The head of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce urged members in an email Friday to contact two local legislators who have not spoken out against a bill that would put the city in south Arkansas’ 4th Congressional District.
Steve Clark, chamber president and chief executive officer, provided contact information for Sen. Sue Madison and Rep. Greg Leding, both D-Fayetteville, and noted they did not speak against the plan at a recent legislative hearing.
The House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday approved House Bill 1836 redrawing the state’s four congressional districts. The plan includes an arm into 3rd District Washington County, encompassing Fayetteville for the 4th District. The committee and its Senate counterpart are redrawing congressional districts to reflect populations shifts unveiled in the 2010 census. Northwest Arkansas’ fast-growing 3rd District gained population, while the 4th declined.
“Neither Senator Madison nor Representative Leding, as members of our Fayetteville legislative delegation, appeared at the House State Agencies Committee meeting ... to support Fayetteville and our region or to oppose the HB 1836,” Clark wrote.
He said other elected officials in the region have spoken against the bill.
Clark and other leaders from Washington and Benton counties have said the region touts itself as one economic entity and would suffer economically if Fayetteville is included in a different congressional district.
Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, also sent an email to his members Friday, asking them to express to Madison their concerns about the redistricting plan.
Rep. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, said he will vote against the bill and is working with Senate colleagues on legislation that would remove the “Fayetteville Finger” from the proposed new 4th District, leaving the city in the 3rd.
“I am personally disappointed they have not been an early-on, vocal opponent,” Lindsey said of Madison and Leding.
Lindsey said most of the phone calls and email he received from Fayetteville residents are opposed to the plan.
“I was sent to Little Rock to represent the interests of Fayetteville,” he said.
Madison, who heads the eight-member Senate committee that will take redistricting bills under consideration, said Thursday she does not want to give her opinion on any redistricting bill, including House Bill 1836.
“I don’t want to commit on it before I give them all a fair hearing,” she said. Madison said her committee has a hearing at noon Monday but probably won’t start discussing redistricting bills until the committee meets again at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Leding did not return calls for comment Friday.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell, has said voters in Fayetteville, a Democratic college town, might have a sense their vote counts in the Democratic 4th District as it might not in the Republican 3rd District. The 4th District congressman, Mike Ross of Prescott, is the four-member congressional delegation’s only Democrat. The 3rd District is represented by first-term Republican Steve Womack, a former Rogers mayor.
Legislators Respond
House Bill 1836 is awaiting action before the full House and, if approved, would go to the Senate for consideration.
Democrats hold a nine-member advantage in the House. For Republicans to defeat the measure in that chamber, their members would have to vote against it, along with five Democrats.
Eight Democratic legislators from the 4th Congressional District said Friday they were not sure how they will vote. Three said they support the bill, one had no comment and one said she is against it.
Reps. Johnnie Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia; Garry Smith, D-Camden; and David “Bubba” Powers, D-Hope, said they would vote for the redistricting plan that includes Fayetteville in the 4th District.
“It has been obvious from the beginning that there would be some radical changes, but in my mind, we can all adapt to the proposal and make it work,” Powers said.
Reps. Eddie Cheatham, D-Crossett, who introduced the bill for Hall, and Larry Cowling, D-Foreman, said they want to study the bill and any possible amendments. They voted for the bill in committee.
Rep. Nate Steel, D-Nashville, said he voted to move the proposal out of committee but still has questions.
“Since I didn’t get all my questions answered, I voted to let it out of committee so we could discuss it further on the floor,” Steel said. “I don’t have my mind entirely made up, but I think there are a lot of arguments that the 4th District could benefit from having, particularly, the university, but Fayetteville altogether, in the 4th.”
Rep. Sheilla Lampkin, D-Monticello, said she opposes the change because it would join different regions of the state and move her legislative district out of the 4th.
“I am not in favor of that mess,” Lampkin said. “I just don’t understand why they would take us out and then move way up there and put a little finger, or whatever you want to call it. They’re just different regions of the state, and I feel like ya’ll would be more comfortable with local people that are more accessible to people in your area, and the same thing with us.”
Rep. Efram Eliott, D-Arkadelphia, had no comment.
The state Republican Party launched an online campaign Friday against the Democrats’ redistricting plan, calling it “raw partisan politics.”
“The state Democratic Party’s map does not respect the traditional communities of interest in Arkansas,” GOP Chairman Doyle Webb said in a news release. “The Democratic Party is more interested in power play politics than fairly representing the diverse people of Arkansas.”
Web Watch
Congressional Redistricting Plan
The Republican Party of Arkansas’ website on the congressional redistricting plan by Rep. Clark Hall, D-Marvell:
www.arkansasgop.org/partisanpigtrail