Ivey Makes Appointments to Reapportionment Committee

Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey announced Thursday the appointment of eleven state senators to a committee that will redraw lines for congressional, state and local political boundaries.

Ivey appointed the following senators to the reapportionment committee: Congressional District 1– Sen. Trip Pittman, R.-Daphne Congressional District 2– Sen. Jimmy Holley, R-Elba; Congressional District 3 - Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville; Congressional District 4– Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville; Congressional District 5 – Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison; Congressional District 6 – Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster; Congressional District 7 – Sen. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham. In addition, the Lieutenant Governor appointed 4 at-large members: Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile; Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; Sen.Gerald Allen, R-Tuscaloosa; Sen. Bryan Taylor, R-Prattville.

“The purpose of reapportionment is to ensure fairness in elective representation in the legislative branches on the state and national levels,” Ivey said in a press release Thursday. “We are going to diligently re-draw districts that are equal in population and homogeneously representative of the people."

The committee is responsible for divvying up Alabama's seven U.S. House of Representatives seats, based on each district’s proportion of the state population as determined by the most recent census. The preceding decennial 2010 Census, which put Alabama's population just shy of 4.8 million people, is the baseline for determining how many House seats are allotted to the state. Alabama neither lost nor gained any congressional seats and will have nine electoral votes in 2012.

The committee of lawmakers also will redraw the lines for the 105 Alabama House of Representative seats, the 35 Alabama Senate seats and the eight State Board of Education seats.

The full Reapportionment Committee is comprised of a total of 22 members including 11 members of the House of Representatives appointed by the Alabama Speaker of the House.

-- Markeshia Ricks

Democrats Continue Fight for Constitutional Reform

Democratic members of the Alabama Legislature announced Thursday that they would introduce a resolution that would allow the state's voters to decide whether to call a constitutional convention to reform the state's constitution.

State Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, said that he hopes his Republican colleagues who now control both chambers of the Legislature will join him in support of allowing the people to vote. Newton has championed a reform of Alabama's oft amended 1901 constitution by convention. Democrats had brought legislation for years when they controlled the legislature, but were never successful.

"Today is step one in letting the people of Alabama decide if they want a new constitution," Newton said. "Why should we be afraid of the citizens of Alabama?"

State Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, said that Alabama's constitution was written to disenfranchise blacks, women and poor whites, and, with its hundreds of amendments, a broken document.

"Our constitution is clearly broken," she said. "It has hundreds of amendments and every time we add another amendment it is weakened even more."

Republicans have said they favor an article-by-article revision of the state's constitution. State Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, has introduced legislation this session that would amend the constitution to remove racist language.

-- Markeshia Ricks

Local Delegation Selects Holmes, Wren for Leadership

Montgomery County’s legislative delegation in the House of Representatives elected its leadership for the next four years Wednesday.

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a Democrat, will serve as the delegation’s chairman and state Rep. Greg Wren, a Republican, will serve as vice chairman. In the last quadrennium, Holmes served as chairman for the first two years and Wren served as chairman for the last two.

The Montgomery County committee is one of the few standing House Committees headed by a Democrat. The House has seven other standing House committees that mainly handle local legislation for counties in the major metropolitan areas of the state.

Republicans took majorities in both the House and the Senate for the first time in 136 years during the 2010-election cycle. Republican leadership decided to keep the same rules as their predecessors by making a Republican the head of most of the major committees. Democrats hold no major chairmanships.

Holmes, who also is the current longest serving member of the House of Representative and the Dean of the House, said that the delegation’s selection of leadership was by design a bipartisan structure. He said he also believes that the structure would best serve the needs of residents of the city and the county.

Montgomery’s House delegation is made up of four Democrats and two Republicans. In addition to Holmes and Wren, state Reps. Jay Love (R), Thad McClammy (D), Joe Hubbard (D) and John Knight (D) all represent Montgomery County. State Sens. Quinton Ross, a Democrat, and Dick Brewbaker, a Republican, also represent Montgomery County.

— Markeshia Ricks

Democrats blast Republicans for restricting access to legislators

The Alabama Democratic Party is taking the new Republican legislative leadership to task for its proposal to restrict public access to legislative hallways and offices in the upcoming regular session.

Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard and Senate President Pro-Tem Del Marsh announced plans Monday to restrict access in the wake of the shootings in Tuscon, Ariz. The plan calls for stopping the public and lobbyists from being able to wander in and out of legislative offices on days when the Legislature is in session.

New Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Mark Kennedy said in a press release Wednesday that the new rules would only allow legislators the opportunity to duck questions and concerns from voters.

“After 136 years of open door policies under Democratic leadership, a new day of Republican control has dawned in the Alabama Legislature, but the sun isn't shining," he said.

Kennedy went on to say in the press release that Hubbard’s use of the Tuscon shooting to draw a parallel to security at the Alabama State House was a stretch, because that incident took place outside the walls of the U.S. Capitol and Congressional office buildings. He said both the capitol and office buildings were the public has free access.

Kennedy also said that there is a police presence at the State House and visitors are required to pass through metal detectors and security checkpoints at the door.

Kennedy said the changes would do nothing more than facilitate questionable closed door meetings and possibly skirt the new ethics law recently passed in the special session.

-- posted by Markeshia Ricks