Statehouse Live: Legislative maps create incumbent slugfest
Topeka ? A three judge panel has turned the Kansas political world upside down with legislative maps that pit dozens of incumbents against each other. And the state’s deadline to file for candidacy is Monday.
Under the federal court ruling released late Thursday, the Senate plan has four districts with more than one incumbent; 4 with no incumbent and one district that pairs a Republican incumbent against a Democratic incumbent. There are 40 Senate districts.
The House plan has 23 districts with more than one incumbent, and 25 with no incumbent. There are 125 House districts.
In the House, 14 districts have paired Republicans, 2 districts have paired Democrats and 7 have incumbents of more than one party. Two House districts have three incumbents in the new maps; one district is in Topeka and the other in east-central Kansas.
In the Senate, 3 districts have paired Republicans, and 1 district has paired a Republican against a Democrat.
Locally, state Reps. TerriLois Gregory, R-Baldwin City, and Anthony Brown, R-Eudora, find themselves in the same reconfigured District 10. And state Reps. Melanie Meier, D-Leavenworth, and Connie O’Brien, R-Tonganoxie, are in the newly drawn District 42.