Black caucus wants legislative map changes
by July 25, 2011 8:34 am 68 views
Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]
Members of the legislative Black Caucus, all Democrats, are not happy about the number of proposed majority-minority districts in the Arkansas legislature.
Because Democrats control the Board of Apportionment, caucus members are hoping to be able to persuade changes to the final maps released on July 19. Gov. Mike Beebe (D), Attorney General Dustin McDaniel (D) and Secretary of State Mark Martin (R) plan to vote on July 29 on final maps.
When the maps promoted by Beebe and McDaniel were revealed last week, the number of State Senate districts with a majority-minority number of voters was 4. In the House, minority districts shrunk from 13 to 11. While Martin proposed more minority districts, his maps are unlikely to receive consideration because of the partisan make-up of the board.
Rep. Darrin Williams, D-Little Rock, said caucus members are "disappointed" in the final maps, particularly that Reps. Efrem Elliott, D-Altheimer, and James Word, D-Pine Bluff, — two incumbent Democrats — were drawn into the same House district.
He said there has been discussion among individual caucus members of potential litigation if the districts aren’t changed, but for now, they hope to persuade Beebe and McDaniel to make changes.
"It was a goal of the Black Caucus to make sure that we didn’t lose any districts," said Williams, who is vying to be the first African-American Speaker of the House in 2013.
But Williams also said that the reality of shifting population demographics inevitably led to the issue.
"When you look at all of the existing majority-minority districts, you can’t help but note that all of them lost population, according to the latest Census," Williams observed.
A majority-minority district is defined as having more than 50% African-American population in its boundaries.
Rep. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, president of the Black Caucus, tells Talk Business, "We are very concerned about losing a majority district in Jefferson County. We do not need a super-majority district over 75% to sacrifice a seat in Jefferson County."
Steele also said Senate District 16, represented by Sen. Jack Crumbly, D-Earle, is barely a majority-minority district in the heavily black-populated Delta.
"For east Arkansas not to have a reasonable chance of electing an African-American takes us back to where we don’t ever want to go," Steele said, noting that the only growth area in Senate District 16 is in Marion, which has a significant white population.
Steele doesn’t think the caucus will file a lawsuit if the districts aren’t reconsidered, but if minority representation shrinks, he does anticipate a lawsuit being filed by someone or some group.