Joint Resolution 1.
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Online:
Mississippi Redistricting Committee's maps: http://www.msjrc.state.ms.us/index.html