The proposed new congressional redistricting plans have been voted out of their respective committees and are heading to the Senate and House floors.
Ultimate passage is considered likely.
The Tennessee Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Tuesday to recommend the Senate version of the plan, SB0781, for passage. The vote was 7-2 in favor. Senators voting aye were: Bell, Gardenhire, Lundberg, Roberts, Rose, Stevens, and White. Senators Gilmore and Robinson voted no. Also voted out of committee were the legislative redistricting plans.
The Senate Floor Calendar has the Judiciary Committee approved congressional and legislative redistricting plans up for consideration on Thursday, January 20, 2022.
The House State Government Committee also voted to recommend its version, HB1034, for passage and referred it to the House Calendar & Rules Committee, which will then schedule the plan for floor consideration. The State Government Committee vote was a voice one, with representatives Beck, Chism, Jernigan, and Windle requesting to be recorded as voting no. The State Government Committee also voted to approve the legislative redistricting plans as well.
As of this writing, the House Calendar & Rules Committee has not yet placed HB1034 on the House Regular Calendar.
Incumbent 5th District Congressman Jim Cooper, upset that Nashville is proposed to be split amongst three congressional districts, previously stated his displeasure with the proposed new maps:
The damage this map does to the political influence of minority groups in Nashville is devastating. Our robust, diverse communities in Nashville are represented and affirmed in Washington, DC today when Nashville has its own voice in Congress. That voice is silenced when we are colonized by outlying rural communities. The map was released for the first time today and the more people learn about it, the more they will hate it. The Tennessee Titans stadium will be in one district, and the team’s practice facility in another – this makes no sense.
All Nashvillians should feel insulted and abused by the new map. For at least 100 years, Nashvillians have freely chosen Democratic representatives in Congress, but that tradition is about to end. What Republicans could not win in local elections, they are stealing through gerrymandering.
It is not conservative to break up a city that has remained politically whole for 230 years. In fact, it is gross legislative overreach to interfere with one of the most admired cities in America. We ain’t broke here in Nashville, so the legislature has no business “fixing” us. Some folks on the committee are people I’ve known all my life and what they are doing is wrong.
Currently, Nashville makes up the bulk of the 5th Congressional District.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by cmh2315fl. CC BY-NC 2.0.
Let’ get on with it and pass the plan.