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Legislature Session 2001 Story Index

Thursday, May 31, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

REDISTRICTING: GOP, Democrats face off

Sides insist plans will end up in court

CARSON CITY -- In the latest feud between Democrats and Republicans over how to draw legislative districts that make Las Vegas Hispanics happy, each side on Wednesday insisted the other's plan will end up in court.

An attorney for the Republican Party handed out a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case that he insisted showed Assembly Democrats' plan to be unconstitutional.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, chairwoman of the Assembly Elections Committee, testified that based on another case out of Chicago, the GOP plan would be unconstitutional.

And in a sign that arguments over redistricting are losing their civility, Mark Braden, the Nevada Republican Party's Washington, D.C.-based attorney, said after a hearing that Giunchigliani was "crazy, she doesn't know what she's talking about" when she said the GOP plan would be unconstitutional.

During the hearing before Senate Government Affairs, Braden, who has worked redistricting in 25 states, handed out copies of a case he said was on point in Nevada. The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors was successfully sued for drawing districts that diluted Hispanic strength, "fragmenting the Hispanic population among the various districts in order to dilute the effect of the Hispanic vote in future elections and preserve incumbencies of the Anglo members of the Board of Supervisors."

The GOP contends Assembly Bill 665 does exactly that by splitting the Hispanic areas into 12 Assembly districts instead of consolidating them into five, as the Republicans propose. Dividing the Hispanic population into 12 districts instead of five is "classic fragmentation," Braden said.

The Democrats' redistricting adviser, retired Wisconsin Judge Fred Kessler, whispered for a while into the ear of Democratic Sen. Terry Care of Las Vegas, but did not come forward to testify in opposition to Braden.

When the testimony ended, the Republican members of Government Affairs voted to adopt an amendment that gives the Hispanic community everything they asked for: five Assembly seats and two Senate seats. The Democrats abstained, saying they wanted to review the Board of Supervisors case and review the amendment.

Giunchigliani said she was not familiar with the Los Angeles case. She said, however, there are other cases that support her position that the GOP plan, which creates districts with Hispanic populations of less than 65 percent, is unconstitutional.

"Your maps won't hold up in court," she told the Republicans. "If they (the Hispanic districts) are less than 60 to 65 percent, we will be in court, I guarantee you that."

Her position holds that because of low voter turnout, low registration and fewer voting-age residents, Hispanics hoping to elect their own are better off with districts of at least 60 percent Hispanic population, as the Democrats have drawn in two Assembly seats and one Senate seat. In the Assembly, they drew 10 more districts with Hispanic populations of about 30 percent.

The redrawing of political boundaries every 10 years is mandated by law to equalize the number of people in political districts.

Legislative Counsel Bureau attorney Scott Wasserman, a neutral legal adviser, told the committee there is no magic percentage that is constitutional, and that minority districts of 51 percent have been upheld in the courts.

Meanwhile, the Latinos for Equal Representation, a bipartisan coalition of Hispanic groups, met in Las Vegas on Wednesday night to decide whether to endorse the Republican plan, which had been adjusted to match their own proposals. After 90 minutes, they decided against any endorsement.

Andres Ramirez, a Democratic consultant who drew the original maps based on a 42- seat Assembly and a 21-seat Senate, said because the Senate maps are for an expanded Legislature, the coalition prefers seats with smaller populations, as the other districts would have. "We want the same number of seats, but smaller districts," he said based on the 46-seat Assembly and 23-seat Senate the Republicans advocate.

In the Senate, the ideal population is 86,881 for the larger Legislature, while the Hispanic Senate seat would have 90,968 residents. He is working on maps to reduce the size, yet keep the Hispanic population high.

The Hispanics may take a step back in one fuss.

Government Affairs Chairman Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, plans to ask for an amendment to redraw a Democratic map to put Board of Regents Chairwoman Thalia Dondero back in her old seat, which is largely Hispanic, rather than pit her against Regent Tom Wiesner in 2002.

The Assembly Democrats had proposed placing Dondero, a former Democratic Clark County commissioner, in Wiesner's district to create an open Hispanic seat. The Democrats had believed, erroneously, that Wiesner wouldn't run again, but he denies he has made that decision.