Late Tuesday, the Kansas Senate approved a new Congressional map for the 2022 election over the veto of Democrat Governor Laura Kelly. The new map has the very real possibility of ensuring that the only Democrat in the Kansas delegation, Sharice Davids, gets turfed out.
The reason for Kelly’s veto was, of course, gerrymandering. Gerrymandering happens whenever Republicans draw the boundaries for congressional districts. To the best of my knowledge, it is impossible for Democrats to gerrymander. The redistricting committee cut a lot of the north suburbs of Kansas City out of Davids’ KS-03 and moved them into Jack LaTurner’s KS-02. The net effect was changing Davids’ district from D+4 to R+3 plus the areas she was left with were areas where she hasn’t performed all that well in the past, plus adding some GOP voters from KS-02. All in all, pretty minor stuff considering what can happen.
Old Map and New Map pic.twitter.com/xqt0CFYeW4
— streiff (@streiffredstate) February 9, 2022
The map was scheduled for an override vote last night, and it immediately went off the rails. This is from the Twitter timeline of the Topeka Capital-Journal’s statehouse reporter to give you a flavor of the happenings.
Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, and Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, were not present for the vote. Senate leadership is presumably trying to determine their whereabouts and get them here. #KSleg
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 7, 2022
Senate continues to wait for absent members. Some have been permitted to take bathroom breaks, while others are allowed to head out for other legislative commitments.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 7, 2022
We're at the point where one #KSleg lawmaker jokingly asked if the bottle of sanitizer near me contains alcohol.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 7, 2022
Thompson is here now! He votes yes.
Masterson switches vote to no.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 7, 2022
Official tally is 24-15.
Masterson presumably wants to do a motion to reconsider tomorrow.
Senate Majority Leader Larry Alley quickly moves to adjourn, over objection from Democrats. Corson tried to make a point of order and was shut down.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 7, 2022
The override vote failed 24-15 (2/3 vote needed). Three Republicans voted with the Democrats to kill the new map, Senate President Ty Masterson switched his vote from YES to NO so that he could bring the bill back up the next day. This is a move you see Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer engage in all the time.
Today the bill was brought back up
Steffen and Straub switch votes to aye. That'll likely give it the 27 votes Republicans need.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 8, 2022
Things are moving quickly, vote starts on overriding the governor's veto.
— Jason Tidd (@Jason_Tidd) February 8, 2022
And so, the new map passed.
The AP claims that the new map will face legal challenges:
Even if the House overrides Kelly’s veto, the GOP plan is expected to face challenges in federal and possibly state courts. Republicans are seeking to recapture a U.S. House majority, and both parties are watching redistricting closely.
You can never rule out a successful court challenge, particularly when the state supreme court has a 5-2 Democrat advantage. That said, whoever brings the case has their work cut out for them. The Supreme Court ruled (Rucho vs. Common Cause) that partisan gerrymanders are not reviewable by federal courts. There are no minority-majority districts in Kansas. Davids’ district is 68% white. Even though Davids’ is an enrolled tribal member and a lesbian, that doesn’t give her any special legal standing. In this case, I’ll take the position of Lord St. Vincent when apprising the British Parliament of the relative danger of a French invasion in 1803, “I do not say the French cannot come, I only say they cannot come by sea.”
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