TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Kansas House committee is expected to hold hearings on a new Senate redistricting plan similar to one that failed to get enough votes from senators.
House Speaker Mike O’Neal said the House Redistricting Committee would hear testimony Friday with the goal of endorsing a plan early next week. The move breaks from legislative tradition where each chamber draws its own political boundaries.
A new Senate map approved by that chamber Wednesday was defeated Thursday in the House over concerns that it diluted minority votes by collapsing two western Kansas districts. That map put Republican Sen. Garrett Love of Montezuma in the same district as Democratic Sen. Allen Schmidt of Hays.
Legislators must redraw political boundaries to account for population changes.
