CHARLESTON – Senate Republicans again were unable to reach consensus on a new Senate district map on Monday and laid it over for the fourth time. The Senate reconvenes at noon Tuesday for a fifth go at it.
It was a herky-jerky day. They first assembled at 11 a.m., only to immediately recess until 1:30 p.m. At that time they quickly passed HB 301, the House redistricting bill, in a 28-5 vote.
Senate Redistricting Committee chair Charles Trump, R-Morgan, complimented the work of the House in creating 100 single-member districts. “This is a plan I think is long overdue,” he said, and “a welcome step forward for the people of West Virginia.”
They then turned their attention to their own map bill, SB 3034, and the proposed floor amendment map – nicknamed the Karnes/Tarr map by some – that had been criticized for splitting 13 counties. Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, was lead sponsor (Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, was a cosponsor but not Sen. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph) and described it.
Then Trump took the floor to discuss an amendment to the amendment co-sponsored by himself and Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kananwha.
Trump described at length how it varied from the version sponsored by Rucker and other senators. He said again that while the state Constitution calls for keeping counties whole, it’s currently impossible with the state’s configuration and population.
But their amendment, he said, preserved a core southwestern unit of Boone, Lincoln and Logan, and kept Kanawha whole while the other map cut it in half and paired part with Fayette.
That proposal drew some Democratic praise. Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin noted that, unlike the other map, it kept Fayette and Greenbrier together and linked them to Pocahontas, which shares common interests with Greenbrier.
Sen. Mike Maroney, R-Marshall, also praised the Trump-Takubo map. He said the other map’s treatment of Kanawha was “an absurdity” and “an enormous disservice to Kanawha County.” It “pencil whips first and follows the Constitution second.”
The vote to amend the Trump-Takubo map into the Rucker map barely succeeded in a 17-16 vote with six Republicans joining the 11 Democrats to support it.
But then the vote to make the Trump-Takubo map the bill’s map failed 14-19. Two Republicans, including Trump voting against his own amendment, and two Democrats switched votes.
So then the committee map that’s been in the system most of the week remained the map contained in the bill. Trump noted that that map divides only seven counties.
But there was no consensus and they recessed again until 4 p.m. At 4 p.m., they came back and immediately recessed until 6 pm. At 6, they laid over the bill again.
HB 335, the governor’s COVID-19 vaccine exemption bill that stirred controversy and opposition in the House, was on second reading and was moved to third reading on Tuesday with the right to amend.
After the Senate adjourned for the day, The Dominion Post talked to Sen. Randy Smith, R-Preston, about the day’s goings-on.
He noted, as have others, that the pandemic delayed delivery of census data for several months, which pushed back the redistricting session (the 2011 session occurred in August).
“We just haven’t had, honestly, a whole lot of time,” he said. “It just takes some time; it’s a process you go through to come to a conclusion.”
He said, as others have, that this is the first time Republicans have led a redistricting session in nearly a century. There are lot of factors to consider and they want to be fair.
“You’ve got a lot of personalities, different ideas. Everybody wants to do the right thing,” he said. “I feel confident we’re close to getting something to agree on.”
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