With Republican

lawmakers still seething over last week's passage of new state Legislature

districts that they consider unfair, a new special legislative session

begins today to redraw districts for Georgia's U.S. representatives.

Because the

state's population has grown, Georgia will have two new congressional

seats for a total of 13, and the Legislature's task will be to divide

the population as evenly as possible among the districts.

State Sen.

Greg Hecht, who represents north Fayette and east Clayton in the 34th

District, is hoping that, when the dust settles, there will be a new south

metro district that will favor him in a run for Congress.

He has raised

over $100,000 in anticipation of a possible run, but told The Citizen

he won't formally announce until he sees how the districts shape up.

Hecht said

Tuesday that the talk around the state offices is that the congressional

redistricting process will be even more acrimonious than redrawing the

state House and Senate districts was.

"Special

sessions get worse and worse the longer you go along," he said.

Hecht, the

lone Democrat in Fayette's legislative delegation, voted for the state

redistricting maps, while Republicans Sen. Mitch Seabaugh and Reps. Kathy

Cox and Lynn Westmoreland voted against. The new maps place north Fayette

in a huge four-member House district that includes most of south Fulton

County, and Cox will be in a two-member district that has three sitting

Republican representatives living in it.

A small part

of Fayette also is in a new Senate district that stretches over six counties.

The county, currently represented by a four-member delegation, will have

a delegation of six House members and three senators.

Hecht defended

the changes, saying Fayette will be more influential in the Legislature

with more representatives to call on.

(Hecht's detailed

defense of the new maps is on the Opinion page, 4A, in today's Citizen.

Rep. Cox's speech in opposition to the maps starts on Page 5A.)

His Senate

colleague, Seabaugh, told The Citizen he pleaded with Hecht to vote against

the maps.

"I know

Fayette County was very unhappy about those maps," Seabaugh said.

"I tried."

Seabaugh also

spoke on the Senate floor, saying the redistricting plan that was passed

"does not unite people or communities it divides."

"We had

the opportunity to demonstrate positive leadership ... and work together

to come up with a map that would minimize the effect on communities,"

Seabaugh said later, adding he believes the U.S. Justice Department will

reject the maps.

Republicans

will ask the Justice Department to reject the maps on grounds that they

violate the Voting Rights Act, which forbids redistricting that dilutes

black voting strength. Failing that, they have vowed to file lawsuits.

Meanwhile,

sitting congressmen will be watching this week's redistricting process

with intense interest to see what their chances are of reelection in the

new districts.

Hecht said

he believes both the House and Senate reapportionment committees will

submit proposed new congressional district maps, both of which will go

through numerous changes in committee before being passed by the two bodies.

Then the final

House and Senate maps will go to a conference committee that will hammer

out a single, final map, he predicted.