House plan for redrawing congressional lines could result in much different looking districts

Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo told reporters that the early draft of the House plan for congressional redistricting suggests moving the cities of Ashland from the 4th to the 5th District, Owensboro from the 2nd to the 1st and Jessamine County from the 6th to the 2nd District.

To make that work with roughly even numbers of constituents in each district, that would cause a domino effect with other counties, potentially involving Shelby, Spencer and Nelson moving from the 2nd to the 4th District.

The 2nd also would pick up more southern Kentucky counties along the Tennessee border.

That would cut off the tail of the 1st District, which would become more of a western Kentucky area.

The Central Kentucky District of the 6th would pick up a few more counties to the northeast including Harrison, Nicholas, Robertson, Fleming and Bath and Marion to the southwest. It would lose Jessamine, Garrard, Boyle and Lincoln to the 2nd District.

Republican Sen. Damon Thayer of Georgetown, who is spearheading the Republican Senate redistricting effort, didn’t comment to reporters on the details Stumbo leaked. Thayer said it was too early to talk specifics.

He said senators are still working on the plan but that it would be ready by the start of the session in January.

According to the 2010 Census numbers, the 6th, 4th and 2nd District must lose populations while the 1st and 5th need to add constituents in order to even out at roughly 723,000 people. (The 3rd District in Louisville has nearly the right amount).