ATLANTA — The Georgia State Senate released a proposed map showing new senate districts. The Senate drew them to comply with a federal court order that said Black Georgians were underrepresented in the state senate.
The mapmaking has been a backstage work in progress at the state Capitol for much of the last month.
Georgia's Senate has a substantial majority of white Republicans. They are in charge of submitting new district maps which could have given a bit more power to Black Democrats. They did it without threatening the Republican majority.
They redrew District 17, old home of of Republican Sen. Brian Strickland of McDonough. The Senate judiciary committee chairman now represents a majority white district, according to senate demographic data. District 17 would become 62 percent Black.
In District 28, Sen. Matt Brass of Newnan would also get a newly drawn majority Black district.
Yet the mapmakers also moved Democratic leaning Districts 6 and 42 into new territory, making them more GOP friendly and therefore "gerrymandered," said Ken Lawler of Fair Districts Georgia, who has monitored redistricting battles in Georgia.
Lawler said the mapmaking is messy business even without the politics.
"The region the court is pointing to, there’s just a ton of districts that all just kind of intertwine with one another. This is not an easy job to draw net new districts down there," Lawler said.
The maps the Senate released Monday won’t necessarily be the final maps voted on after the special legislative session convenes Wednesday – leaving lots of room to shape them in ways that suit the Republican majority.
Mapmakers are also releasing in the next few days new state House districts and new congressional districts, which will get national attention.