LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky Democratic Party didn’t get exactly what it wanted when Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate ruled against its case arguing that the GOP-controlled redistricting maps went against the Kentucky constitution. Now, the party is looking to take the case to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
In documents filed this week, the KDP appealed Wingate’s ruling to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and asked that court to transfer the case to the state’s highest court. Democrats are challenging maps for the state House, where Republicans just gained an 80-20 majority over Democrats, and U.S. Congress. The challenge does not include the newly drawn state Senate maps.
In Wingate’s ruling, the judge agreed with the KDP’s argument that both maps were gerrymandered to benefit Republicans but did not conclude that gerrymandering violated the state constitution. Democrats argued that gerrymandering violates a section of the state constitution that guarantees that “elections shall be equal and free.”
