Voters may have new faces representing them after the next round of legislative elections in Alabama, even if the people they put in office last fall return for another term in 2014.
The issue involves politics, of course, but also rapid population growth in parts of the Tennessee Valley and population losses in Jefferson County.
Some legislators say as a result at least three state Senate districts in Limestone and Madison counties now have too many people based on latest population figures. Those areas may see some of the biggest change. To balance the size of the districts, some people won’t be voting for the same people they voted for in 2010.
By the way, Republicans hold all of those Senate seats.
District lines for areas around Birmingham, with its high minority and Democratic population, also could change. Some say the Birmingham area could lose a state Senate seat to north Alabama.
But there is another issue to consider in the process. The U.S. Justice Department requires Alabama’s district lines to reflect the population’s racial makeup.
Legislators on the Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment will decide the district lines after public hearings around the state in October. The Legislature will likely approve the committee’s suggestions in the 2012 regular legislative session.
There’s still U.S. Justice Department approval to come afterward unless Attorney General Luther Strange decides to ask a federal court to approve the district changes as he just did with new congressional lines the Legislature established in 2011. No answer has come yet from the federal court in Washington where Strange made the request.
State Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison, serves on the reapportionment committee and also represents a Limestone and Madison county district where almost 180,000 people now live.
His Senate District 2 is supposed to have about 135,000, according to guidelines set by latest census figures. “In round numbers, I know I must lose close to 50,000 people,” he said.
Sen. Arthur Orr’s Senate District 3 will lose fewer voters in his Limestone, Morgan and Madison area but still must shrink. That’s also the case for Sen. Paul Sanford’s Madison County Senate District 7.
Orr is on the reapportionment committee.
Holtzclaw said the changes “will have a ripple effect” at least in the Tennessee Valley and areas around Birmingham, but maybe elsewhere in the state as well.
“North Alabama could gain more influence in the Legislature,” Holtzclaw said.
It could end up with another Senate and possibly another House seat as well, based strictly on population divisions.
Rep. Lynn Greer, R-Rogersville, said he doesn’t expect as much heartburn in the Shoals over legislative districts as the area experienced over congressional redistricting earlier this year. Greer also is on the reapportionment committee.
“I expect it will be kind of quiet about that over here,” he said.
The Shoals did not lose population, but it also did not gain a lot in the 2010 census, so Greer doesn’t think districts are unlikely to shift much.
http://www.timesdaily.com/stories/North-Alabama-expected-to-gain-seats,182074
