State senators kill House’s redistricting plan

JACKSON — Mississippi’s redistricting debate has taken a sharply partisan turn.

The Republican-led Senate Elections Committee met yesterday and killed a map approved last week by the Democratic-controlled House. The map would redraw the 122 House districts to account for population changes over the past decade.

The Senate Elections Committee also passed a Senate redistricting plan produced by Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant. In doing so, the committee ignored a map for the 52 Senate districts that was released Monday by a redistricting committee.

The redistricting committee’s map would’ve created a majority-black Senate district around Hattiesburg. The Bryant plan would not.

Democratic Rep. Ed Blackmon says Bryant is using the “nuclear option” in redistricting.