The Sun Herald: Coast appears unlikely to lose any House seats

JACKSON (Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011) – It's been news for a while, now. As a matter of fact, state Rep. Diane Peranich of Pass Christian even mentioned it in an interview with WLOX-TV in Biloxi that was broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011.

Now, The Sun Herald finally picked up on it. In a story filed for the Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011, edition of The Sun Herald, the newspaper reported thast the Coast will keep all of its districts in a proposed House redistricting plan. In other words, the Coast will not lose any seats.
A lot of folks expected the opposite, especially after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But the Coast actually rebounded well. Population has steadily increased i n the years following Katrina, so the Coast looks like it won't lose any seats in the House.

Here is a snippet from The Sun Herald:

Redistricting plans expected to be presented to the Legislature for a vote next week spare the Coast a loss of legislative representation, top House and Senate lawmakers said Wednesday.

In the first redistricting since Hurricane Katrina, Coast leaders had feared loss of up to two seats each in the House and Senate because of population loss in the three Coast counties. But recently released census figures showed those losses were far less than expected.

“When we put our backs to the Gulf, we need as many votes as we can have on our issues,” said Rep. Diane Peranich, D-DeLisle, a ranking member on the House redistricting committee. “That should supersede anything else in this.”

Click here to read the entire story.