(Host) Vermont’s Reapportionment Board is recommending some dramatic changes for Senate districts in the northern part of the state. But, as VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports, the plan faces some major political hurdles in the Legislature.
(Kinzel) Every ten years, the Reapportionment Board meets to redraw House and Senate district lines to reflect changes in Vermont’s population over the previous decade.
The trends from the 2010 census are clear – the number of people living in the northwestern part of the state is growing while the northeast kingdom is losing population.
Based on these changes, the proposed map creates an expanded Grand Isle – Chittenden district that will have two seats – currently it has one. And the two member Essex Orleans district will be trimmed back to one.
Tom Little is the chairman of the Board. He says drawing the map is like building a puzzle.
(Little) "The towns in Senate districts have to be contiguous to each other , they have to have some compactness to how things are laid you wouldn’t want a long string of towns in a Senate district and the population of that cluster has to add up to something within a range of for a single member district 20,860 residents. That’s the trick."
(Kinzel) The second big change is the Board’s decision to break the six member Chittenden County district into three two-member districts. Little recognizes that this recommendation could be controversial.
(Little) "The Board has its own job under the statute, it’s a different job than the Senate and the Senate is where I think the law and the political considerations and the considerations about communities of interest all come to a head."
(Kinzel) The plan now goes to the Senate for its review and ultimately a vote next winter. Senate President John Campbell isn’t persuaded that it makes sense to break up the six member Chittenden County district.
(Campbell) "I still right now I have not seen anything or been provided with any information that would make me think about splitting that district up at this point."
(Kinzel) And Campbell wonders if some members of the Board are trying to reduce the Democrats’ strong representation in Chittenden County.
(Campbell) "I’m somebody who would like to think that it was done with a conscious effort of looking for the representation but I think there’s always a possibility that people bring politics on board and so we’re just going to have to take a real close look at it."
(Kinzel) Campbell says he’ll appoint a special committee to review these recommendations next winter. The new map is scheduled to be in place for the 2012 elections.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.