Harvey Peeler

Several area lawmakers said last week a consensus has been reached among most lawmakers to reconfigure the 4th Congressional District in a way that retains Spartanburg County’s electoral clout.

The new district would draw about 60 percent of its population from Greenville County and the remaining population from Spartanburg County.

Under the largely agreed-upon scenario, another portion of each county would be placed in other congressional districts. Some of northern Spartanburg County would move to the 5th Congressional District and part of southern Greenville County would go into the 3rd Congressional District.

“I think it’s a consensus of both delegations,” said Sen. Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney. “I think the Upstate is pretty much set.”

Us­ing 2010 census fig­ures, 58 per­cent of the popu­lation in the current 4th Dis­trict comes from Greenville County, while 37 per­cent of the popu­lation is from Spartanburg County.

The plan favored by most lawmakers is contingent on the state House and Senate reaching a compromise between competing plans.

Officials return to Columbia on Tuesday to resume redistricting work.

The final stages of the debate don’t appear to hold as much drama for the Upstate as earlier this summer, when a Senate committee passed a plan splitting Spartanburg County between two districts and leaving Greenville County in one district.

That move took Spartanburg lawmakers by surprise and set off a scramble to preserve more of the county in the 4th District.

The remaining fight to play out this week centers on the location of the state’s new 7th Congressional District. South Carolina gained another seat because of population growth in the last decade.

The upper and lower chambers of the Legislature, both controlled by Republicans, have been at odds over where the new seat should be.

The House-passed plan placed the new seat in the Pee Dee area, but a bipartisan coalition of senators passed a plan that located the new district in the Lowcountry.

Several lawmakers said Rep. James Harrison, R-Richland, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, has been working with Senate leaders on a new redistricting plan they hope will lead to a compromise.

The plan would keep a roughly 60 percent to 40 percent population split between Greenville and Spartanburg counties, move the new seat back to the Pee Dee area and keep more of the counties around Charleston in the 1st Congressional District.

Harrison did not return repeated calls to his legislative and business offices last week.

Federal panel a possibility
If the House and Senate can’t reach an agreement, a three-judge federal panel would take over the process of creating the state’s new congressional map.

That development would delight Democrats, who would have a chance to pick up a second majority-minority district.

Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg, said he’s focused on making sure the process doesn’t go in that direction.

“My intention is to get this done legislatively and not send this to the courts,” he said.

Martin said that his top priority is ensuring the new congressional map includes the 60 percent to 40 percent population split between Spartanburg and Greenville.

“Keeping the percentages is what I’m most concerned about because I think if you try to split it any other way, you set Spartanburg up to be split up multiple times in the future,” he said.

Failing to lock in the ratio would be a “disaster” for Spartanburg, Martin said, because lawmakers in the decades to come would feel no obligation to keep the Spartanburg and Greenville metropolitan areas together as communities of shared interest.

“As legislators, I feel it’s our duty to get a plan passed and let somebody challenge it in court rather than have a stalemate and let the courts take over from day one,” he said.

Hurdles remain
Even if lawmakers can agree on a plan, it would have to clear several remaining hurdles.

Because of South Carolina’s history of infringement on the voting rights of African-Americans, the state’s congressional and legislative redistricting proposals must comply with the guidelines set up by the federal Voting Rights Act.

The courts or the U.S. Department of Justice can determine compliance with the act.

Also, the state’s new congressional map is expected to face lawsuits from groups opposing the layout of the districts.

Federal law requires redrawing electoral lines every 10 years to reflect population changes captured by the census.

Courtesy of GoUpstate