New Districts Sent to General Assembly

The R.I. Reapportionment Commission approved new maps for the Congressional and state House and Senate districts at a hearing Monday night at the State House. There will be an additional hearing Thursday to consider minor “pocket” changes.

Votes in favor of the state House and Senate district maps were unanimous; the vote on the U.S. Congressional district was 11-6.

“I think it’s a good compromise,” said Commission co-chair Stephen Ucci (D-District 42, Cranston, Johnston). “Again, not everybody’s going to be happy with it. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.”

In Congressional redistricting, the divided vote illustrated that some were still unhappy that Democrat U.S. Rep. David Cicilline’s district would lose some of the Republican-leaning northwest towns. And there remained concerns about the location of the line dividing Providence between the two Congressional districts.

In the East Bay, population declines have resulted in the loss of a house seat.

“By the time you get to Barrington and Bristol County,” Brace said, “you end up -- particularly in the House -- with not enough population to support everybody. We’ve got [district] 67 coming with most of Warren; [district] 66 is Barrington and the lower part of East Providence.”

Brace said he spent five hours on Monday with the East Bay delegation. Were they satisfied?

“They accepted this proposal,” Brace said.

Ucci stressed that the evening’s votes weren’t the last word.

“We are a reporting commission to the General Assembly,” he explained during the hearing. “Our report will then be submitted in January. It will then be up to the House and Senate to take these up as legislation to go through the normal legislative process. The plan would have to pass both sides of the House and Senate and then ultimately be determined by the governor.”

And, because public testimony was still being heard Monday night and maps were still being tweaked, the commission decided to reconvene on Thursday (12/22) at 4 pm to give everyone a chance to review the new maps which should be available by Wednesday, Ucci said. Public comment will again be allowed.