Senate approves redistricting plan, sends map to House

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

It didn’t take long for the Arkansas State Senate to dispatch with its version of Congressional redistricting.

On a 20-13 vote that included Democrats and Republicans on both sides, SB 871 by Sen. Robert Thompson, D-Paragould, cleared the full Senate after less than 15 minutes of debate.

State Sens. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith, and Bruce Holland, R-Greenwood, voted for the plan. Sen. Ruth Whitaker, R-Cedarville, hospitalized Tuesday after becoming faint on the Senate floor, was excused from voting.

"It’s a compromise map," Thompson told Senators before the vote. "It’s not my first choice or my second choice or my third choice. … But it’s something I can live with."

The plan would split Pope and Searcy counties with Russellville moving to the 4th District. Yell County moves from the 2nd to the 4th District. The eastern side of the map makes the Mississippi Delta counties fairly contiguous through the 1st District, with Ashley County added to the 1st, too.

Madison, Franklin and Johnson counties move from the 3rd to the 4th, still leaving a "thick finger," jutting through the heart of northwest Arkansas. That has been a major argument against a plan known as the "Fayetteville Finger," or "Fayetteville to the Fourth," which has passed the House but failed to make its way past the Senate panel, so far.

State Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, D-Crossett, rose to speak against the plan, calling it "onerous."

He complained that the map’s drawing Ashley County into the First District from the Fourth was upsetting to constituents and required more time to digest.

"We’ve talked a lot about the Fayetteville Finger," Jeffress said. "Well, Ashley County is being given the finger."

The bill now heads to the House State Agencies Committee at noon on Thursday. It faces an uphill battle in the committee composed of 12 Democrats and 8 Republicans.

Rep. Andrea Lea, R-Russellville, said she plans on bringing an amendment to the bill that would unite Pope County in her district. She said Pope County officials are against being divided into different Congressional Districts.