Democratic leaders struggling with ‘Fayetteville to the Fourth’ plan

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

One has a pivotal legislative vote, the other will defend it in court.

Two key Democrats say they are struggling with the controversial "Fayetteville to the Fourth" Congressional redistricting plan.

Senate President Pro Temp-elect Larry Teague, D-Nashville, said he’s "not comfortable" with the map, but doesn’t have an alternative that would satisfy everyone.

"I’ve not been able to get comfortable with it, Roby. I continue to believe that we ought to build upon a plan that nobody loves, but everybody can kind of live with. I don’t know that the Fayetteville plan is it.  I hope that we will have some reasonable minds sit down this week and see if we can’t do something better," Teague told Talk Business on Sunday.

He said several key members of the Senate State Agencies Committee, which is divided between 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats, have discussed a solution of King Solomon proportions, but no breakthrough exists that he’s aware of.

"My assumption is that nothing comes out of the State Agencies Committee tomorrow, but I would love for something to come out," Teague confided. "I continue to hope that we can find some place where everybody can kind of live with."

Teague recognizes the "inherent political process" of redistricting and says it may boil down to the small Democratic majority outvoting a large Republican minority.

"I hope that’s not right. I was in the House the last time we redistricted and I don’t recall it being any problem at all. But I guess it was different times and I guess the Democratic Party was in more control," Teague said. "I think it will be a hard couple of days. There will be a lot of hurry up-and-wait because the State Agencies Committee will be involved and the rest of us will be waiting on them to do something."

Democratic Attorney General Dustin McDaniel spoke to a group of Arkansas broadcasters over the weekend. He was asked a question on the topic of Congressional redistricting, which spawned a Talk Business follow-up.

McDaniel said he’s not sold on the "Fayetteville to the Fourth" plan politically.

"I was asked what I thought about the effort to move Fayetteville to the Fourth [District] and I simply said: if I were doing it, I wouldn’t do it that way. From everything I’ve heard from my friends in Pine Bluff and El Dorado and Texarkana, they’re opposed to it because they feel like its going to dilute their voice," he said.

McDaniel said Fayetteville is "adamantly opposed" to the plan because they feel it extracts them from their northwest Arkansas economic, geographic, and cultural corridor.

"To the extent that some folks think that they don’t know exactly where the sources of influence on this are, I’ve assured them that I’ve stayed out of it and I’ve tried to be deferential to the members of the General Assembly, but when asked, ‘What do i think about it?’, I simply said if I was doing it, I wouldn’t do it that way," he said.

McDaniel hasn’t offered a substitute plan and doesn’t plan to. He says the biggest hurdle for the legislature to adhere to is the "low variance" threshold set forth in other states’ legal precedents.

"The only thing I think we would have difficulty in defending — and I’ve said this repeatedly to leaders of both parties in both Houses — is if there is a substantial population variance. On Congressional redistricting, they need to have it as close to zero," McDaniel explained.

He said that a greater than 1% variance is "not going to cut it." More than 25 states have variances in Congressional Districts of 10 people or fewer, according to the Attorney General.

"Unless you disenfranchise a minority intentionally, the fact that a map is  drawn that may benefit one party over another — political gerrymandering — is a pretty hard standard to meet," he said.

If the legislature approves the "Fayetteville to the Fourth" map or any other strange configuration, he’s prepared to defend it against any legal challenge.

"Obviously, I’ll defend anything they put out, whether I agree with it or not, whether I think it’s a good idea or not," McDaniel said.