House making "slow" progress on redistricting map, could unveil it Wednesday, leaders say

House leaders haven’t given up on approving a new map of the 100 state House districts by the end of the week.

Lawmakers had wanted to dispatch with the politically-charged and controversial redistricting maps early to put it behind them — and so candidates for state House, Senate, judicial and congressional districts would know the boundaries of the districts long before the Jan. 31 filing deadline.

But the map-making in the state House stalled late last week. Many lawmakers — including all of the Republicans who are in the minority — complained that they hadn’t yet seen the maps.

Democratic Rep. Mike Cherry of Princeton told Pure Politics on Monday that the rough plan is for the state government committee to unveil the proposed House map Wednesday. Here’s what Cherry said he hopes the timetable would be:

Cherry said few lawmakers ultimately will be happy with the new district lines.

As chairman of the House state government committee, he has quite a bit of control over the redistricting pen. He said one draft has his 4th District adding 10,000 new constituents.

However, Cherry announced last fall that he won’t run for re-election in 2012.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Monday that “progress is coming, but it’s slow.”

Some Republicans learned last week that under some drafts of the map, they could end up facing fellow incumbents in a primary.

And many lawmakers complained that they had not yet seen any maps of the House districts.

Stumbo, a former attorney general, said he doesn’t believe the new districts have to be approved before the next election and could wait until the 2013 General Assembly session. But he said he isn’t pushing for that to happen.