Hearings Held On Senate Maps

A Kansas House committee is expected to hold

hearings on a new Senate redistricting plan similar to one that

failed to get enough votes from senators.

House Speaker Mike O’Neal said the House Redistricting Committee

would hear testimony Friday with the goal of endorsing a plan early

next week. The move breaks from legislative tradition where each

chamber draws its own political boundaries.

A new Senate map approved by that chamber Wednesday was defeated

Thursday in the House over concerns that it diluted minority votes

by collapsing two western Kansas districts. That map put Republican

Sen. Garrett Love of Montezuma in the same district as Democratic

Sen. Allen Schmidt of Hays.

Legislators must redraw political boundaries to account for

population changes.