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.
But the redistricting drama may not stop there.
Democrats in Franklin County filed a lawsuit challenging both maps in question on Thursday.
A group of Franklin County residents joined the Kentucky Democratic Party and House Minority Caucus Chair Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, in the challenge.
The residents allege that the “unconstitutional, partisan” House and U.S. Congressional maps disenfranchise them.
“The General Assembly’s focus in creating these district maps wasn’t representation or democracy or even legality — their focus was on partisan politics, which is why they unnecessarily sliced up so many counties,” plaintiff Joseph Smith said. “Why else would I, a Franklin County resident, be sorted into the same congressional district as Paducah? I should pick my representatives — they shouldn’t pick me.”
The lawsuit claims that the new maps violate four sections of the state constitution.
Largely in response to the likelihood of lawsuits, Rep. Jerry Miller, R-Eastwood, has filed House Bill 323, which would delay Kentucky’s May 17 primary two and a half months to Aug. 2 for this year only. The filing deadline for all 2022 elections would also get pushed back from the current Jan. 25 all the way to May 31.
Miller, who is not running for reelection and was one of the authors of the proposed House map, said that House Bill 323 would only be passed if legal challenges to the new maps drag on into late March. March 30 is the last day that the legislature can send bills to the governor before the governor’s 10-day veto period kicks in.
He and other Republicans said they were likely to come, and they were proven correct on Thursday.
The last time maps were passed by a majority-Democrat House, Rep. Joseph Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, successfully challenged the House’s map.
Miller told the Herald-Leader that he’s confident that Republicans drew the map in a way that would withstand any legal challenge, and that the governor has used “time as a weapon” in trying to thwart Republicans as they work through redistricting.
“The governor could have called a special session before Christmas, and didn’t,” Miller said. “He also could have vetoed the bill the day he received it. He knew he was going to and so did everybody.”
Beshear said at the time that he would have considered calling a special session if Republicans had presented him with a plan, but they did not do so — Republicans insisted he should have called one anyway.
The maps are required to be redrawn roughly every ten years in response to population shifts. They are highly consequential for candidates seeking office, and their constituents, in the coming decade.
Beshear stated at a press conference on Thursday that he believed the two maps are unconstitutional and unfairly split up various cities and counties across the Commonwealth. He also suggested that they diminish the influence of Black voters.
University of Kentucky College of Law elections specialist Josh Douglas has said that he believes that the House map is unconstitutional because it could have drawn a majority-Black district, but very narrowly did not. Republicans have responded by emphasizing that the new map increases the number of majority-minority districts.
Miller said he believes a lawsuit on the Republican-drawn maps could be imminent, but that House Bill 323 could “go into the dustbin of history” if the matter is resolved in the courts by early March.
Beshear said that his office would not get involved in any potential lawsuits over the maps, and that he’s still reviewing the Senate map as proposed in Senate Bill 2. He called that map “less egregious” than the others.
The new maps, Miller and his Republican colleagues have argued continually, are by the book.
“These are constitutional maps,” Miller said. “You can say whatever you want, but to quote John Adams ‘facts are stubborn things.’ Whatever they say can’t alter facts and evidence, and those are on our side.”
On the floor, Miller called Beshear’s veto a “work of fiction,” pushing back against most of the governor’s characterizations of House Bill 2.
_____
