Yalobusha Could Move To Thompson’s District

JACKSON – Mississippi’s Second Congressional District appears to be headed east, taking in Yalobusha, Panola and Grenada counties, according to a redistricting plan released Monday by federal judges.
    The plan was created by a panel of three federal judges after the State Legislature failed to meet a December 4 deadline for a new map. Partisan differences were cited as complicating the job to balance the population in the state’s four Congressional Districts as required by law after the 2010 Census.
    Like Panola and Grenada counties, Yalobusha is currently in the First Judicial District represented by Republican Representative Alan Nunnelee.
    “I am disappointed that Panola, Yalobusha, and Grenada will no longer be a part of the 1st District. I have made many friends in those counties, and will continue to work with job creators for growth there,” Nunnelee said in a press release Tuesday.
    District 33 State Representative Tommy Reynolds (D) served as the House Redistricting Chairman and had pledged early on to work to keep Yalobusha in the First Congressional District.
    “Certainly as chairman of the House Committee I worked closely with Senate Redistricting Chairman Terry Burton,” Reynolds told the Herald Tuesday. “We had three different plans, but they could not reach an agreement on any of them,” Reynolds added, referring to the work by the state’s House and Senate members.
    Reynolds told the Herald back in February, when work was underway in the 2011 Legislative Session, he had strong feelings about keeping Yalobusha in the First Congressional District.
    “We are a hill county and our power is public TVA (Tennessee Valley Auth-ority),” Reynolds had told the Herald.
     The 2010 Census figures, released in February, showed the First Congres-sional District, which includes Yalobusha and 22 other counties, had 15 percent more people than the Second Congressional District, which spans the western Delta portion of the state and had lost population.
    Other changes proposed in the judge’s plan included moving all of Leake County into District 2. It is currently split between District 2 and District 3.                
    Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson has represented the Second Congressional District since 1993.