Topeka ? Objections are piling up to Kansas lawmakers’ plan for redrawing the state’s four U.S. House districts.

Before a Monday deadline for voicing opposition, Democrats and the state’s four American Indian tribes made official in federal court their arguments against the plan, which would split Lawrence between two districts and put Fort Riley in one district and the Army base’s hometown of Junction City in another.

Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall created the opportunity for the debate to continue by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court over the redistricting plan approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Bill Graves. Some lawmakers now hope a three-judge panel will approve a new plan perhaps one a majority of legislators rejected.

The judges are expected to begin hearing the case during the first week of July.

Secretary of state sued

Tim Graham, an aide to Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley on redistricting issues, filed a request to intervene in the case last week, arguing against the legislative plan’s split of the city of Lawrence between the 2nd and 3rd Districts.

Democrats’ proposal would keep the city in the 3rd District represented by Dennis Moore, the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation and split Johnson County.

Last week, the court moved the filing deadline for congressional candidates to July 9 from June 24, an action that Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh worries might endanger the state’s Aug. 6 primary.

Stovall sued Thornburgh, the state’s chief election officer, on behalf of Junction City residents. They complained because the Legislature’s plan put them in the 1st District with western Kansas and neighboring Fort Riley in the 2nd District, with Topeka and most of eastern Kansas.

Chairman spurs argument

Stovall said the military town and the military base comprised a vital community of interest and offered a plan to keep them together in the 2nd District, but her proposal still split Lawrence.

“I don’t think the attorney general really articulated a good argument of why anything was wrong with the map,” said Rep. Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson. “Community of interest is not a constitutionally protected issue it is a guideline.”

O’Neal is chairman of the House Redistricting Committee and asked to intervene in the lawsuit in support of the map passed by Legislature.

Stovall spokesman Mark Ohlemeier said Tuesday that Stovall wouldn’t comment.

Tribes object

The state’s four American Indian tribes also filed to intervene, claiming the Legislature’s map, the alternative submitted by Stovall’s office, and a plan offered by Democrats would dilute the tribes’ “minority voice.”

The tribes want to keep all four reservations in northeast Kansas in the 2nd District with Junction City, Fort Riley, Manhattan and all of Douglas County.