Battle of Congressional District Lines Continues in SC with Public Hearing Wednesday

~Sean Mahoney, ABC News 4

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCIV) — The South Carolina House of Representatives will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss new congressional lines that could affect who will represent many Lowcountry voters.

These new congressional maps were proposed just one week ago and bring major changes to Congressional Districts 1 and 6, which are centered in the Lowcountry

Currently, the congressional map shows Rep. Nancy Mace’s district, District 1, over parts of West Ashley, Johns Island, and the peninsula. The district spreads into North Charleston as well as Berkley County and the lower shoreline.

But, in these newly proposed lines, most of that area around West Ashley, Johns Island and the northern parts of the peninsula will be moved to District 6 which is currently Rep. Jim Clyburn’s district.

It would also split Charleston peninsula in two parts, with one half under Mace’s district and the other under Clyburn’s.

The new maps would have District 6 cover the areas around both the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina, two schools that are almost 100 miles apart.

This is where many of the points of contention are among representatives and activists in The Palmetto State, with some claiming that these new lines are gerrymandered in a way to make less competitive races.

Specifically, the concern is with in District 1, which is currently the most competitive district in the state. Representative Deon Tedder, whose House of Representatives district is over parts of North Charleston and the peninsula, says the maps push Democrat voters out of District 1 to “keep that district red for years to come.”

Tedder told ABC News 4 that he hopes that when this is discussed there will be some compromise.

“It's ridiculously drawn. In my opinion, there's lots of concerns across the state because it's just straight up gerrymandering and packing,” Tedder said. “But, I hope that once we get back, we can work together and try to make this more fair, more representative of our neighborhoods and our communities that we live in, going forward.”

ABC News 4 did reach out to many Republican representatives, including Nancy Mace and Representatives Linda Bennett and William Cogswell, but we haven’t received a response.

The League of Women Voters claims that these new lines will have District 1 at a 14 percent partisan gap, which it says is highly non-competitive.

However, according to representatives at the ACLU, they believe these new lines have racial bias towards many voters. They say if changes are not made soon, then there will be more lawsuits to come in the future.

The ACLU already has filed a lawsuit back in October against the South Carolina House of Representatives over what it called “failures in the redistricting process.” The civil rights group filed another lawsuit claiming gerrymandering in South Carolina’s House of Representatives district maps just last week.

But with these new district lines in the congressional maps, attorneys with the ACLU claim it is the worst they have seen yet, doing what they call “packing and cracking” of minority voters.

With the new congressional lines essentially removing areas like West Ashley, Johns Island and parts of the peninsula from Rep. Mace’s district and putting them into District 6, the ACLU claims that this move is racially biased.

Leaders with the group say the lines were intentionally redrawn around these Black communities.

The League of Women Voters added that if these new maps were passed, it would leave District 1 with only a 16 percent African American population, which they claim is not representative of the community in the Lowcountry.

Senior staff attorney with the ACLU, Somil Trivedi, says they have voiced these concerns in public hearings since October and says if no changes are made, they will have no choice but to take legal action.

“In the Statehouse, they have drawn lines, which we say, discriminate against Black voters with the overall effect of giving them too much voice in a very small number of districts and no voice and all the rest, diluting their power overall,” Trivedi explained. “So, if they pass the worst versions of the proposed maps that they put forward so far, it's a high likelihood that we'll have to go into court again.”

Trivedi claims these new maps violate the Voting Rights Act and many civil rights of voters. He adds that he worries that since these maps were brought up late in the legal process in what he called “elections by ambush,” that there won’t be adequate time to review and change these new district lines.

Former Congressman and Democratic candidate for Governor Joe Cunningham submitted a statement on Wednesday to the Ad Hoc House Redistricting Committee:

"Like most South Carolinians, I am unable to testify at today's hearing because I am spending time with family and friends over the Christmas holidays," said Cunningham. "But I think we all know the purpose of scheduling this meeting over the Christmas holidays was to limit the amount of public input and participation by average citizens in this extremely important process.The House's proposed alternative map - and the secretive process behind its creation and release - is an insult to the intelligence of every South Carolinian. There is no ambiguity surrounding this map's clear objective: to make it impossible for a Democrat to win any congressional seats outside of the 6th district. This new map attempts to virtually eliminate the city of Charleston from the First Congressional District, moves West Ashley and Johns Island residents into a new district that also includes Columbia, and packs as many black voters into the Sixth Congressional District to intentionally dilute their voices. The passage of this map will lead to a successful lawsuit due to its clear racial packing and the unnecessary attempts to split up counties and local communities for political gain. But bigger questions remain about who drew this map, why it was drawn, and which members of Congress had a hand in its creation. I respectfully ask Chairman Jordan and the members of the Redistricting Ad Hoc Committee to answer these four simple questions to bring some much-needed clarity to this shady and covert process."

He also posed the following questions to the group:

• Did any partisan or national organizations participate in the drawing of this alternative map?
• Do you believe the alternative map contains any competitive congressional districts?
• What was the purpose of releasing an alternative map and who made the decision to draw a separate map?
• Which members of Congress saw this map before it was released to the general public or had a hand in its creation?

The public hearing is happening Wednesday morning at the state courthouse, While a decision won’t be made that same day, the maps are expected to be voted on by mid-January.