ATLANTA - A GOP plan to redistrict the Senate sparked more than an hour of debate Monday, with Democrats labeling it a partisan map drawn behind closed doors and Republicans defending it as the product of doing things ``the right way.'' <br>
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For both parties, the debate was a reversal of roles from two years ago when Democrats controlled the chamber and were defending the maps they had drawn against similar complaints from Republicans. Republicans gained control of the chamber after last year's elections. <br>
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One of the GOP's top priorities now is to do away with the Democrat-drawn maps and substitute its own plans that would help keep their new majority next election. <br>
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Republican leaders revealed their proposal to reporters late last week after most lawmakers had gone home for the weekend. <br>
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Senator Steve Thompson, a Democrat from Powder Springs says, ``We didn't even know the maps would be unveiled. They leaked the information to the press, and their handling of it was strange and bizarre.'' <br>
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Several Democrats complained that only hours before, they had been told the GOP proposal wasn't ready to be disclosed. <br>
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Senator Connie Stokes, a Democrat from Decatur, says ``The Republican leadership continues to lie and deceive the people from Georgia, and that is just not going to fly.'' <br>
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But Senator Tom Price of Roswell, the Senate Republican leader said the map ``is a foundation and we ask you to work on it together.'' <br>
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The Republican plan features compact, neatly drawn districts and eliminates the strange shapes and meandering lines drawn two years ago by Democrats, who admitted their map was designed to keep them in power and foil Republicans. <br>
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Democrats still were analyzing the GOP map Monday but said their initial evaluation indicated Republicans had thrown at least two Democratic incumbents into the same district and had reduced the percentage of black voters in many other Democratic districts, increasing the odds those districts might elect Republicans. <br>
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Price told reporters Friday it was a fair map from the Republican perspective and would help keep the GOP in control of the Senate. <br>
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Although the plan redistricts only the state Senate, it also must win approval from a House that remains under Democrat control. House leaders have not said they will block it, but its chances of passing are viewed as slim.
