2nd try to undo veto saves Kansas GOP map targeting Democrat

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday revived a redistricting plan that would make it harder for the only Kansas Democrat in Congress to win reelection, engineering a second-chance override of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the measure in the state Senate.

The Senate vote Tuesday was 27-11 and gave Republican leaders exactly the two-thirds majority they needed, with two GOP senators abstaining. The measure goes next to the House, which has a month to decide whether to override Kelly’s veto and make the new district lines law. It wasn’t clear whether Republicans yet have the necessary two-thirds majority there, but they are close.

Republican senators faced questions from their colleagues and reporters about how much legislative horse-trading led up to Tuesday’s vote. The first veto override attempt on Monday failed, 24-15, because four GOP senators broke with their leaders. The Republican-controlled Legislature’s rules allow lawmakers to reconsider any action by the next day.

“I hope whoever got them to change their mind will get what it is they bargained for,” said Democratic state Sen. David Haley, of Kansas City, which is split under the map. “It lends discredit to this process.”

Even if the House overrides Kelly’s veto, the GOP plan is expected to face challenges in federal and possibly state courts. Republicans are seeking to recapture a U.S. House majority, and both parties are watching redistricting closely.

Kansas Republicans’ plan would split the state’s portion of the Kansas City area into two congressional districts, costing Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids some of the territory in her 3rd District where she performs best. The map also would move the liberal northeast Kansas community of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, from the 2nd District of eastern Kansas into the 1st District of central and western Kansas with conservative communities six or more hours away by car.

Top Republicans said all of the changes resulted from the need to balance the population in each of the state’s four congressional districts after a decade of shifts. States are required to redraw lines at least once a decade to make their districts as equal in population as possible. The GOP plan gives every Kansas district the ideal population of 734,470.

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, argued that even with the new lines district, Davids would have won reelection in 2020, based on that year’s results.

“It’s a fair map,” he told reporters after the vote.

Masterson joined the four GOP dissenters in voting against an override Monday, but only so that he would be able to ask senators to reconsider Tuesday. A person on the winning side has to do it.

The conservative Republicans who switched from no Monday to yes Tuesday are Sens. Mark Steffen, of Hutchinson, and Alicia Straub, of Ellinwood.

Straub explained her yes vote Tuesday by saying she’s never supported anything Kelly has, adding, “This is standing for freedom.”

Steffen didn’t sound much like a supporter of GOP leaders’ map in his explanation of his yes vote Tuesday, deriding the plan for moving Lawrence into the district long known as the “Big First” because it sprawls over much of the state.

“Now they are dumping the Lawrence liberals in our lap,” he said. “Just like illegal hunting killed off our buffalo in the 1800s, insidious redistricting will kill off the true conservative character of my beloved Big First.”

Both senators are COVID-19 vaccine skeptics. On Tuesday morning, a Senate committee approved a bill containing proposals from Steffen aimed at protecting doctors who prescribe the anti-worm medication ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and at making it easier for parents to enroll their children in school or day care without getting them vaccinated.

Masterson said he had conversations with the senators about multiple issues, but when asked why they switched their votes, he told reporters: “You’re going to have to talk to them.”

Steffen declined comment multiple times when reporters asked whether the committee action Tuesday influenced his change of vote. Straub ducked reporters immediately after the vote.

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