Senate leaders agree to redraw district lines

04:03 PM EDT on Friday, May 21, 2004

The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- Senate leaders have agreed to redraw district lines to settle a lawsuit that claimed Rhode Island's 2002 legislative redistricting was unfair to black voters, a move prompted in part by the resignations of two state senators earlier this year.

Today, minority leaders hailed the settlement, which changes the configuration of 12 Senate districts in and around the state's capital city, as a step toward more inclusive government.

"Our goals have always been to ensure that black voters and Latino voters each have a voice in the state Senate," said Harold Metts, a plaintiff in the case. "The new redistricting plan will help make Rhode Island more democratic."

The plan still must be approved by the General Assembly and the governor.

Minority leaders say the most significant change is in the Providence district represented by Democrat Juan Pichardo, the state's first and only Hispanic senator. In the last election he beat incumbent Charles Walton, who was Rhode Island's first and only black senator.

The new map would put Walton, if he runs again, in a different district than Pichardo. Each district would have a high concentration of minority voters.

Walton, who has served 18 years in the Senate, said after a State House press conference that he plans to run again. The new district will include about 60 percent of the area he once represented.

Pichardo said he agreed to the changes because they will improve the chances of "another representative of color" getting elected this year. Pichardo is the only minority in the 38-person Senate.

Senate President Joseph Montalbano said the resignations of former Sens. William Irons, of East Providence, and John Celona, of North Providence, made the settlement possible by allowing district lines to be redrawn without pitting two incumbents against each other.

"Without that, you'd be asking me as the leader of the Senate to place two Democrats in with each other," said Montalbano, D-North Providence. "I did that once before, and I didn't want to do it again."

Irons, who was Senate president, and Celona, a committee chairman, resigned amid questions about their business dealings.

All 10 Democratic incumbents whose districts are being redrawn agreed to the changes, Montalbano said.

Senate leaders noted the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing. The agreement was endorsed by the Providence chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and groups representing Hispanics.

The lawsuit was filed in May 2002 on behalf of Metts, a former state lawmaker, the Providence branch of the NAACP and other plaintiffs. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit later that year.

The plaintiffs appealed. In March, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the U.S. District Court's decision, and sent the case back to it.

Rhode Island 's legislative districts were redrawn using updated census figures. The process coincided with a voter-mandated downsizing of the General Assembly.

The Senate has spent about $1.1 million defending the 2002 map against the now-settled lawsuit and two others.

A Hispanic group dropped another complaint and a Superior Court judge rejected a suit filed by the towns of Bristol, Little Compton and Tiverton.