Topeka ? Democrats on Thursday sought ways to get the proposed congressional split of Lawrence before a federal court in hopes that the plan would be struck down.

On Wednesday, Kansas Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall filed a lawsuit alleging the congressional map approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Graves was unconstitutional because it placed Junction City in a separate congressional district from the nearby military post of Fort Riley.

But Stovall’s lawsuit filed in federal district court in Topeka did not challenge the part of the map that divides Lawrence between two congressional districts: The western portion would go into the 2nd District and the eastern portion would remain in the 3rd.

Sen. Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, who opposes the Lawrence split, said if there was going to be a challenge to separating Junction City from Fort Riley, the Lawrence split must be challenged also.

The question is, he said, how to get that issue before a federal judge because the attorney general’s lawsuit omitted the Lawrence issue.

Hensley, the Senate minority leader, said he had asked the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, whose officials opposed dividing Lawrence, to file a lawsuit. But so far, he said, they have refused.

Officials with the chamber could not be reached for comment.

Hensley said Lawrence chamber officials said they were concerned that any challenge could backfire and the court could decide to place Lawrence totally in the 2nd District, a position opposed by some, especially Kansas University officials.

A resident of Lawrence also could file a lawsuit challenging the congressional plan. Hensley said he and other Democratic leaders, including Rep. Troy Findley of Lawrence, were consulting with attorneys to see if they had legal standing to file the lawsuit.

“There are a lot of legal questions,” he said.

But Hensley said if there was no challenge to the Lawrence issue, then supporters of trying to keep the city in the 3rd District would lose their right to appeal any judicial decision at the district court level.

Earlier Thursday, Graves said he would have preferred placing Lawrence wholly in the 2nd District. And, he said that although he had signed the map with the Junction City-Fort Riley split, he opposed that aspect of the plan because “Fort Riley is the entire economic engine of Junction City.”