State lawmakers are meeting this hour to try and finalize boundaries for state legislative districts and federal congressional elections. But as WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, there's a midnight deadline, and the question of how to draw the lines for the US House of Representatives is still unresolved.
New district lines for state representatives and senators have apparently been agreed upon. But according to Mark Pazniokas of the Connecticut Mirror, it now appears that the bi-partisan redistricting commission will ask the state Supreme Court for more time to figure out how to draw the state's five congressional districts.
Appearing on WNPR's Where We Live, Pazniokas says some of the disagreement about those federal districts has to do with the 5th district -- which includes much of the western part of the state.
"It's an oddly shaped district because it was done to balance it among the political parties. It doesn't make compete sense geographically."
But with all five of Connecticut's districts represented by Democrats, Pazniokas says neither side appears willing to budge.
"The Republicans seem to be digging in. They currently hold no seats so their attitude is, 'We can't end up any worse off if this thing gets into the hands of the courts.'"
Pazniokas says the two sides may decide this hour to ask the state Supreme Court for more time. But another option could be to ask the court to resolve the dispute itself.
"The question is, how involved would they get? Would it be like binding arbitration, where it would be everybody's last best offer and they would pick the map that made the most sense? Would they pick the map they think makes the most sense and then make some alterations themselves? Probably not likely. But, again, we haven't tested this."
Listen for an update on this story later today.
For WNPR, I'm Jeff Cohen.