Reapportionment debate starts in Nevada Legislature

CARSON CITY, Nev. - The head of a Senate panel working on a reapportionment study is asking for the seemingly impossible - no partisan wrangling when lawmakers' districts are redrawn in 2001.

Legislative districts will be revised after lawmakers get the results of the 2000 federal census that is expected to show big population gains in southern Nevada.

"I would hope that history does not repeat itself," Jon Porter, R-Henderson, chairman of the Legislative Affairs and Operations Committee, said Tuesday in referring to past redistricting wars.

Fat chance, if Nevada's last reapportionment in 1991 can be used as guide to what will occur two years from now.

That year, after lots of closed-door caucuses, open bickering and claims of gerrymandering to protect incumbents, the final vote to realign legislative and congressional districts was straight party-line.

But Porter pointed to a staff report showing that in 1981 reapportionment was relatively free of conflict.

Another hopeful sign is that new computer software will simplify and speed up the job of redrawing the district lines to, for example, take one neighborhood or street from one district and plug it into another.

But the time-consuming part of the equation is certain to remain: the turf battles to retain those neighborhoods or streets in one lawmaker's district or move them elsewhere.

Another inevitable aspect will be the continued shrinking of Nevada lawmakers representing rural areas of the state, already down to just two of 21 senators and four of 42 Assembly members.

Bob Erickson, the lawmakers' research chief, told Porter's committee that the booming Las Vegas area will be in line for more representation because projections show it'll have nearly 70 percent of Nevada's population by 2000. Now, it's about 62 percent.

The percentage change translates into a need to increase southern Nevadans' representation in the Legislature by several seats. They now hold 13 of the Senate seats and 26 of the Assembly seats.

That means rural and even Reno-Carson area representation in northern Nevada shrinks if the current seat count is maintained. The alternative is to increase the size of the Legislature. The Nevada Constitution allows for up to 75 lawmakers - a dozen more than the current total of 63.

Porter said he's not taking a position yet on whether the Legislature should expand - although the lawmakers' chambers have been designed to allow for that.

At this point, he said the key is to set up the study committee that will meet between legislative sessions and come up with a plan that can be finally adopted in 2001.

Porter also said it's a certainty that Nevada, with an expected population of just over 2 million by next year, will qualify for a third congressional seat. The existing seats include one that takes in most of Las Vegas, and a sprawling second House district that includes all the rest of the state.

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