PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – A panel of state lawmakers voted along party lines Tuesday to approve a plan for redrawing the boundaries of South Dakota's 35 legislative districts, a proposal majority Republicans called fair but Democrats said would hurt their party's chances in future elections.

The proposal, passed 10-3 by the Legislative Redistricting Committee, will be submitted to an Oct. 24 special session of the Legislature, which will have the final say on creating new districts.

“We are trying to be as fair as possible,” said House Speaker Val Rausch, R-Big Stone City, chairman of the panel.

However, Rep. Susan Wisner, D-Britton, said the Republican-approved plan amounts to gerrymandering because it divides some communities to give Republican candidates an advantage in House and Senate elections. Based on each party's share of registered voters, 45 percent of legislators should be Democrats, but the party has only about half that strength because of Republican redistricting efforts in the past 30 years, she said.

“We are not here to perpetuate a dynasty. We are here to see the people are represented as fairly as possible,” Wisner said.

Sen. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center, said Democrats have made the same complaints during the past three redistricting efforts, but have made gains in legislative seats in every election following those past efforts.

“If we're doing gerrymandering and doing these back-room deals, we're doing a terrible job of it,” Rhoden said.

The Legislature must redraw the boundaries of legislative districts every decade to reflect population changes reported by the census. The ideal district would contain 23,262 people, but courts have said each district can vary by 5 percent above or below that number.

Republicans currently have a 30-5 edge over Democrats in the Senate and a 50-19 edge in the House, which also has one independent.

Much of Tuesday's discussion focused on public testimony regarding three districts in the state's northeastern corner and the nine districts in the Sioux Falls area.

Former legislator Bill Thompson of Sioux Falls, leader of a citizen's panel that drew its own suggested redistricting plan, said the GOP proposal once again creates a District 15 in central Sioux Falls that is packed with too many Democrats. That leaves too few Democrats in nearby districts, which gives Republicans an edge in those areas, he said.

Each district now elects one senator and two House members at large, except for two Senate districts that are split into two House districts, each of which elects its own House member.

Thompson and other Democrats argued that nearly all Senate districts should be split into two House districts, which they said would give Democrats a better chance of competing against Republicans.

Rausch said the committee would not consider splitting all Senate districts into two separate House districts because the Legislature has consistently rejected such a move.

The panel approved a change in the original Republican proposal for the three districts in northeastern South Dakota, but Democrats said it still throws five incumbent Democrats together in one district that only elects one senator and two representatives. Wismer said the district would include her, Sen. Jason Frerichs of Wilmot, Rep. David Sigdestad of Pierpont, Rep. Rep. Dennis Feickert of Abderdeen and Rep. Paul Dennert of Columbia, who is term-limited in the House and would have to run for the Senate to remain in the Legislature.

One district includes most of Aberdeen, the state's third-largest city. Part of northwestern Brown County would be placed with Marshall, Day and Roberts counties to form a new district, while the rest of Brown County outside Aberdeen would be joined with part of Spink County and all of Clark and Hamlin counties in another district.

Wismer said the Republican map would put one area more than 100 miles away from the opposite corner of that district.

Residents of north Rapid City had asked that the area, which has a high concentration of Native American residents, be put into a single legislative district, but the committee voted unanimously to approve a plan that keeps districts in the Rapid City area as close as possible to existing districts.

The committee also made a minor change in a district that would stretch from Tripp County to Bon Homme County in south-central South Dakota. The original plan would have put veteran lawmaker Frank Kloucek, D-Scotland, in that district, but the panel changed it so Kloucek will remain in a district more like the one he currently represents.

Joel Keierleber of Colome told the committee that legislators often seem to favor redistricting plans that protect their own chances for re-election.

Dorris Heaston, president of the South Dakota League of Women Voters, said she believes redistricting plans should be made by an independent panel, not by legislators. She said she is bothered when a legislator refers to “my district.”

“Those districts do not belong to the any of the representatives or senators. They belong to the people, the voters,” Heaston said.

But Rhoden said he believes it's proper for him to refer to the area he represents as his district because he is proud of the rural district. He said the South Dakota Constitution requires that redistricting be done by the Legislature.

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Online:

http://legis.state.sd.us/interim/2011/index.aspx