PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – When the South Dakota Legislature meets for a special session next week to redraw the boundaries of the state's 35 legislative districts, debate is expected to focus on three districts in the northeastern corner of the state.

Assistant House Minority Leader Mitch Fargen, R-Flandreau, said the plan proposed by the majority Republicans was clearly drawn up to erode the Democrats' power in the Legislature. Among the changes it would make would be putting five incumbent Democrats into a single district that can only elect three legislators – a senator and two representatives.

“It's politics, and that's how we play it,” Fargen said Friday.

House Speaker Val Rausch, R-Big Stone City, who heads the Republican-dominated committee that proposed the redistricting map, denies the allegations that the map was drawn to favor his party. He said the committee decided on the new boundaries because they made sense, and that the plan for the northeastern South Dakota area, which includes Aberdeen, was not designed to put five Democratic incumbents into one district. It just happened by chance.

“I did not put pins in the map and figure out where people lived and try to draw a line accordingly,” Rausch said.

Rausch can't seek re-election in the House because he has reached his term limit, and he'd have to run for the Senate to remain in the Legislature. He said the redistricting proposal puts him in the same district as a Republican incumbent senator, setting up a possible primary.

“I couldn't manipulate anything to get myself immune from it. So they can't cry too much at me because I'm in the same boat,” Rausch 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 how hold a 30-5 edge over Democrats in the Senate and a 50-19 advantage in the House, which also has one independent.

The committee that proposed the redistricting plan held hearings throughout the summer and fall, and it will hold a final hearing at 8:30 a.m. Monday to get last-minute comments from the public. The special session will start at 10 a.m., with the redistricting bill going first to the House and then to the Senate.

Lawmakers also will consider a plan to redraw the boundaries of the districts for the state's five Supreme Court justices, but that plan has drawn little attention.

Fargen said he hopes the Legislature will consider substantial changes to the legislative redistricting map in the Aberdeen and Sioux Falls areas, but he doubts the Republican majority will do so.

“The rest of the map I'm happy with,” Fargen said.

Rausch said lawmakers might make small changes, mostly moving a precinct or two, but he expects no major changes to the proposed map.

Each district 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. Those single-member House districts were created to give American Indian voters a better chance to elect candidates of their choice.

In three current northeastern South Dakota districts, seven of the nine lawmakers are Democrats. Under the Republican plan, only three or four Democrats would likely be elected from the area, Fargen said.

The Republican proposal would put five incumbent Democratic lawmakers into a new District 1, which would include Roberts, Marshall and Day counties and the northern part of Brown County. It would throw together Sen. Jason Frerichs of Wilmot, Rep. David Sigdestad of Pierpont, Rep. Dennis Feickert of Aberdeen, Rep. Susan Wismer of Britton 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.

Another district would include most of Aberdeen, the state's third-largest city. The third district would put the rest of Brown County outside Aberdeen with part of Spink County and all of Clark and Hamlin counties.

Fargen said he will propose changing District 1 to cover Roberts, Marshall and Day counties and the rural portion of Codington County outside of Watertown. The Aberdeen district would remain roughly the same, but he would form a third district to include all of Brown County outside Aberdeen, part of Spink and Hamlin counties and all of Clark County.

Brown County residents have said they would prefer that the county be divided into just two legislative districts, as it is now, rather than into three.

Julie Johnson, executive director of a regional development organization called Absolutely Aberdeen, said residents hope to get at least a minor change in the Aberdeen area.

“We're hoping to just move a couple precincts around to make a little more sense out of what happened in northeastern South Dakota,” she said.

Fargen also wants to change Districts 12 and 13 on the southern edge of Sioux Falls.

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Online:

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