Back in March, U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) was the odd man out in Alabama's prolonged congressional district saga.
Carl narrowly lost to U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) in a head-to-head match-up of incumbent congressmen for the GOP nod in Alabama's first congressional district.
Despite Moore on his way to being reelected to Congress in November to represent the first congressional district and Caroleene Dobson and Shomari Figures battling it out for the second congressional district seat, Carl said he believes Alabama's redistricting drama still has another chapter to be written.
During an appearance on Mobile radio's FM Talk 106.5, the outgoing congressman said he foresees the U.S. Supreme Court giving the Alabama Legislature another shot at drawing congressional districts at some point in the next 18 months.
"Well, Alabama, they're taking it back to court," Carl said. "According to the law, you cannot, individuals or groups cannot raise or get the courts to move on changing the district line. That has to be a judge. It has to come from the judicial system, not from an organization. NAACP and another group actually started Alabama's. So that one is going back to court. Steve Marshall was actually arguing that, or his staff was arguing that Thursday in one of the three court systems here. Had no idea, we probably won't know for months how that comes out. But, you know, so ours is based on that. You can't draw lines based on race. Pretty simple. That's called gerrymandering, right?"
"So you go over to Louisiana," he continued. "So Louisiana — you got lines redrawn, which pits two Republicans against one another — Letlow and Garret Graves, Julia Letlow. The court over there says, 'Well, they're not right. They should be redrawn, but it's too close to the election, so we're not going to change it.' So that one's up in the air. So then you look at South Carolina, and South Carolina is just like saying, these have got to be redrawn. You know, they're just, so it is all up in the air."
"I honestly believe in 18 months, you're going to see ... this court system get Alabama to redraw the lines here," Carl added. "So they make a little more sense. That's going to be up to obviously in Mobile areas, it's going to be a Chris Pringle, first one comes to mind, Chris Elliott in Senate side — it'll be up to them to fight for us in this district and try to get those lines redrawn a little bit better. I mean, it is a stretch for Mobile to Dothan. And I figured out a way to make it work. I'll share that with Barry when the time comes, but it is a stretch. That's a four-plus hour call from one end to the other. With that said, I think we're going to be right back in it."
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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