And JOHN MUNFORD

[email protected]

Fayette residents may never

have heard of Mike Crotts, a Republican from Conyers, but many will get

to know him better if the state Senate's Reapportionment Committee has

its way.

If the committee's proposed

map of new state Senate districts is approved, Crotts will be the sitting

senator in a district that covers parts of six counties, including an

unincorporated portion of Fayette between Fayetteville and Starr's Mill.

"It's awful ... absolutely

awful," said state Rep. Kathy Cox of Peachtree City following Monday's

special session of the state Legislature. "I can't believe the audacity

of it."

Under the proposal, Fayette

would be carved up among three Senate districts. Peachtree City and Tyrone

would be in the 28th with most of Coweta County, while Brooks and Woolsey

would go into the 17th along with parts of Spalding, Henry, Newton, Rockdale

and Walton counties.

The 17th currently includes

Henry, Butts and parts of Newton and Rockdale counties. Crotts, a Republican,

was first elected in 1992 and has been reelected twice without opposition.

The 34th District would continue

to have a portion of north Fayette and western Clayton County with very

little change. It is currently represented by Greg Hecht of Jonesboro,

a member of the Reapportionment Committee.

Hecht voted along with 13 other

committee members in favor of the map, but said Monday he had objections

that he hopes will be ironed out as the full Senate debates the matter.

"I think you'll see a

lot of debate on the floor," he said, "probably this week. There

were some things that I wanted to try and change, and I spoke to some

of the people on the committee about them, and they said they didn't want

to change it but it could be changed later," Hecht said.

He didn't notice the size and

shape of the 17th District, Hecht said, but added it's not unusual for

a district to touch six counties. "There are some with nine,"

he said, but added that the 17th "may be a bad district which will

need revision."

Following the Senate session

Tuesday, Hecht said there was a lot of discussion among members, but no

floor debate on the proposed districts. That will come when the map is

introduced on the floor, he added. "When the map goes to the floor,

I'm sure there will be proposals for amendments, and we may see amendments

requested by members of both parties," he added.

He also predicted when the

districts are finally drawn, there will be lawsuits from individuals in

both parties.

Cox said that partisanship

in the proposed map is obvious.

"This is the definition

of gerrymandering," Cox said after viewing the proposed map for the

first time. "And Fayette's not the only district that will knock

your socks off."

Members of the Republican Caucus

complained that most of the Republican districts drawn by the committee

are pushing the maximum population limits allowed by law, limiting their

number, while Democratic districts are near and in some cases below the

minimum requirement, increasing their number.

Hecht said he isn't aware of

detailed population numbers on each district, but "I belive the districts

[as drawn] prserve most of the present legislative seats."

He also disagreed with Republican

criticisms that the proposed map violates the federal Voting Rights Act

members. The committee followed guidelines recently used by the Virginia

Legislature in redrawing its district, and the Virginia plan has been

approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, he said.

State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh,

who represents part of Fayette County, said he hopes his fellow legislators

can come together to develop a better map for the citizens of Georgia.

Seabaugh pointed out that 88

counties would be split by districts with the map approved by the committee,

while currently only 23 counties are split by districts.

"We should be trying to

keep counties whole," Seabaugh said. "... Or people won't know

who their state senator or state representative is."

One of the new districts created

stretches across 11 counties from north of Augusta all the way to Macon,

Seabaugh noted. That district, currently held by Joey Brush, was being

called a tourism district, Seabaugh said.

"How can a senator who

gets parts of 11 counties really be able to serve all those counties?"

Seabaugh said. "I know how difficult I find it just to serve three."

Seabaugh said the new map would

cause his district to lose the Fayetteville and Woolsey areas while gaining

a part of Tyrone and keeping Peachtree City and Brooks. While that isn't

ideal for Seabaugh, he admits that other Republican senators fared much

worse.

"There's no way that even

if I'm in the Democratic Party I would vote for it because of the way

it was drawn," Seabaugh said. "Not even all Democrats have had

an input into this map.

When the map vote was taken

Monday, the four Republicans on the redistricting committee voted against

it. The other 20 members of the committee are Democrats, but some of them

walked out or refused to vote.

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