The Legislature’s consideration of redistricting continues, with a special session anticipated next week to consider new maps.
“I’m hopeful we can get through this rather quickly,” state Delegate Brandon Steele, R-Raleigh, a member of the House Redistricting Committee. “We’ve at least told our members to keep our schedules open throughout the week.”
The House Redistricting Committee hasn’t yet gotten back together after meeting last week. The committee got a first look at six proposed congressional maps and one 100-district map for the House of Delegates but agreed to return at a date to be determined.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s Redistricting Committee plans a meeting for 3 p.m. Wednesday to discuss proposed maps. The Senate committee has 23 proposed congressional maps posted so far. There are not yet any maps of proposed state Senate districts publicly available to see.
“Send in your comments. Send in your evaluations of these maps,” Senator Charles Trump, R-Morgan, the chairman of that chamber’s redistricting committee, said to the public last week.
Video and audio of the Senate’s meeting will be streamed live.
The Legislature will have to settle on an awkward divide of the state into two congressional districts, rather than three, because of the Census determination that West Virginia has been losing population.
Some members of the public have taken the invitation to comment.
West Virginia resident James Wilgus wrote in that he prefers a map labeled “Trump 4,” which has a sort of diagonal split.
“Charleston, Huntington and the southern coalfields are in one district. And the northern and eastern panhandle regions, along with Morgantown are in the second district. This contains a defined east/west split of the state. Thank you,” he wrote.
Another commenter, Dave Gaudino, said he prefers the map called “Trump 6,” which has more of a direct north-south divide, with Braxton County at the center. “I think it makes the most sense,” Gaudino wrote.
Commenter Dave Bogdan prefers “Trump 15,” which is an east-west divide, at first skirting down Ohio Valley counties before broadening.
“Trump No. 15 seems sprawling at first, but I think linking the Coalfields with the Chemical Valley, and keeping the Ohio River counties intact from Hancock to Wayne would be beneficial,” he wrote. “Also, this map gives an almost equal population distribution.”
Commenter Stanley Wyatt had a few favorites — Jeffries No. 1, which has a zig-zagging north-south split, plus Trump No. 1 — which is a map lawmakers have been calling crablegs because of its shape, and Trump No. 8, another north-south split.
“I am for the least amount of deviation and for equality in population,” he wrote. “Thank you.”
Speaking on “Radio Roundtable” on WJLS-AM, Delegate Steele said settling on a congressional map will be difficult because West Virginia has several distinct regions that aren’t easily split into two.
“When you go down to two seats, there are just certain things we’re not going to be able to avoid,” he said.
“The most difficult thing to imagine is somebody in Mingo County is in the same district as someone from Jefferson County. That’s seven hours away. That’s quite a haul. You’re taking communities that have nothing in common with one another and putting them together.”
With some of the proposed maps that place the growing Eastern Panhandle with much of southern West Virginia, he said, it’s hard to envision a resident from the southern counties being elected to be U.S. representative.
“Barring George W. Bush or Donald Trump moving to Gilbert and running for Congress, I don’t think we’d have one,” he said of southern counties.
“Having somebody in the Eastern Panhandle representing the coalfields, there’s a bit of detachment there. I’m not saying somebody wouldn’t try. I’m not saying somebody wouldn’t do their best.”