MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — As we wait to see if Alabama’s new congressional lines pass muster with federal courts, at least one local conservative pundit says the GOP legislature has made an even bigger mess. Writer Quin Hillyer’s latest commentary in the Washington Examiner says this fight likely won’t end well for our area.
He argues if a special master redraws Alabama’s Congressional lines, in his words, “The result likely will be a map that gerrymanders the state in ways guaranteed to create two districts entirely safe for black Democrats, at the expense of the very Republicans for whom the legislators were trying to save a chance of victory.” He the court could also cut apart Mobile County on racial lines. Hillyer called the special session political performance art rather than trying to find something workable.
Members of Alabama’s Republican Legislative majority argue they were only required to at least create something close to another black majority district. Democrats say the special legislative session failed at its one mandate: to create a new majority-minority Congressional district.
