Topeka ? Lawrence most likely will be split between two congressional districts, key Republicans said Wednesday as the Legislature convened its overtime session.

Most of Lawrence now is in the 3rd District. But during the regular legislative session, the House approved a plan splitting Lawrence between the 2nd and 3rd districts, and the Senate approved a plan keeping the city intact in the 2nd District.

Sens. Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence, and David Adkins, R-Leawood, said that given the options, public sentiment in Lawrence was shifting toward splitting the city between the 2nd and 3rd districts.

But Democrats disagreed, saying Praeger was betraying Lawrence.

“People in Lawrence should start calling her former state Sen. Praeger because she is no longer listening to them or representing them in any way,” said Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka.

Praeger said Hensley’s comments were “politics.”

“I’m not going to dignify it with a response,” she said.

Rep. Troy Findley, D-Lawrence, also disagreed with Praeger, saying he would continue fighting to keep Lawrence intact in the 3rd District.

“It would be a bad precedent to split a community of interest like Lawrence, especially when you don’t have to,” Findley said.

A proposal by Findley and Hensley would keep Lawrence in the 3rd District by splitting Johnson County.

The process of redrawing district lines to reflect shifts in population found in the 2000 Census has been one of the most contentious political brawls this year.

Lawrence has been in the middle of the battle. The city is now almost entirely in the 3rd District, which is where community leaders say they want it to stay.

But because the district has grown rapidly, it needs to lose about 60,000 people. A Senate plan would place all of Lawrence and Douglas County into a newly configured 2nd District, which is currently represented by U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, a conservative Republican.

A House plan would split Lawrence roughly along Iowa Street with the eastern portion staying in the 3rd, which is represented by U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, the only Democrat from Kansas in Congress. The western portion of Lawrence, under the House plan, would go into Ryun’s district.

Praeger said that at a recent Lawrence fund-raiser for Adkins, she had spoken with community leaders who seemed to be warming to the idea of splitting the community.

“They think there is no problem with having two congressmen,” Praeger said.

She added, though, that the House plan to split Lawrence didn’t put enough of Lawrence in the 3rd District.

Adkins, who is chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said there might be a proposal to divide Lawrence along Kasold Drive instead of Iowa Street.

The Senate-approved congressional map has also been under fire in southeast Kansas because it divides that area among the state’s four congressional districts.

On Wednesday, the House and Senate rejected each other’s redistricting plans and set up a conference committee to work on the maps.

The conference committee will include Adkins; Hensley; and Sen. Ed Pugh, R-Wamego; and Reps. Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson; Doug Mays, R-Topeka; and Findley.