CHARLESTON – The state Senate adjourned until Monday without taking up a proposed senatorial district map during its Friday afternoon floor session.
As it stands, the Senate has before it the Redistricting Committee map described in SB 3034 and four others posted on the Senate redistricting page: a map simply called SFA 1 (Senate Floor Amendment), which many are calling the Karnes/Tarr map after Sens. Robert Karnes, R-Randolph, and Eric Tarr, R-Putnam; and three Democratic amendments posted by Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, Mike Romano, D-Harrison, and Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell.
SB 3034 has been on third reading for passage since Wednesday, but there has been no GOP consensus yet and the GOP holds a 23-11 supermajority.
The so-called Karnes-Tarr map has been criticized by opponents as being more gerrymandered and partisan than the committee map, and it divides more counties: 13 compared to the committee map’s seven.
The official announcement on kicking the can until Monday didn’t come until the end of the floor session, but it was obvious through the day. The Senate convened at 11 a.m. and immediately recessed until 3:30 p.m.
Speculation was rife all day. When the Senate reconvened, it did not take up HB 301, the House district map. It did take up HB 335, the vaccine mandate exemption bill, but gave it only a first reading and did no more. At the other end of the Capitol, the House reconvened for its afternoon session at 4 p.m. and when it finished its business it adjourned until the call of the chair – meaning whenever the Senate gets its work done and the House has a Senate map bill to work with.
During a pause in Senate action, Woelfel, a member of the Redistricting Committee, stood to offer some remarks on the course of the map work.
He said a lot of people put a lot of work into the committee’s product. “We took that seriously, and the staff did an amazing job.”
While all the proposed maps and amendments have had a senator’s name attached, he said, SFA 1 doesn’t. He called it a “poor bastardized map” that “came out of the dark of night” in contradiction of committee’s work and mission.
But that’s the one they’ll be voting on, he believes.
Woelfel predicted that come December the state Supreme Court will rule that map unconstitutional. He read all the justices’ names and said, “They will obey their oath. They will pay no attention to politics. They will apply the law.”
Sen. Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, is Redistricting Committee vice-chair. Asked about the long delay, he said this happens only once every 10 years, and they can’t go back for tweaks.
“It’s a very deliberative process,” he said. “We’ve spent many hours in discussions.”
He could not confirm, he said, the the Karnes/Tarr map is the one they’ll be taking up Monday, or if they will consider any map at all Monday.
“All bets are off until we figure it out,” he said. Asked if the GOP caucus is close to uniting, he said it is his opinion that they are close.
He said he has his own means of scoring maps based on the federal and state requirements. He’s looked at 40 to 50 maps in the past month and given each a score. He showed notebook pages where he’s been keeping track.
“I believe that Monongalia County should be made a whole senatorial district,” he said. “I believe that with my heart.” For that reason, a map that joins Morgantown and Fairmont scores a negative point in his book.
The committee map keeps it whole, while SFA 1 draws something close to the current map with a Morgantown-Fairmont District 13.
“We should attempt to divide as few counties as possible,” Sypolt said.
He recalled comments by Redistricting Committee Chair Charles Trump, R-Morgan, that the shape and population of West Virginia means five counties have to be split: Kanawha, Berkeley, Marshall and two in the Cabell area.
Sypolt noted that the current map splits 13 counties. “Thirteen I feel is a lot. But on the other hand, it’s no worse than we have now.”
And there’s one other factor to consider, Sypolt said. “You have to have 18 votes on the floor, or you get nothing.”
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