Democrats submit redistricting plans

Erin Neff

Wednesday, May 9, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The reapportionment game began in earnest Tuesday after Las Vegas-area Democrats unveiled a plan immediately derided for gutting both Northern Nevada and Republican interests.

"We're the majority," Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, said when asked why so many Republican incumbents would have to square off against each other under the Democrats' plan.

The Democrats introduced two bills in the Assembly, one redrawing the lines for the state Assembly, Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The second redraws the lines for the state Board of Education and Board of Regents.

"You've got to start somewhere," Perkins added. "You have to balance incumbent protections against everything else."

The Democrats' plan maintains the current size of the Legislature at 63 -- 42 Assembly and 21 Senate seats. But in doing so, the Democrats pushed more seats to Southern Nevada, which would force a number of incumbents to face each other for a shrinking number of seats.

In the Senate two powerful Northern Nevada lawmakers would square off: Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman Randolph Townsend, also R-Reno.

"This plan may not have a lot of oxygen left as it works through the Senate," Townsend said. "I can absolutely assure you at the end of session, this will not be the plan."

One Las Vegas seat has Democrats Terry Care and Dina Titus facing Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, in a two-member district with 10 percent more Democrats than Republicans.

"Care, Titus and me," O'Connell said. "Somebody's got to go, and guess who they decided. But guess whose committee it goes to."

O'Connell chairs the Senate Government Affairs Committee, which would have to approve any Assembly Democrat-sponsored plan.

In the Democrats' Assembly plan, the following Republicans would have to face each other: Merle Berman and Barbara Cegavske, both of Las Vegas; Greg Brower and David Humke, both of Reno; Sharron Angle and Dawn Gibbons, both of Las Vegas, and John Carpenter of Elko and John Marvel of Battle Mountain.

Additionally, Don Gustavson, R-Sun Valley, would have to run against Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, in a district with an 8-percentage point edge in Democratic voters. Kathy Von Tobel, R-Las Vegas, would have to face Democrat David Parks in a 46 percent Democratic district.

Only Democrats Morse Arberry and Bob Price would have to face each other in a district with roughly a one-third black, one-third Hispanic and one-third white population.

"It doesn't comply to the given known rules," Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said, referring to the Northern Nevada districts pitting Republicans against each other. "It doesn't make any sense."

But Hettrick did not think the plan was going to get far.

"I don't think the governor's going to sign anything that looks like that," Hettrick said. "It's a joke."

Democrats defended their proposal, calling it the best option they had given the U.S. Census data and the history of court cases and the tenants of the Voting Rights Act that must be met.

"We wanted to maintain the structural status quo," Titus said. "We also attempted to protect the rurals, and we wanted to protect the Democratic incumbents."

But not all Democrats were pleased.

Assemblyman Joe Dini, D-Yerington, has advocated increasing the size of the Legislature to keep rural Nevadan voices in government.

"It's very difficult to represent an area with that kind of size," Dini said, referring to the proposed map showing Assembly District 36 covering all of Lincoln, Nye and Esmeralda counties and a portion of Lyon and Mineral counties. "I still think some work can be done there."

Democrats also believe they have come up with a good plan to redraw the state's congressional districts with the addition of a third seat.

Each of the three districts would have 666,000 people. Republican Jim Gibbons' district would be 47 percent Republican and 36 percent Democrat.

"He is absolutely, solidly Republican in a safe, safe, safe seat," Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said.

Democrat Rep. Shelley Berkley's district would be 45 percent Democrat and 37 percent Republican. Giunchigliani said she thought Berkley's seat would be tougher for a Democrat to hold, but added, "I still believe that Shelley Berkley will absolutely win any race she runs in."

The new seat, covering part of Clark County, includes area where both congressional hopefuls Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera, a Democrat, and Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson, live. But the proposed district is 45 percent Democrat and 38 percent Republican.

Republicans rushed around the Legislative Building Tuesday afternoon looking for proposed congressional maps and a look at their own districts after hearing bits and pieces about the Democrats' plan from reporters and lobbyists.

"Were they laughing when they did this?" one asked.

Giunchigliani's committee will hold a public hearing on the Assembly, Senate and Congress plans at 3:45 p.m. Thursday. That meeting will be televised in Las Vegas.

The Legislature has a self-imposed deadline of May 25 to wrap up reapportionment.

More details about the Democrats' plan -- Assembly Bill 664 for state Board of Education and Regents and Assembly Bill 665 for Congress, Assembly and Senate -- can be found on the Legislature's website: www.leg.state.nv.us