by Dave Williams | 11/22/2021 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives approved a new congressional card on Monday, the final act in a special once a decade session on redistribution.
House MPs virtually voted 96-68 along the party lines after Democrats complained that Republicans drew a map targeting an incumbent black woman and skinned minority voters to a GOP by the end of this decade Maintain majority in the Georgian Congress delegation.
“This card puts power over principle, partisanship over people,” said James Beverly, D-Macon, the House minority leader.
The Democratic Legislature proposed a card of Congress that would likely have resulted in a 7-7 split in the delegation, which they believe would reflect the 50-50 partisan split that has developed in Georgia due to minority population growth since the last census was created in 2010.
Instead, the new card aims to pave the way for Republicans to win a seat on their current 8-6 majority for a 9-5 advantage.
To accomplish this, the map will likely use US Democratic Representative Lucy McBath of Marietta at 6th The district, currently concentrated in the ethnically diverse suburbs of East Cobb, North Fulton and North DeKalb, now extends into more exurban and even rural communities in the predominantly white counties of Forsyth, Dawson, and eastern Cherokee
“We shouldn’t create cards that target female incumbents,” said MP Miriam Paris, D-Macon. “This congress card does just that.”
MP Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee, chair of the Legislative Redistribution Committee and House Congress, was reluctant to target the Democrats’ allegations. She said there was a need to evict voters from districts that have grown larger than the 755,000 required by law to ensure an even distribution and to relocate voters to other districts that are underpopulated.
“We don’t draw cards to protect incumbents,” she said. “We draw cards for people.”
The other specific complaint the Democrats made on Monday was that Republicans were accepting voters from the heavily black South Cobb County into the mostly white, rural district of northwest Georgia, which was headed by Conservative Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Rome, is represented.
But House minority leader David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, said there was more to the subject than Greene, including the map that divides Cobb into four congressional districts and divides South Cobb in three directions alone.
“This is not about Marjorie Taylor Greene or whoever else represents the county,” he said. “It’s about fairness.”
However, House spokesman David Ralston said the decision to expand the 14th ward south was not politically motivated.
“This district had to take in about 36,000 people,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “We had to go somewhere and find them. … That is a challenge.”
Democrats are expected to file lawsuits against the card of Congress and the new Georgia House and Senate lawmakers passed earlier in the special session.
Ralston said he was confident the cards would be upheld.
“Despite the rhetoric, the cards are fair. You abide by the law and the voting rights law, ”he said. “I was very proud of the process and the work that went into it.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a Georgia Press Educational Foundation project.
