Document text
Court tosses redistricting appeals Decision leaves Atkinson outside the district that elected him, and puts residents of three towns in a long strip east to Lakeview By DANI DODGE An Oregon Supreme Court decision to uphold Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's redistricting plan leaves residents of Shady Cove, Eagle Point and Butte Falls in a mega-district that stretches out to Lakeview. It also means that state Sen. Jason Atkinson, R-Jacksonville, will have to move if he wants to continue representing his district. Bradbury's plan shifted district boundary lines in a way that excludes Atkinson from his district by a few blocks. "My options are to stay put and run for a new district, to move to what's left of my old district," Atkinson said, "or to run for secretary of state - but it's far too early to consider that. "I'm just going to go steelhead fishing and think through all of this craziness." The court upheld Bradbury's legislative redistricting plan with one minor exception - the court ordered Bradbury to fix a problem caused by an apparent federal census error that wrongly placed a 1,900-inmate federal prison outside the city of Sheridan in Yamhill County. The court dismissed a dozen other challenges to Bradbury's plan - including one by the cities of Shady Cove and Eagle Point - saying he had broad latitude to draw new House and Senate district lines to reflect population changes shown in last year's census. The ruling ends appeals of the plan. Republicans - who control both houses of the Legislature by a slim majority - argued that Bradbury, a Democrat, illegally shaped districts to favor his party. But the court unanimously said the challengers "have not met their burden of demonstrating that the secretary of state had an improper purpose." Eagle Point Mayor Jim Goan was dismayed. "I'm pretty upset with that decision," Goan said. "What do we know about the people on the other side of the mountains and what do they know about us?" The cities of Shady Cove and Eagle Point filed petitions asking the court to send back the map that severs Eagle Point, Shady Cove and Butte Falls from the rest of Jackson County. Goan said the redistricting plan means that residents of his city will have less representation than in the past when the district encompassed Jackson County and reached down to Ashland. It now crosses the Cascade Mountain range. "It leaves us in the boonies by ourselves," Goan said. "We are still in Jackson County but we don't have the voting power we had - the person elected without a doubt will be on the other side of the mountain because they've got 10 times the people." State Rep. Alan Bates, a Democrat, moved from Eagle Point to Ashland after Bradbury's plan was announced, in part so he could remain within his voting base. Atkinson said that he and two other Senate Republican leaders were "targeted" by Bradbury, "drawn out" of their districts by a quarter-mile or less. "To know where someone lives and do that for politics is so slimy," Atkinson said. Bradbury has said in the past he did not consider where elected officials lived before drawing his redistricting maps. Atkinson figures he has a year and a half before he'll have to move if he wants to run again for his Senate seat or if he should run for another position. He said he's also been urged by many people to run for secretary of state, but believes it's too early to decide. Atkinson said it would be hard to leave the Jacksonville house he and his wife renovated. "But this has definitely slowed the motivation to buy new counter tops," Atkinson said. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] . The Associated Press contributed to this story Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.