State’s third House district debated

Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001 | 11:17 a.m.

Nevada's two House members are at odds over how to carve up the state to accommodate a third congressional district.

Democrat Shelley Berkley on Monday told a legislative panel that she prefers to continue representing her urban -- and largely Democratic -- district of Las Vegas and Henderson.

Berkley does not support a proposal floated by state Republicans that could slice up Las Vegas and create three geographically expansive districts that each include widely diverse rural and urban areas.

A Democratic plan would create a kind of "doughnut," with Berkley's compact district as the doughnut hole, largely suburban areas as the doughnut and Rep. Jim Gibbons' Republican district outside Clark County.

Nevada, with the fastest-growing population in America, received a third seat in Congress following the 2000 Census.

The issue is a simmering political battle as the Legislature begins to consider how to draw a new district. Democrats and Republicans both want to create a third district whose residents belong to their party.

House members who represent more "homogenous" districts can be more effective, Berkley said.

"I'm protecting the interests of the people of Southern Nevada by not allowing the needs of the people I represent to be diluted for political purposes," Berkley said in an interview today. "Our founding fathers quite appropriately created congressional districts to represent local districts and local people. Otherwise we would all be elected at-large and represent the entire state."

Berkley's comments in testimony to the Legislative Commission's Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting on Monday raised the eyebrows of Gibbons.

Gibbons, who represents the entire state minus Berkley's urban core, would like to maintain a foothold in Clark County. Gibbons represents a swath of northwest Las Vegas including Summerlin, parts of North Las Vegas, Nellis Air Force Base and the Anthem area in Henderson and Boulder City.

"I represent urban as well as rural constituents," Gibbons said. "Redistricting should be based on what is right for Nevada, not what is right for a congressperson. You don't want to gerrymander."

Democrats argue that it makes more sense, when possible, to create a predominantly urban or urban-suburban district so that its representative can focus on city-life issues.