By Holly Ramer
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CONCORD — House lawmakers will vote next week on a congressional map built around the Interstate 93 corridor despite opposition from Gov. Chris Sununu.
The House Special Committee on Redistricting voted 8-7 on Wednesday to recommend a plan that creates a new, Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District by clumping together towns and cities along I-93 in the southern half of the state, with the 2nd District reaching up and around it on both sides. Sununu has promised to veto an earlier plan passed by both the House and Senate, and has indicated the new one falls short as well.
Under the current map, the 1st District covers the eastern part of the state and some of the south, including Manchester. The 2nd District covers the western, northern and some southern communities, including Nashua.
Both seats are held by Democrats — Rep. Chris Pappas in the 1st District and Rep. Annie Kuster in the 2nd — but the new plan would put both of their hometowns in the 1st District. It also would move several of the current candidates for the GOP nomination in the 1st District to the 2nd. Candidates are not required to live in the district they seek to represent. The map’s creator, Rep. Ross Berry, said he did not take incumbency into account.
Instead, Berry said his goals included achieving as even a population split as possible, keeping counties intact and grouping together communities with similar economic interests.
“I gave you exactly what you asked for,” Berry, R-Manchester, told Democrats on the committee.
The current map hasn’t changed drastically since 1880, but Berry argued that it should be abandoned because it was drawn to dilute the Catholic vote.
“For how many more centuries should we continue to eat around the edges and not just recognize the population of the state has shifted?” he said.
But Democrats, who favored moving just a single town — Hampstead — from the 1st District to the 2nd, noted that every map since 1880 has been created by Republicans.
“Each of the Republican majorities every 10 years since 1880 has recognized that the state has been here for a long time and things change… but we do not operate from a blank slate,” said Rep. Marjorie Smith, D-Durham. “We do not go back and pretend that nothing that happened before matters.”
Sununu said Monday he’s not in favor of Berry’s plan.
“The people of New Hampshire are counting on the House Special Committee on Redistricting to deliver a map that holds our incumbents accountable and keeps our districts competitive,” he said. “We are still not there.”
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