Lawmakers poised to take up contentious redistricting fight

By Anjeanette Damon

Thursday, April 14, 2011 | 9:55 a.m.

An early session aspiration to separate a contentious redistricting fight from an even more contentious budget fight in the Nevada Legislature appears to have evaporated.

Democratic leaders, concerned about Gov. Brian Sandoval’s ability to veto whatever plans they devise for divvying up the state’s legislative districts according to new population counts, are crafting a breakneck schedule of hearings to decide both the budget and redistricting in the final weeks of the session.

The evolving schedule calls for redistricting hearings before the entire Assembly and Senate acting as Committees of the Whole, with hopes of getting a first bill over to the governor within weeks. The redistricting hearings and budget hearings will occur back to back.

Democrats, who control both houses, are building a schedule that anticipates multiple vetoes of their plans.

Both parties have filed placeholder lawsuits in district court, expecting the political battle will result in enough of a standoff that the courts will eventually decide how the lines are drawn.

New Census figures indicate Democrat-rich Clark County has grown by 3.4 percent and the state’s Hispanic population—an important Democratic constituency—has grown by 82 percent.

Rural Nevada is expected to lose one Assembly seat and one Senate seat to Clark County, unless lawmakers agree to expand the Legislature. Democratic leaders have not indicated a willingness to consider such a plan.

Earlier in the session, legislative leaders said they had hoped to separate redistricting from the budget fight, both in an attempt to close the session on time and to avoid the political horse-trading traditional that marks end of session deals.