A House committee Wednesday endorsed a political map that would divide Lawrence between the 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.

But the endorsed map would divide Lawrence along Iowa Street instead of Massachussets Street, an option proposed Tuesday by the committee’s chairman.

Lawrence is currently in the 3rd District.

Under the committee proposal adopted Wednesday, western Lawrence would be in the 2nd District and eastern Lawrence, including the Kansas University campus, would remain in the 3rd District. The dividing line would be Iowa Street, though it would take a jog around the west campus to keep the KU campus completely in the 3rd District.

The vote by House Redistricting Committee members was mostly along party lines with Republicans supporting the split, while Democrats wanted to keep all of Lawrence in the 3rd District.

The measure will now go to the full House for consideration, perhaps as early as Friday.

Currently, the 3rd District includes Lawrence and the Kansas City metropolitan area. It is represented by U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore of Lenexa, the only Democrat in the Kansas congressional delegation.

The 2nd District is represented by U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, a rural Lawrence Republican, and one of the most conservative members of Congress.

When legislators began re-drawing congressional boundaries, Lawrence officials asked that the city remain in the 3rd District, citing links to the Kansas City metro area.

But Republicans said the core of the 3rd District was Johnson and Wyandotte counties, and a district could not be drawn to include those two counties and Lawrence.

Tuesday, committee Chairman Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, proposed a map that would have split Lawrence along Massachusetts Street, which would have put KU in the 2nd.

Democrats howled at the notion.

I can’t think of anything that is a worse community-of-interest split,” Rep. Marti Crow, D-Leavenworth, said.

O’Neal backed off the proposal, saying that after thinking further about it he believed KU should remain in the 3rd District to stay linked with its Kansas City-area campuses.