And JOHN

THOMPSON

[email protected]

Coweta County

stands to be split into two U.S. congressional districts under the redistricting

map forwarded to the Georgia Senate Tuesday by its Reapportionment Committee.

Nearly all

of Coweta would become part of the 7th District along with parts of Fayette,

Douglas, Troup and Spalding counties. The remainder of Coweta would be

included in the newly created 12th District along with portions of Clayton

and Spalding counties.

Neither district

would have an incumbent congressman as such, because the 13th is a new

district and the current 7th District congressman, Rep. Bob Barr, does

not live within the proposed district lines. But U.S. representatives

are not required to live within the districts they represent.

Under the new

map, the 3rd District of Rep. Mac Collins would be shifted to the eastern

Atlanta area. Collins currently represents at least a part of Coweta,

Fayette, Spalding, Muscogee, Talbot, Harris, Meriwether, Pike, Clayton

and Henry counties, though he actually lives in Butts County. State Sen.

Mitch Seabaugh called the congressional map "a slap in the face to

our communities."

"In the

public hearings we had, people overwhelmingly asked for compact districts

that protected communities of interest," Seabaugh said. "This

map is just another example of political power that is exercised for self-interests,

not the interests of the communities of Georgia and its citizens."

The map will

likely be merged with a proposed map coming from the Georgia House of

Representatives, Seabaugh said.

Seabaugh, who

represents parts of Fayette and Spalding counties along with all of Coweta,

criticized the redistricting process as shutting out public opinion.

"The citizens

of Georgia, the very people who are to be served by the members elected

from these districts, have not been given the time to review and comment

on these maps, or on the compromise map that will come out of the conference

committee," Seabaugh said.

Seabaugh said

he is eager to discover the reaction of current Georgia congressmen to

the proposed redistricting plan.

Seabaugh also

criticized state leaders for drumming up interest in the video poker machine

issue to distract citizens from the redistricting issues.

"The governor

and lieutenant governor all of a sudden jumped onto this issue and they're

trying to divert attention from redistricting and the flag vote,"

Seabaugh claimed.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland

denounced the maps as purely partisan and said he plans to politic for

maps that he has created.

Westmoreland

said his maps would still leave Coweta and Fayette counties in the 3rd

District, but would also include Collins' home county of Butts in the

district.

Westmoreland's

maps are expected to be discussed early next week by the House.