Republican redistricting heard in Ga. Supreme Court today

Arguments on districts heard today

Georgia Supreme Court

By Allison Floyd | allison.floyd@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:01 PM on Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Georgia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments today in the legal fight to overturn a 2006 redistricting that split Athens into two state Senate districts.

The General Assembly, at the request of state Sen. Ralph Hudgens, shifted district lines for three state Senate districts early this year. The change unified Madison County into one district, but split Athens' Democratic-leaning voters into two Republican districts.

A handful of local voters sued dozens of election officials to try to stop them from following the new maps during July primaries, though a visiting Superior Court judge dismissed their claim in June.

Attorneys for the voters appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing that the Georgia Constitution allows legislators to redraw district lines only when a 10-year census shows the population has shifted, leaving too few voters in one district and too many in another.

The suit does not include state Rep. Jane Kidd, an Athens Democrat who will have a tougher campaign in the more Republican new district.

When a federal judge rejected her appeal to throw out the new districts, she decided to run in the 46th, anyway, and faces Republican Bill Cowsert on Nov. 7.

Emmet Bondurant, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the lower court judge was wrong when he ruled lawmakers can redraw legislative maps without a specific reason.

"They don't argue that it was necessary," Bondurant said Friday. "They just say the legislature can do it any time they want."

While Democrats argue that Republican lawmakers changed district lines to give Cowsert an edge over Kidd, Republicans said they approved the changes to appease a 5-year-old request by commissioners in Madison County, who wanted their county to entirely be in one Senate district.

Bondurant said he does not expect the high court's ruling to affect the Nov. 7 election. If they find in favor of his clients, he said, they likely would require new elections to be held in three Athens-area districts based on their old boundary lines.

Although he signed the bill that created the new district lines, Gov. Sonny Perdue also created a task force this year to study the politics of redistricting and advise whether the state should consider legislative district changes another way.

That task force heard from Kidd in August, but has not issued any recommendations.

Kidd has said that if she is re-elected, she'll introduce a constitutional amendment to create a nonpartisan redistricting commission to redraw district lines when necessary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.