Opinion ID: 2154803
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Senate President's Plans

Text: The senate president has proposed two alternative plans for the court's consideration. The first plan is a compromise plan, which the senate president asserts is the next closest plan to the legislature's intent. According to the senate president, the compromise plan represents the results of weeks of negotiation between the senate Republicans and Democrats. It is said to combine elements of SB 1, the plan supported by the Republicans, and of the plan supported by the Democrats and submitted by the petitioners, and is alleged to have an overall range of population deviation of 9.83%. The second plan is a deviation plan, which the senate president asserts has an overall range of deviation of less than 4% from the ideal district population. Both plans are flawed for the same reasons as are the petitioners' plans. Like the petitioners, the senate president did not rely solely upon federal census data, but instead relied upon ward population data that differed from the data reported in the federal census. The senate president's compromise plan used the PL 94-171 census data base for all city wards except for those in Manchester and Nashua. When the PL 94-171 data is substituted for those cities, the overall range of population deviation is actually 9.2%, and the plan changes the senate districts for 24.10% of the State's population (297,846 citizens). The senate president's deviation plan used the PL 94-171 census data base for all city wards except those in Manchester, Nashua and Concord. When the PL 94-171 data is substituted for those cities, the overall range of population deviation is actually 5.4%, and the plan changes the senate districts for 34.74% of the State's population (429,310 citizens). As with the petitioners' plan, the plans submitted by the senate president embody political considerations. Although the senate president claims the compromise plan is a product of weeks of negotiation between senate Republicans and Democrats, it was not adopted. The deviation plan is similarly laden with political considerations. Although SB 1 was modified to achieve a lower overall range of deviation, the plan is in many respects similar to the plan supported by senate Republicans and rejected by senate Democrats.