GOP unveils plan for district maps

Erin Neff

Tuesday, May 22, 2001 | 10:53 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate Republicans unveiled a reapportionment plan Monday evening that they say will help Hispanics get elected and keep communities from being pitted against each other thanks to a larger Legislature.

The Republican plan calls for a 23-seat Senate and a 46-seat Assembly, up from the current 21- and 42-member houses.

The Senate Government Affairs Committee quietly released the maps and a bill draft request Monday to give the public a chance to absorb the details prior to Wednesday's hearing on the plan.

But the public meeting is only a routine part of the process that will largely take place behind closed doors before Friday's self-imposed deadline.

Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, who chairs Government Affairs, said she is hopeful a resolution can be reached with Assembly Democrats by Friday, but isn't betting on it.

"We don't have to finish by Friday," O'Connell said. "We do have the opportunity to work on it over the next two weeks if we have to."

Whether lawmakers wrap up the process by Friday or by June 4's adjournment, they will not be convening a special session.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins said the Legislature is mandated to reapportion the congressional, Senate, Assembly, regent and Board of Education districts during the first session following the Census.

He said failing to finish by June 4 would place Nevada's political structure in the hands of a court.

The Republican plan contains similar elements to a Democrat plan that passed the Assembly in a vote along party lines last week. But the GOP proposal has fewer incumbents running against each other and less combination of rural districts since the additional seats are added.

Just as some Assembly Democrats disapproved of their party's proposal, some Republicans don't want to expand the Legislature because of the estimated $300,000 cost per seat. That would amount to about $1.8 million under the GOP plan.

"Not everybody was in complete agreement on this," O'Connell said.

The Senate plan creates six open seats in Clark County with Hispanic populations ranging from 9.66 percent up to 53.14 percent. Two open seats with majority Hispanic populations were created in the Assembly. There are three other Assembly districts with Hispanic majorities ranging from 53 to 56 percent.

To accomplish that, incumbents Chris Giunchigliani and Genie Ohrenschall, both D-Las Vegas, and Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, and Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas, would have to face each other in future elections.

Vivian Freeman, D-Reno, and Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, were drawn into the same Washoe County district and Joe Dini, D-Yerington and Roy Neighbors, D-Tonopah, were drawn into the same rural district.

The Democrats were criticized for forcing 14 incumbent Assembly representatives to face each other -- the majority of them Republican. But the Republican plan only pits Democrats against each other -- a point decried as unfair when Assembly Republicans suggested a similar plan last week.

On the Senate side, the Republican proposal calls for several incumbents to square off. Sens. Terry Care, Dina Titus and Valerie Weiner, all D-Las Vegas, are drawn into the same two-member district.

Care is chairman of the state Democratic Party, Titus is Senate minority leader and Weiner is minority whip.

The Democrats' plan forced O'Connell into the same two-member district as Titus and Care, but created that district with a 10 percent edge in Democratic voter registration.

Clearly both parties are playing political games with the districts. It's no mistake that Giunchigliani, chairwoman of the Assembly's Elections, Procedures and Ethics Committee that held hearings on reapportionment, is drawn into a new district.

Other senators who would have to face each other in the Republican plan are Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas and Ray Schaffer, D-North Las Vegas and Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, and Mike McGinness, R-Fallon.

The Republican plan creates four open Senate seats -- three in Clark and one in Nye County. One open seat has a 55 percent Hispanic population. The others range from 9.89 to 18.82 percent Hispanic.

The Democrat plan creates one open Senate seat with a 65 percent Hispanic population.

The Senate Republican plan also has roughly the same population split in the three Congressional districts and just 31 people from the ideal population split of 666,086.

All three districts would have some part of Clark County, with Democrat Shelley Berkley's seat in the urban area and the other seats surrounding it to the north and south.

Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons' district would be 46 percent Republican and Berkley's would be 51.85 percent Democrat. The new seat, which takes part of Clark and Nye counties, would be 43.53 percent Republican and 39.80 percent Democrat.

A public hearing will be held on the Republican plan at 2 p.m. Wednesday and will be televised live in Las Vegas at the Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.