Region gains larger slice of legislative pie

3 new seats to Benton County

One out of every six state House members will reside in either Benton or Washington county after the 2022 election if new legislative districts proposed Friday are approved.

Thirteen members of the 100- member state House reside in either Benton or Washington county. That number would rise to 17 under Friday’s proposal. This compares to 13 House districts planned for Pulaski County, the state’s most populous and home county to Little Rock, the state’s capital and largest city.

“I’ve seen what a large group of united legislators from the same area of the state can get done, and I’m excited Northwest Arkansas is going to provide that kind of leadership,” said Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.

The state Board of Apportionment draws new district lines after every U.S. Census, which take place every 10 years. The board consists of the sitting governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The redistricting process is designed to ensure equal populations between House districts and between Senate districts.

The board voted Friday to begin a 30-day public comment period and to reconvene Nov. 29 to make any adjustments before giving final approval.

Benton County is the fastest- growing Arkansas county in population, 2020 census figures show. Only 16 of Arkansas’ 75 counties grew between the 2010 and 2020 census, those figures show. The remaining counties’ loss was Northwest Arkansas’ gain. Benton County stands to gain two seats in the 100-member House and a new Senate seat in the 35-member Senate. Washington County picked up two House seats.

The new districts would take effect for the election cycle ending in 2022. Would-be candidates for the new seats must find which district they live in. Candidate filing begins in February. Newly elected lawmakers will convene in legislative session in January 2023.

Benton and Washington county delegation members expressed regret at losing constituents from their districts but said the loss was both expected and inevitable. For instance, three existing House districts in Benton County had populations of 43,000 or more. The target size for House districts in the redistricting process is 30,115.

“I’m very satisfied with the new borders and knew this district was going to shrink because of all the population growth, but it’s still a little bittersweet to lose constituents I’ve come to know and work with,” said Kendon Underwood, R-Cave Springs. He represents District 90 in Benton County. That district population had reached 43,865 people by the time of the 2020 census, the most overpopulated House district in Arkansas, figures show.

Rep. Delia Haak, R-Gentry, represents the also-overpopulated District 91. She also expressed regret over losing some of her constituents but was very pleased at picking up Siloam Springs. Her gain was Rep. Robin Lundstrum’s, R-Elm Springs, loss.

“I hate losing Siloam Springs but have always said they deserve their own district,” Lundstrum said Saturday. Both Lundstrum and Haak said proposed District 17 with Siloam Springs and Gentry in it was logical.

Haak is a 40-year resident of western Benton County who is an adjunct teacher at John Brown University in Siloam Springs where she was formerly a professor of business administration. “I know the folks there love Robin and that she’s working on a lot of projects there, but the boundaries on that district can’t get any better,” Haak said.

WHERE THE NEW DISTRICTS ARE

Proposed new Senate District 34 would include northern Bentonville along with much of Centerton in Benton County. From there, the district would stretch north to the Missouri border and take in most of Bella Vista.

“I lost downtown Bentonville and central and northern Benton County,” Hester said of the new lines. He is sorry to see them go but not surprised, he said. Hester’s Senate District 1 was the most overpopulated in Arkansas, census figures show, with 129,551 residents. The target population size for Senate districts is 86,044.

The new district lines take all of Bella Vista out of Senate District 2, currently represented by Sen. Jim Hendren, I-Sulphur Springs. “It’s been a real pleasure to work with the people there and I’m sorry to lose them, but I understand,” Hendren said Saturday.

“After being involved with the Legislature drawing new congressional districts and now with this process, I’ve come to the conclusion that politicians should not draw political boundaries,” Hendren said. “There was too much protection of incumbents in this process. I don’t know what I’d propose in its place, perhaps some independent commission, but protecting incumbents should not be a priority. Communities should be.” Hendren is a former president of the Senate and has served more years in the Legislature than any member of the Northwest Arkansas delegation.

Benton County’s Proposed House District 13 would take in southeast Bentonville, a new district. Proposed District 14 would border that district on the west, bringing in much of the rest of the city along with Centerton. Sitting lawmakers reside in other districts.

In Washington County, the maps would create a majority Hispanic district in eastern Springdale, proposed District 9. Immigrant activists Irvin Camacho of Springdale and Mireyah Reith of Springdale say they are pleased at the northwest region’s immigrant population gaining a district but were surprised and disappointed that Rep. Megan Godfrey, D-Springdale, does not live in it. Godfrey speaks Spanish fluently and has championed immigrant issues, they said.

A new rural district in southern and western Washington County, proposed District 23, makes sense, said Lou Reed Sharp, a Tontitown resident who ran for state representative in the area in 2018 and 2020 as a Democrat. Her opponent each time was Rep. Charlene Fite, R-Van Buren. Fite won both times. Sharp said Friday she is not interested in running in the new district — and could not if she wanted to. She lives north of the new boundary, she said. But Sharp said she knows the new district’s area well.

“It’s much better that the people in District 23 won’t have to drive through a national forest to see their state representative,” said Sharp, current chairwoman of the Washington County Democrats. Proposed District 23 would wrap around Fayetteville and Farmington, taking in Greenland, West Fork, Prairie Grove, and Lincoln on its way to the Oklahoma border.

Fite said Friday the new district lines would move her district into Crawford County except for a small, rural part of southern Washington County. “I’d lose Prairie Grove, Lincoln, Cane Hill, and the parts of Fayetteville and Tontitown I’ve had, and many of the surrounding communities I’ve come to love,” she said. “I’d add Alma, Rudy, Dyer and Mulberry. The land area I’d represent would be about the same, but travel might be easier.”

Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, and other Fayetteville delegation members lost rural residents from their districts, making their districts compact and Fayetteville-centered, although the district Rep. David Whitaker, D-Fayetteville, resides in would include Farmington.

“In Fayetteville, they cut them good and compact,” Whitaker said, with few wandering offshoots in the maps there. He regrets losing portions of southwest Fayetteville but knows changes had to be made, he said.

Leding, Whitaker, and Reps. Nicole Clowney and Denise Garner of Fayetteville are all Democrats in a majority Republican Legislature with a Board of Apportionment composed of Republicans. Yet the Fayetteville maps appear non-partisan, Whitaker said.

Both Whitaker and Rep. Denise Garner, D- Fayetteville, commented on the lack of detail of the maps make available so far. “There’s no street-level data,” Whitaker said, a complaint Camacho and Reith also made in separate interviews.

The lack of precision in the available maps makes it difficult to have a meaningful public comment period, Garner said.

“How can the public give comments without a clearer view to see exactly which streets are in each district?” Garner said Friday.

“I do think we’ve got to have more discernible maps as quickly as possible so Arkansans have a chance to weigh in quickly especially with major holidays ahead,” she said.

Washington County gained no new, exclusive Senate District. Proposed new Senate District 29 would run from north of Goshen in Washington County south to the Arkansas River. This district would contain Van Buren in Crawford County.

SHIFTS IN THE RIVER VALLEY

The number of delegation members in Fort Smith did not change but the boundaries between them did, the new maps show.

“We knew it was going to happen because the House district in north Fort Smith was underpopulated when it was drawn after the 2010 census,” said Sen. Mathew Pitsch, R-Fort Smith. “It had to grow.”

Rep. Jay Richardson, D-Fort Smith, represents the northern city’s House District 78. The apportionment board’s map would redraw the lines. Proposed District 49 would sweep along the Arkansas River across north Fort Smith and then down to include eastern parts of the city. Meanwhile, District 78 would lose more than half its southern area to District 50 and be in a district where current Rep. Cindy Crawford, R-Fort Smith, resides.

Richardson, who is Black, represents a majority-Black district. Reith said his district and others in southwest Little Rock appear to offset gains in minority gains elsewhere. Richardson did not return requests for comment.

Fort Smith Mayor George B. McGill told Board of Apportion staff that the city’s legislative delegation is both diverse and effective and specifically requested the board preserve it as much as possible. He made those remarks at a public hearing on reapportionment in Fort Smith in August. In the Senate maps, the proposed new district is logical, Pitsch said. It unifies portions of Sebastian County that now share a district with Scott County.

Doug Thompson can be reached by email at dthompson@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWADoug