LEXINGTON, Ky. — Citing “unconstitutional political gerrymandering,” Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday vetoed the Republican legislature’s new maps for its own 138 House and Senate districts and Kentucky's six congressional districts.
Beshear issued his vetoes of House Bills 2 and 3 after lawmakers adjourned for the day.
The GOP holds veto-proof super-majorities in both chambers of the legislature, but Republican legislative leaders had hoped to put this issue behind them during the first week of the session early this month.
“We are disappointed that the governor has chosen to again veto lawfully enacted legislation,” House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said in a prepared statement on the vetoes.
“He is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law, and he knows it,” Osborne said. “This proposal meets all legal considerations. It splits no precincts, divides the fewest number of counties possible, and preserves communities of interest.”
On the congressional district map, Beshear specifically cited the redrawn 1st Congressional District, which would now extend from Fulton County on the Mississippi River to Franklin County in the Bluegrass region. Democrats protested that this was intended to remove Franklin County’s Democratic votes from Central Kentucky’s more moderate 6th Congressional District, attaching it to the far more conservative 1st District.
“Under this map, someone driving from Lexington to Louisville would drive across five of the state’s congressional districts, but it would take over four hours to get from one side of the First District to the other,” Beshear wrote in his veto message.
On the state legislative map, Beshear criticized the plan for excessively splitting up counties, particularly urban counties such as Jefferson, Fayette, Boone and Warren, for partisan reasons that favor the Republican majorities.
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