Dems call on legislative Republicans to ‘fix’ Nelson congressional redistricting snafu
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022 — The Kentucky General Assembly released maps of its plans to redistrict Kentucky’s congressional districts, as well as the state senate and house districts.
CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING. Nelson County Democrats have already objected to the set of Congressional redistricting maps released early today that show that Nelson County will be split between the 2nd and the 4th Congressional District.
While detailed maps were not available, it appears the county would be split generally along KY 245 in the west and along US 150, Springfield Road, in the part of the eastern half of the county.
The northern section of the county would fall in U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie’s 4th Congressional District, while the southern part of the county would remain in U.S. Rep. Brett Gutherie’s 2nd Congressional District.
According to the local Democratic party’s statement, “For influence purposes in federal elections … Nelson County would get little attention. This action would also drastically diminish the opportunity for any candidate from this county to have a viable chance to compete in the Congressional District for either District 2 or District 4.
“This proposal is very detrimental to Nelson County in many ways and will have a negative impact on Nelson County for decades to come …”
The statement calls on Rep. Chad McCoy and the rest of the Republicans in the General Assembly to make the changes necessary to keep Nelson County in the 2nd Congressional District.
STATE REDISTRICTING. As far as redistricting the state house and senate districts, Nelson County is expected to remain a single district as the 50th House district.
Nelson County will also remain in the 14th Senate district represented by Sen. Jimmy Higdon. The latest senate redistricting map shows the new 14th District map consisting of Nelson, Marion, Spencer, LaRue and Washington counties.
At Monday’s “Coffee with the Legislators,” Higdon said he expected to vote on the final redistricting maps by Saturday.
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