TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A bitter split among majority Republicans has prompted the Kansas Senate to delay a vote on a bill redrawing the boundaries of its 40 districts.
The Senate spent three hours Wednesday debating a redistricting plan favored by the chamber’s moderate GOP leaders. Legislators must redraw their districts this year to account for changes in the state’s population over the past decade.
Conservative Republicans believed the proposal favored GOP moderates facing challenges in the August party primary elections. Conservatives blocked a vote, and the Senate returned the measure to committee.
The plan put four conservative Senate candidates in districts with other conservatives, rather than with moderate incumbents they want to challenge. Backers of the plan said they drew the lines logically without worrying about where candidates live.
