LEXINGTON, Ky. — Republican majorities in the House and Senate overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes of bills that redraw the state’s House and U.S. Congressional District maps on a busy Thursday that also included impassioned speeches and lawsuits over the new maps.
The House overrode the veto of their new map, House Bill 2, sending it over to the Senate in a 69-23 vote; all "no" votes were Democrats, with the exception of Lynn Bechler, R-Marion, who is drawn into another incumbent’s district in the new map. The Senate overrode Beshear’s veto of their new Congressional District map, Senate Bill 3, along less strictly partisan lines and also overrode the House Bill 2 veto 24-10, making the House map the law of the land.
Beshear called the two maps an instance of “unconstitutional political gerrymandering,” but stark Republican majorities poised to pass each others’ veto overrides render his complaint moot in the legislative process.
