Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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August 22, 2011

Senate passes bill to Tomblin

One vote approves House redistricting plan

By BILL ARCHER Bluefield Daily Telegraph

CHARLESTON — It’s not quite a done deal and it didn’t pass by much, but the new delegate districts in the West Virginia House of Delegates moved one step closer to becoming the law of the land for the next decade, but there are still some challenges on the horizon.

“I knew the Senate would consider all the discussion about single-delegate districts, but I’m pleased they passed it,” Delegate John R. Frazier, D-Mercer, said when leaving the house chamber shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday night.

“We came into session [Sunday] night to receive the action of the Senate and to take additional action if we needed to,” Frazier said. “If another vote had gone the other way, we might have had to take that action.”

Frazier said earlier in the week that the Senate’s vote is traditionally a vote of approval for the House’s action, but the Senate voted 15-14 to move the redistricting bill on to Acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin. The house had approved the bill Saturday on a 55-38 vote.

“Redistricting will now be up to the acting governor and the courts,” Delegate Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, said. Gearheart championed the cause for single-delegate districts, while Frazier was unwavering from his position of unifying Mercer County into one three-delegate district.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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