Hispanics praise Democratic plan

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Wednesday, May 9, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

Members of the state's Hispanic community welcome the Democratic party's plan for reapportionment, although most leaders are pragmatic when addressing its political ramifications.

The Legislature's Democratic contingent released its plan for reapportionment Tuesday; Republicans released their version Thursday.

The Democrats' plan maintains the current size of the Legislature at 63 -- 42 Assembly and 21 Senate seats. In doing so, however, Democrats pushed more seats to Southern Nevada which, consequently, forced a number of incumbents to face off for a shrinking number of seats.

In the Senate, Democrats are proposing one supermajority district, with a 65 percent Hispanic population and no incumbent. But in the Assembly, the six incumbent-free seats range in Hispanic population from a low of 9.71 percent to 17.76 percent.

Democrats joined with party and union leaders during an afternoon press conference in Carson City Tuesday to champion the plan's attention to Hispanic concerns. Although Hispanics comprise roughly 22 percent of the Clark County population, and a growing number statewide, only one of the 63 lawmakers has Hispanic roots.

"Both parties are definitely paying attention to us more than in the past," Andres Ramirez, chairman of the Nevada Hispanic Democratic Caucus, said. "And redistricting is the most important process for minority communities as far as local politics go," he said.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, and chairwoman of the Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee, which is hearing redistricting matters, said Democrats tried to create Assembly districts that were both supermajority and incumbent-free.

"We actively tried to do that," Giunchigliani said. "You have to look at the fact that Las Vegas is very integrated. If you get a credible candidate, they can run anywhere."

Giunchigliani said more Hispanics could not be drawn into the incumbent-free districts because Democrats did not want to "dilute their voice" or "impact the African-American seats already there."

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, who has Hispanic roots, said he thought the Democrats' plan was a better alternative to the plan proposed by Republicans last week, which had five majority Hispanic Assembly districts.

"They, in fact, actually dilute the Hispanics' chances," Coffin said of the Republican plan.

District lines are redrawn every 10 years in attempt to reflect changes in population as fairly as possible.

Since redistricting was last done in 1990, Nevada's Hispanic population has grown faster than any other group, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.

Hispanic leaders have reacted to that change.

This year, for the first time, leaders presented their own maps to legislators. "We didn't even have the technical and legal expertise to draw up these maps 10 years ago," Ramirez said.

"This is the process as we imagined it," Tony Sanchez of the Latin Chamber of Commerce said. "Now, we have to pull together, assess both proposals and continue to give input," he added.

Another aspect of the Democratic plan is the creation of a non-incumbent seat in the Senate Hispanic majority district. Not all community leaders see this as an important feature, however.

"This is as if Hispanic candidates could only win where there isn't a strong contender, and that's just not true," nurse and community activist Ellie Lopez-Bowlan said.

In fact, parallel to the complex process of redrawing maps, now done using computers, Nevada Hispanic leaders have been identifying and training candidates since the last reapportionment. This has included input from national organizations such as the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.

Still, immediate reaction to the Democrats' plan was noncommittal. "The only thing clear is we're not going to be as silent as we were before, when we were more or less told how the districts would be set up," Lopez-Bowlan said.

"The important thing is, now both parties have released their maps, and we've released ours, and everybody has their cards on the table. But this is just the first step in the game," Ramirez said. Sun reporter

Erin Neff contributed to this story.