Harpootlian has said the Justice Department is using an antiquated standard as states draw district lines to maintain black-majority districts. He said time and again voters in the South are giving more support to candidates without regard to their race. He notes as an example that U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, a black Republican, won the state’s 1st District last year.
During the state Senate debate, Democratic legislators questioned whether Republicans were packing black voters into Clyburn’s district. Senate Democratic Caucus spokesman Phil Bailey said the caucus hasn’t decided whether it will join the litigation.
Kaiser said his redevelopment group plans to start building residential properties again at the former Kennedy Homes, which was started in 2006 and once held hopes for 900 homes to be tightly clustered on about 400 acres.
Redistricting is a once-a-decade process to make sure political district lines reflect population changes revealed by the U.S. Census. South Carolina is picking up a seventh U.S. House seat – something the Palmetto State had years ago, before population fell in 1930. That new district was added to the state’s northeastern corner on the coast and the state line with North Carolina.
Also rejected were two routes that paralleled a stretch of Interstate 90 in South Dakota to avoid the Sandhills. Those would have cost almost $500 million more and involved putting the line through more densely populated areas and across more streams and rivers that could be fouled if the conduit broke or leaked.
Todd Kaiser, right, president of Kaiser Property Group in Janesville listens to his advisers during the bidding process for the Kennedy Homes residential property north of Janesville. Kaiser ended up acquiring all of the 150 plus lots in the subdivision.