House of Representativeshad placed Nelson Countyin District 4, comprised ofmostly Northern Kentuckycounties. But when theSenate redrew the map,Nelson was returned to itsoriginal district, state Sen.Jimmy Higdon said.
Higdon said he had beenopposed to a move to the 4thdistrict for Nelson County.
“I was definitely not infavor of that, and really mostpeople that I talked to inNelson County were not infavor of that, becauseNelson is not a NorthernKentucky county,” he said.
But other counties inHigdon’s district fared dif-ferently.
“Nelson Countyremained in the SecondCongressional District,where it’s been for manyyears, but Nelson Countywas the only county that Icurrently represent that was-n’t affected by it, so I voted‘No,’” Higdon said, refer-ring to HB 302.
Of the five counties inHigdon’s 14th Senate dis-trict, Marion, Washington,Taylor and Nelson were inthe second district whileMercer was in the sixth.Now, Mercer has beenmoved to the second, whileMarion, Taylor and a portion
of Washington Countymoved into the first district,according to Higdon.
“Marion, Washington andNelson have so much incommon that we shouldhave always been in thesame congressional district,”he said.
Higdon said he was inagreement with some otherRepublican legislators thatthe final bill intentionallyshifted Republican votersout of Democrat BenChandler’s District 6, amove that led RepublicanSen. Alice Forgy Kerr,Lexington, to call it “theBen Chandler LifetimeEmployment Act.”
“It did move the countiesout of the SixthCongressional District thatvoted against him in the lastelection,” Higdon said.“Most anybody could drawthat conclusion that it waspolitical.”
However, the result is that“it made the SecondCongressional District moreRepublican,” Higdon added.
State Rep. David Floydvoted in favor of the finalversion of HB 302, becausehe said it did not impact hisdistrict adversely, keepingBullitt, Spencer and Nelsoncounties in the second dis-trict, where they had beenbefore.
Floyd said he didn’t likethe way some of the lineswere redrawn, but becausehis district supported the
final bill, he did, too. But Floyd said he believes
changing districts immedi-ately after a redistrictingvote raises constitutionalquestions, because someconstituents are left with adifferent senator or repre-sentative than the one forwhom they voted. So onFeb. 1, Floyd introducedHouse Bill 359, which pro-poses that new district linesdrawn during the redistrict-ing process should not takeeffect until Jan. 1 the follow-ing year. This would allowthe majority of legislators toserve out their elected termbefore the districts areredrawn, Floyd explained.The bill also allows individ-uals to file to run for posi-tions that do not yet exist —for instance, to run for aSenate seat in a district thatwill only be formed comeJan. 1 of the next year.
“We’re required to havean emergency clause on thebill so that people can fileand they’ll know where thedistricts are, but it nevermade a whole lot of sensethat the districts had to berealigned immediately,” hesaid.
Floyd has faced the con-fusion of redistricting head-on after the legislaturepassed House Bill 1, whichredrew state Senate andHouse of Representativedistricts — a law later struckdown by Franklin CircuitJudge Phillip Shepherd, who
deemed it unconstitutional.According to Higdon, a pri-mary reason for this was thatone Senate and one Housedistrict exceeded the allow-able population.
Floyd had filed to runagain in the House’s 50thDistrict, but when District15 was drawn, comprised ofNelson and Bullitt counties,he chose to drop his Houserace and file to run for theSenate instead. But then,district boundaries werereturned to where they werein 2002, and Floyd withdrewhis Senate filing to return tothe House race.
Shepherd’s ruling isscheduled to come beforethe Kentucky SupremeCourt this week for review,where one of three things islikely to happen, accordingto Higdon and Floyd.
The judges can force thelegislature to return to 2002boundaries. Or the court cancome to the same conclu-sion it did in 1992: that the
newly drawn districts areindeed unconstitutional,“but they’re less unconstitu-tional than the districts we’recurrently serving in, becausethe districts we’re serving in— there’s a big differencebetween the largest and thesmallest,” Higdonexplained.
Districts are supposed tohave roughly the same pop-ulation, with a permittedvariation of plus or minus 5percent, he said.
In 1992, the court decidedto keep the revised districts,with the stipulation districtboundaries would have to bedrawn again before the nextelection. According toFloyd, the court could do thesame now, leaving HouseBill 1 in place but requiringfuture revisions.
“They would have to real-ly write new case law inorder to say that we’ll gowith the 2002 Census,” hesaid. “I think it’s maybe 50-50 that they will stay with
that old case law.”The third option would be
that the Supreme Courtstrikes down House Bill 1and orders the legislature toredraw districts again.
If the court decides toleave House Bill 1 and itsnew district boundaries inplace, Floyd said he will filefor a Senate seat again.Floyd said he had beenoffered the chairmanship forthe Senate’s Veterans,Military Affairs and PublicProtection Committee.
“I very much enjoy thedistrict that I serve now,” hesaid. “But the opportunity toserve in the Senate majorityand chair a committee isenough to let me leave thecurrent House seat and com-pete for the new Senate seat.… And that’s why they sayI’ve spent $600 in filingfees, which is true.”
The filing deadline for thestate legislature expired Feb.10.
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