By Brandon Moseley
The Alabama House of Representatives passed a redistricting plan for its own redistricting Monday.
House Bill 1 is the redistricting plan for the 105 member lower house of the Alabama Legislature.
HB1 was sponsored by State Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) who chairs the Legislative Committee on Reapportionment along with State Sen. Jim McClendon (R-Springville).
This is not exactly the plan that the Legislative Committee on Reapportionment passed a week prior, but rather a substitute bill brought by Pringle himself on the House floor.
Pringle said, “It is a good plan, it is a fair plan.”
Rep. Charlotte Meadows (R-Montgomery) said, “I am not happy with the process. The public has not even seen maps where they can see where they are.”
Meadows said that members are being told that they must have a plan in place by Nov. 15.
“If we have two more weeks, take two more weeks,” Meadows said.
Meadows proposed a substitute bill that redraws District 74, which she represents, and which was turned into a majority-minority district under the Pringle plan.
“I think somebody wants me out of here,” Meadows said. “I don’t know who that is.”
Pringle said that Meadows' plan packs Blacks into a neighboring district, which is illegal.
“I cannot support anything that I know is against the law and if I testify in court, I will testify that it is against the law,” Pringle said.
Pringle asked the body to table discussion on the Meadows substitute bill.
The House voted to table the Meadows plan 59 to 20.
Democrats Dexter Grimsley (D-Newville) and Fred Gray (D-Opelika) also introduced their own substitute bills with maps. The House, at Pringle’s request, voted to table both of those plans as well.
State Rep. Laura Hall (D-Huntsville) criticized the Madison County plan for districts representing portions of Madison County and areas outside of the county.
State Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham) similarly criticized the Pringle map of Jefferson County.
Eventually, House Majority Leader Nathaniel Ledbetter brought a cloture vote to end the debate. That motion prevailed in a 72 to 28 vote along party lines.
That allowed there to be a vote on HB 2, which passed 68 to 35.
HB 2 has been transmitted to the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee, which is expected to take it up on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the House passed Pringle’s HB 1, which was the redistricting plan for Alabama’s seven congressional districts.
While the House was passing its redistricting bills, the Alabama Senate passed SB 1 and SB 2, the bills redistricting the Alabama Senate and the State Board of Education.
Those bill were carried by McClendon and are expected to be taken up in Committee in the House on Tuesday.
If all, four redistricting bills passed out of committee on Tuesday. They could be on the floor of the second house as soon as Wednesday.
Tuesday will be day four of the 2021 second special session.
