Kentucky legislature passes redistricting plans, sends them to Beshear

The Kentucky General Assembly approved new redistricting maps Saturday, mere days after its Republican leaders introduced their plans to redraw the boundaries for the state's legislative and congressional seats.

Redistricting happens every 10 years to reflect shifts in population, and this is the first time the GOP has fully controlled that process in Kentucky.

The Kentucky House of Representatives and Senate usually don't meet on weekends, but they did Saturday to pass this set of maps. Leading House Republicans unveiled their proposal just before the new year, while the Senate's GOP leadership waited to release their redistricting plans until the state's annual lawmaking session began this week.

The bills lawmakers approved Saturday and sent to Gov. Andy Beshear's desk included new maps for the state House and Senate as well as for the commonwealth's six congressional seats. The General Assembly also passed legislation that changes the Kentucky Supreme Court's districts for the first time in decades.

Leading Republican lawmakers have said they made sure these new maps meet all legal and constitutional requirements for redistricting.

It's possible, however, that someone could try to challenge the new redistricting plans in court.

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Kentucky congressional map cleared

The first redistricting plan that got final passage Saturday was the Senate GOP's redrawn map for Kentucky's congressional districts.

The House gave that proposal the last approval it needed in a 65-25 vote Saturday morning.

The new congressional map doesn't chop up Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District, represented by Democratic Rep. John Yarmuth, as some people feared it might. That district still will include most of Jefferson County, except for an eastern and southeastern swath that now will be represented by Rep. Brett Guthrie's 2nd Congressional District.

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The particularly controversial part of the new map is Rep. James Comer's reshaped 1st Congressional District, which will stretch further northeast and take Franklin County — the home of the Democrat-friendly state capital of Frankfort — out of Rep. Andy Barr's 6th Congressional District. That's expected to make Barr's seat safer.

Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, criticized that shift in Franklin County's representation to Comer's district, which is primarily based in Western Kentucky.

"What it does to Franklin County is wrong," Graham said Saturday. "Franklin County was and is and always will be a part of Central Kentucky, both geographically and in spirit. ... Franklin County shares a lot of bonds with Western Kentucky, but we should not share a congressman."

Kentucky state House maps passed

The Senate signed off on the House's redistricting plan Saturday in a 23-10 vote, with a few Republicans joining the chamber's Democrats in opposition.

The House already had approved that bill earlier in the week on a mostly party-line vote, as Democrats repeated their objections that the maps were unfairly drawn to split urban areas and further help Republican candidates.

Democrats and the League of Women Voters of Kentucky have heavily criticized the House map. Common complaints have been that it unnecessarily splits some of Kentucky's biggest counties into different districts and targets women by pitting two sets of incumbent women against each other in Jefferson County.

Top Republicans have defended their plan, with House Speaker David Osborne recently saying he believes they achieved their goal of drawing "a thoughtful map that complied with every legal and constitutional requirement."

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Kentucky state Senate maps approved

The House gave the Kentucky Senate's redrawn districts the final approval they needed in a 67-23 vote.

When the Senate passed the new map for its chamber earlier in the week, the Republican plan actually got the support of most Senate Democrats, none of whom will have to run against each other in the same district.

One criticism some people have raised is the way this map splits a few of the state's biggest counties into different districts.

Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, said Saturday her home county of Warren had to be divvied up because it has gained so many residents in recent years, but she argued it should only have been cracked into two districts, not the three that make up its territory in this map.

Minter also criticized a lack of community input on this plan.

During the week, some Democratic lawmakers said Republican leaders didn't give them a real chance to offer their perspective during the process.

Osborne pushed back against that complaint Saturday, saying he invited leading House Democrats to offer ideas for their chamber's redistricting efforts but didn't get a proposal until late in the game.

He said House Democrats were given a "homework assignment" but turned it in late and incomplete and now they're mad "because we aced the test."

Bill giving power to school superintendents advances

The Senate advanced a key GOP education bill Saturday in a 25-9 vote, although the legislation still needs the House's approval.

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, would shift key powers from school-level councils of teachers and parents to district superintendents. If ultimately enacted, district leaders would have final say over principal hiring and curriculum.

Earlier in the week, Schickel defended the bill as a way to allow superintendents to decide things for which they will ultimately be held accountable. He contended SB 1 would allow taxpayers to have a larger voice in local schools, since superintendents report to school boards, who are accountable to local voters.

The Kentucky Education Association, Kentucky Association for School Councils and Kentucky Student Voice Team opposed the measure.

Some parents criticized the bill as an attack on parent voices, since school councils are a way to directly influence what happens at a child’s school.

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Other redistricting bills approved

The legislature on Saturday gave final passage to a redistricting plan for the Kentucky Supreme Court's districts, which haven't been altered in a long time even though there have been huge population shifts.

Lawmakers also approved Senate Bill 20, which changes how redistricting plans get challenged in court. The House gave the proposal the final approval it needed in a bipartisan, 85-4 vote.

Instead of having a randomly selected panel of three circuit court judges handle legal actions challenging the constitutionality of legislative districts, SB 20 would direct such litigation to the circuit court in the plaintiff's county.

Kentucky's redistricting process has taken longer than usual this time around because the 2020 census data was late, due to pandemic-related delays.

The legislature voted earlier in the week to push back the filing deadline for political candidates across the state to Jan. 25, due to the late resolution of the redistricting situation.

Gov. Andy Beshear quickly signed that bill into law, but it remains to be seen how he'll handle the bills lawmakers passed Saturday.

The GOP has supermajorities in both the House and Senate, so Republican lawmakers have the power to override any vetoes Beshear might issue.

Tornado relief bill filed

Rep. Richard Heath — a Republican from tornado-devastated Mayfield — filed House Bill 5 Saturday, which would appropriate $200 million to a newly created West Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies Fund.

Of these funds, $30 million is to be directed to the Kentucky Department of Education for school districts impacted by the tornadoes, which can use them for wrap-around services for students and families, transportation costs and construction and repairs of schools facilities damaged in the storms.

Another $15 million would go to the Division of Emergency Management in the Department of Military Affairs to procure temporary FEMA-eligible housing units.

Under the terms of the proposed bill, the remaining $155 million in the state fund cannot be spent unless authorized by the legislature.

Osborne said HB 5 will be up in committee Monday and could receive final passage as early as Friday, along with a resolution authorizing the extension of the state of emergency declared by the governor due to the tornadoes last month.

Reporter Joe Sonka contributed to this story. Morgan Watkins is The Courier Journal's chief political reporter. Contact her at mwatkins@courierjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @morganwatkins26.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Legislature OKs Kentucky redistricting plans, sends them to Beshear