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TOPEKA — A bipartisan coalition in the Kansas Senate passed a congressional redistricting bill that has drawn criticism from some Republicans and leaves the senior member of the state’s all-GOP delegation in the U.S. House with a slightly more Democratic district.
The Senate’s 23-17 vote came after members rejected an alternative that would have created slightly more Republican districts for two-term Rep. Lynn Jenkins and Rep. Kevin Yoder, one of three freshmen in the Kansas delegation. The bill went to the House, where Speaker Mike O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, also has criticized it.
Republicans hold a 32-8 majority in the Senate, but they split. Fifteen of them, including prominent GOP moderates like Senate President Steve Morris of Hugoton, joined all the Democrats in backing the congressional redistricting measure. Seventeen Republicans, many of them conservatives, voted no.
“It was a coalition map in a Republican state,” said Sen. Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican who voted against the bill. “You’d think we could pass a Republican map.”
The Kansas Republican Party took a similar view, saying Jenkins’ new district would be “unnecessarily skewed” toward helping Democrats.
“It makes sense that Democrats in the Senate would support it, but rank and file Republicans in the state should seriously question Republican members who joined them,” state GOP Chairwoman Amanda Adkins said in a statement.
The Senate’s action came the same day the House gave first-round approval to a bipartisan bill redrawing state representatives’ districts. The House’s voice vote sets up final action today, when the measure is expected to pass by a wide margin.
Legislators must redraw their districts and the state’s four congressional districts to account for shifts in population over the past decade. In congressional redistricting, the 1st District of central and western Kansas is almost 58,000 residents short of the ideal population of 713,280 and must gain territory.
A key issue is that Manhattan, the home of Kansas State University, is now in the 2nd District of eastern Kansas, represented by Jenkins. Manhattan officials want their community to remain in the 2nd, arguing it has strong economic and cultural ties to eastern Kansas.
The plan approved by the Senate enlarges the 1st District so that it sweeps in Manhattan, but the plan’s author, Reapportionment Committee Chairman Tim Owens, an Overland Park Republican, insisted the move was necessary to meet the other goals, such as splitting as few counties as possible and splitting no major cities.
The proposal reunites Democratic-leaning Lawrence in the 2nd District, instead of keeping it split between the 2nd and the 3rd District, centered on the Kansas City metropolitan area.
“We approached it – I approached it – as something we needed to do from a long-term perspective, nonpartisan,” Owens said of his plan.
According to figures from the Legislature’s research staff, with the shift in boundaries, the advantage Republicans have over Democrats in registered voters would shrink from 12.9 percentage points to 9.7 percentage points.
The 1st District, represented by Tim Huelskamp, would get slightly more Democratic as well, but Republicans would still retain an advantage of more than 30 percentage points. The 3rd District, represented by Yoder, and the 4th of south-central Kansas, represented by Mike Pompeo of Wichita, would get slightly more Republican.
The offices of the state’s four U.S. House members did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment, and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokeswoman declined to comment.
How they voted
Of the 32 Republicans, 15 voted “yes” and 17 voted “no.” All eight Democrats voted “yes.”
Republicans voting yes: Pete Brungardt, Salina; Jay Emler, Lindsborg; Terrie Huntington, Fairway; Dick Kelsey, Goddard; Bob Marshall, Fort Scott; Carolyn McGinn, Sedgwick; Steve Morris, Hugoton; Ralph Ostmeyer, Grinnell; Tim Owens, Overland Park; Roger Reitz, Manhattan; Vicki Schmidt, Topeka; Jean Schodorf, Wichita; Chris Steineger, Kansas City; Dwayne Umbarger, Thayer; John Vratil, Leawood.
Republicans voting no: Steve Abrams, Arkansas City; Pat Apple, Louisburg; Terry Bruce, Hutchinson; Les Donovan, Wichita; Jeff King, Independence; Jeff Longbine, Emporia; Garrett Love, Montezuma; Julia Lynn, Olathe; Ty Masterson, Andover; Ray Merrick, Stilwell; Rob Olson, Olathe; Mike Petersen, Wichita; Mary Pilcher-Cook, Shawnee; Dennis Pyle, Hiawatha; Mark Taddiken, Clifton; Ruth Teichman, Stafford; Susan Wagle, Wichita.
Democrats voting yes: Oletha Faust-Goudeau, Wichita; Marci Francisco, Lawrence; David Haley, Kansas City; Anthony Hensley, Topeka; Tom Holland, Baldwin City; Laura Kelly, Topeka; Kelly Kultala, Kansas City; Allen Schmidt, Hays.
