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Kentucky House GOP Leaders Offer 'Fairer' Redistricting Plan

KY House Republican Caucus

Kentucky House Republican leaders are offering a legislative redistricting plan that would force eight incumbents to run against each other next year.

The map unveiled Thursday by House GOP Leader Jeff Hoover affects four Republicans and four Democratic lawmakers. 

Hoover told WKU Public Radio the GOP plan is very different from a plan put forth earlier this year by Democrats that had nine Republicans running against each other, but no Democrats.

"What we put forward was a much fairer plan that puts one pair of Democratic incumbents against each other, one pair of Republican incumbents against each other, and two mixed pairings where there is an incumbent Republican against an incumbent Democrat," explains Hoover.

Given population shifts in Kentucky over the past decade, Hoover says it's impossible to redraw legislative boundaries without pitting incumbents against each other. 

The GOP proposal would impact the following incumbents:

Democrats Rocky Adkins and Kevin Sinnette, 100th dist.

Republicans Toby Herald and Marie Rader , 89th dist.

Republican C.B. Embry and Democrat Brent Yonts, 15th dist.

Republican Bart Rowland and Democrat Wilson Stone, 53rd dist.

In his State Capitol news conference, Hoover touted that the Republican map divides two precincts compared to 152 split precincts in the Democratic plan.  Split precincts are costly and burdensome to county clerks, and Hoover estimated the GOP map would save $1.5 million in taxpayer money. 

House Democratic leaders have yet to put forth their version of a new map.

The General Assembly convenes in special session August 19th to re-draw legislative boundaries to reflect population changes recorded by the U.S. Census.

Lisa is a Scottsville native and WKU alum. She has worked in radio as a news reporter and anchor for 18 years. Prior to joining WKU Public Radio, she most recently worked at WHAS in Louisville and WLAC in Nashville. She has received numerous awards from the Associated Press, including Best Reporter in Kentucky. Many of her stories have been heard on NPR.
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