U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., said Friday there would be personal advantage to retention of Lawrence in his congressional district, but he wouldn't mind sharing the city with Republican Rep. Jim Ryun.
The 2002 Kansas Legislature will redraw district boundaries because Moore's 3rd District has to be reduced by 61,000 people to accommodate shifts in population found in the 2000 Census.
Proposals floated in advance of the session have included moving all of Douglas County into Ryun's 2nd District, as well as proposals that would split Lawrence or Douglas County between two districts.
During his visit to a government class at Free State High School, Moore said splitting Lawrence wouldn't be his first choice, but that option is "not the end of the world."
"I don't understand why it's such a bad deal to have two members of Congress" looking after the interests of the city's residents, Moore said.
Moore has done well drawing support from Lawrence voters.
"There's a political advantage keeping as much of Lawrence as possible," Moore said. "I like Lawrence. I went to school there. I feel at home in Lawrence."
But in the end, he said, it doesn't matter what he thinks about redistricting. A Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Bill Graves will decide how to accommodate shifts in growth in the population recorded by the 2000 census.
"I don't have any control over it," he said. "That's not my choice to make."
Lawrence is in the 3rd District along with Johnson, Wyandotte and Miami counties.
A special legislative committee led by Republicans voted in October to split Lawrence between east and west, leaving Kansas University and eastern Lawrence in Moore's district and moving western Lawrence to Ryun's. That plan will be forwarded to the Legislature.
Graves said last year that dividing Lawrence between the two congressional districts would be OK with him. The first objective, he said, was to keep Johnson and Wyandotte together in the 3rd District.
Lawrence officials are opposed to slicing the city in half.
"I've heard people say, 'We don't want to be a community divided,'" Moore said.
He said the argument was credible that Lawrence should remain closely tied to the Kansas City area because of potential economic development along Kansas Highway 10 and existence of Kansas University campuses in Lawrence, Kansas City, Kan., and Overland Park.
"There are some tough choices to be made," Moore said.
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