Ten years ago, the Legislature’s top redistricting officials came to Lawrence and were urged by local leaders to keep the city wholly in the 3rd Congressional District.

The legislators left, went to their maps and split the city in two, between the 2nd and 3rd districts.

Now the once-a-decade process returns to Lawrence.

The Special Committee on Redistricting will hold a public hearing from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. today at the Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University, 2350 Petefish Drive.

The committee will then travel to Overland Park for a hearing from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Polsky Theater at Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd.

After every 10-year census, the state Legislature is charged with redrawing district boundaries for Kansas’ four congressional districts, 165 legislative districts and the 10 state board of education districts.

The lines are redrawn to account for population changes so that each elected official represents a similar number of people.

Rapid growth in the 3rd District means the area must give up residents.

Because Republicans hold substantial majorities in the Legislature, they will call the shots in the redistricting process.

Ten years ago, some Republicans were up-front in their statements that the reason to split Lawrence between the 2nd and 3rd districts was to remove Democratic voters from the 3rd, which then was held by Dennis Moore, a Democrat.

Many Lawrence officials urged that Lawrence remain in the 3rd, noting Kansas University’s presence in both Lawrence and the Kansas City metro area.

But since the split, some Lawrence officials say it has been OK for the city to be represented by two U.S. House members, while others maintain it would be better placed in one district.

In fact, Democrats now allege that Republicans want to unite Lawrence in either the 2nd or 3rd District as part of a plan to move heavily Democratic Wyandotte County out of the 3rd. This would help 3rd District congressman Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park, who is a freshman.

But which district those Democrats would land in — either the 1st or 2nd, would be part of a Republican Party fight, since those districts are also represented by Republicans: Tim Huelskamp of Fowler in the 1st, who is also a freshman, and Lynn Jenkins of Topeka in the 2nd.

House Democratic Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence and several other legislators have called for a state law that would put redistricting in the hands of a nonpartisan commission, similar to the approach in Iowa.

“Ultimately, redistricting is about giving the people a fair and equal voice in their elected representation,” Davis said. “It is not about securing political dominance or seeking political retribution against individuals with whom we don’t see eye to eye.”