Senate Republicans Refuse to Fix Famously Gerrymandered Executive Council Districts
Contact Name: Marina Altschiller
Phone: (603) 271-3375
Senate Republicans Refuse to Fix Famously Gerrymandered Executive Council Districts
CONCORD – Today, Republicans on the Senate Election Law & Municipal Affairs Committee voted to refer SB 241 and SB 254 to Interim Study, a recommendation which keeps the bills from moving forward at this time. SB 241 was the Republican proposal for redrawing the lines for the Executive Council Districts; SB 254 was the Democratic proposal.
After the vote, Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) and Senator Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) issued the following statements:
Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy (D-Manchester) stated, “The Executive Council map Senate Democrats proposed in SB 254 prioritized maintaining as many communities of interest as possible while reconfiguring districts that were gerrymandered in the last redistricting cycle. The result was a competitive map that better reflected communities of interest across the state and recognized the true bipartisan nature of New Hampshire. I am very discouraged that my Republican colleagues refused to advance this critical fix to our existing political landscape.”
Senator Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) “By failing to pass an updated Executive Council map, my Republican colleagues have chosen to leave the existing and severely gerrymandered Executive Council districts in place for another 10 years. Executive Council District 2 is among the most gerrymandered legislative districts I’ve ever seen. Even Governor Sununu has publicly admitted that District 2 is visibly gerrymandered, with its snakelike shape. We owe it to the people we represent to redraw the Executive Council map to better reflect communities of interest and the bipartisan balance of our state.”
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