Legislators Face Deadline To Finish Congressional Map

Mark Pazniokas

©The Connecticut Mirror

Legislators seem to always need a hard deadline for anything important, and now they have one: the Connecticut Supreme Court set a final deadline of noon on December 21 for the legislature’s redistricting commission to produce a map of new congressional districts.

The legislature got the census data necessary to draw the maps in March, but the redistricting panel missed deadlines of September 15 and November 30. Now, if the panel fails by the new deadline the court will draw the district lines for the first time in state history.

Last week, the panel unanimously approved new districts for 151 state House and 36 state Senate districts, but its only joint work involved Democrats and Republicans exchanging very different maps.

Democrats handed in a map that preserves the existing districts, making only small adjustments necessary to balance the population in each of the five districts.

Republicans proposed major changes that would eliminate the oddly drawn border of the First and Fifth districts, the result of a bipartisan compromise 10 years ago to accommodate two incumbents no longer in Congress. But the GOP plan is more than an exercise in aesthetics. Its map would transform the Fourth District, represented by Democrat Jim Himes of Greenwich, into a GOP stronghold and improve the party’s chances in the Fifth, which will be open next year.

The new state legislative districts already are shaping the 2012 election lineup in the state House: Two Democrats who found themselves politically homeless after the Assembly districts were approved — Richard Roy and Marie Lopez Kirkley-Bey —are not seeking reelection. Both were elected in 1992 and are closing in on 20 years in the legislature.

Their districts — the Fifth Assembly for Kirkley-Bey, the 119th Assembly for Roy — will be open seats next year. Under the new map, Kirkley-Bey’s home will be in the First, which heavily favors Rep Matt Ritter. Roy will be in 117th, where Rep Paul Davis is the favorite.

The one-paragraph order issued by the court gives no hint of what’s to come if the Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on a new congressional map. Would the court simply choose between the Democrats’ map and the GOP’s? Would it appoint a special master charged with drawing a third version? Could outside groups weigh in with their versions?

No substantive talks have taken place since the passage of the November 30 deadline.

(This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, non-profit news organization covering government, politics, and public policy in the state.)