The Alabama Democratic Party’s Black caucus said it will propose a redistricting map next week that includes a new Second Congressional District with more Black voters than any of the three plans drawn up by a special master.
The ADC map, which is being “fine tuned,” according to ADC Chairman Joe Reed, will be part of the caucus’ objection to Special Master Richard Allen’s three plans.
Those plans came after a mandate by a three-judge federal court found two Legislature-drawn maps likely violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting the power of Black voters. The objection is expected to be filed Friday with the map scheduled to be submitted next week.
On Tuesday, Reed said the ADC map will be similar to the one proposed by Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, over the summer in the legislative special session called by Gov. Kay Ivey to address redistricting.
“We think the Alabama Democratic Conference plan is the best plan, and we’re going to be saying that to the court as well,” Reed told reporters in Montgomery.
The ADC plan, Reed said, would include a second majority-Black congressional district with Black voters comprising 54 percent of the district. In simulations using the new proposed district boundaries, a Democrat won the district 17 out of 17 times, according to Reed.
The ADC chairman said Allen’s three maps, which include Black voting populations close to 50 percent across the three maps, “falls short of the Constitution and it falls short of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” but did not elaborate on why the ADC holds that belief.
The group will attempt to persuade the three-judge court to adopt the ADC plan.
“We’re confident that the Alabama Democratic Conference plan is the best plan on the market. And that’s because that’s the plan where a Black can win a congressional seat,” he said.
“We have a chance now to get a congressperson that is Black folks’ choice. It doesn’t have to be Black, it could be Black or white, but in all likelihood there will be enough Blacks running that it’ll be a Black out there facing the voters.”
Under the ADC plan, more than 100,000 Black voters in Mobile County — who currently vote in the First Congressional District — would be part of a new Second Congressional District, which would be the state’s second majority-Black district along with the Birmingham- and Black Belt-based Seventh Congressional District.
“We have a comfortable feeling about where we are,” Reed said. “We just hope the court will listen to us when that times come.”
