Print edition: 
TOPEKA — A redistricting bill that would give Kansas’ senior Republican congresswoman a slightly more Democratic district cleared a legislative committee Wednesday with bipartisan support, but the Kansas GOP and an influential business group immediately criticized it.
Supporters of the plan endorsed by the Senate Reapportionment Committee said they didn’t consider how percentages of registered Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters would change as they redrew boundaries for the state’s four U.S. House districts to account for population changes over the past decade.
The plan, from committee Chairman Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, was endorsed on a voice vote and goes next to the Senate for debate.
It extends the 1st District of western and central Kansas to the east so that it sweeps in Manhattan, home of Kansas State University. It also puts all of Democratic-leaning Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas, into Rep. Lynn Jenkins’ 2nd District of eastern Kansas instead of keeping it split between two districts.
State GOP Chairwoman Amanda Adkins called the plan a “coldly calculated attempt” to draw a new 2nd District favorable to Democrats. The Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee – which is trying to unseat the Senate’s moderate GOP leaders in favor of conservatives in the August primary – said the bill would aid President Obama.
“Every Kansan now knows the current Senate leadership is effectively controlled by the Democratic minority,” chamber PAC Chairman Ivan Crossland said. “This map hurts Republicans.”
But Owens, a moderate facing a primary challenge, said he was most concerned about making sure each district had as close to the ideal population of 713,280 as possible, with relatively straight lines. The 1st District, which already covers about two-thirds of the state, is almost 58,000 residents short and must pick up territory.
“I was fairly well assured that the districts were all Republican districts, but I never looked up the numbers at all,” Owens said. “They would stand the test of no gerrymandering.”
Legislative researchers produced figures Wednesday showing that the percentage of Republican voters in the 2nd District would decline from 41.7 percent to 39.9 percent under the redistricting plan, while the percentage of Democratic voters would rise from 28.8 percent to 30.2 percent. The gap between the two parties’ registrations would decline from 12.9 percentage points to 9.7.
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, who supports the plan, said the voter registration changes in the 2nd District would be insignificant.
“There’s no question that they’re overreacting,” Hensley said of the proposal’s critics. “I don’t know what they’re concerned about.”
The legislative researchers’ figures showed that the 1st District also would become slightly less Republican – though there’d still be a greater than 30 percentage-point spread in favor of the GOP. The 3rd District, centered on the Kansas City area, and the 4th, centered on Wichita, would become slightly more Republican.
Jenkins, first elected in 2008, wants to keep Manhattan in her district, and the community’s leaders want to remain in a district with other northeast Kansas communities.
The other three members of the state’s all-GOP U.S. House delegation are all freshmen. There is no indication Republicans are in danger of losing those seats this year, given that no serious Democratic challengers have started campaigning.
Randy Duncan, GOP chairman in the 1st District, supported the plan. He said moving the Manhattan area into the 1st District is “natural and logical,” given Kansas State University’s status as a center of agriculture research and teaching. Also, he said, the committee’s proposal minimizes the splitting of counties.
“To me this map makes the most sense,” Duncan said.
Jenkins has said publicly that Manhattan should stay in her district because it has stronger economic and cultural ties to eastern Kansas. Her spokesman, Sean Fitzpatrick, said in a statement Wednesday that keeping Manhattan’s representation in Congress consistent is important as it considers funding for the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility, which is planned for Manhattan.
But Fitzpatrick added, “The congresswoman has not endorsed any specific plan and does not have a vote in the process.”
Jenkins has a powerful ally in House Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican who’s named himself chairman of the House Redistricting Committee. He also has said Manhattan should remain in the 2nd District to honor the desires of local community leaders.
“There’s something better out there,” O’Neal said after the Senate committee’s vote.
