Georgia has been carved up

into something resembling a "war zone," state Rep. Lynn Westmoreland

said in a town hall meeting in Fayette last week.

Westmoreland, a Coweta Republican

who represents part of Fayette and is the minority leader in the House,

is traveling the state and plans to have town hall meetings in every county

to explain how each will be affected by the recently completed redrawing

of state Legislature and U.S. Congress seats.

About 30 local Republicans,

and a few Democrats, showed up at a 7:30 a.m. Fayette meeting last week

to hear how the local political scene will be affected.

A special session of the Legislature

redrew the districts this past summer to account for population changes

revealed in the 2000 U.S. Census.

"You've got to understand

that reapportionment is a political process," Westmoreland told the

group, adding that he is "trying not to be partisan" in the

informational sessions.

But he didn't quite succeed

in holding in his opinions as he lectured the crowd using about a dozen

different maps to show all the changes. "It's hard to believe that

a grown person drew this," he said, pointing to the new congressional

district map.

"In the next reapportionment

[in 2011], if Republicans are in charge, I hope we will take our oath

seriously about doing something for the benefit of Georgia, and won't

do something like this here," he added.

Westmoreland said that before

the reapportionment process began last summer, state Republican leaders

canvassed the state asking for citizen input before submitting their proposals

for new districts.

There were 50 to 60 speakers

at each forum, he said, adding, "We didn't have any of them say,

'Split the precincts in our county;' we didn't have any of them say, 'Put

in multi-member districts. ... Disenfranchise our cities from our counties

...' They said, 'Don't do it in secret.'"

On day one of the session,

Westmoreland said, Republicans submitted about 20 proposed maps. "Democrats

submitted zero maps," he said.

On the days when the final

maps were approved, he said, the maps devised by Democratic Party leaders

were revealed and voted on in one day with no chance for public input.

"The Democrats have had

control of Georgia for 130 years," Westmoreland said, "yet it

took them only 60 days to carve Georgia up into what looks like a war

zone."

Most of his remarks were directed

toward changes that affect Fayette County, but to illustrate his opinion

on the "partisan" nature of the redistricting, Westmoreland

pointed out places all over the state where he said slender fingers of

land had been extended from one district into other districts in order

to incorporate the address of a sitting Republican into the district of

another, or into a district with a vast Democratic majority.

In many cases, similar strips

of land were incorporated in districts in order to pick up small sections

of black population to bolster voting strength in Democratic districts.

He pointed to a bridge of land

that he said is 700 feet wide and two miles long connecting two former

districts.

In drawing districts for the

U.S. Congress, Westmoreland accused Democrats of having only one criterion

"six districts with 54 percent Democratic performance" in previous

elections.

The result, he said, is a new

8th District in which incumbent 3rd District Rep. Mac Collins, who represents

Fayette, will have to run as a non-incumbent because of the change in

number, and a district that meanders around other districts in such a

confusing fashion that "Mac needs to buy him a GPS [global positioning

system] so he'll know if he's in the district."

New multi-member state House

districts will be so large that they'll double or triple the cost of running

for office there, Westmoreland said.

The mostly Republican audience

nodded knowingly as Westmoreland characterized the redistricting as blatantly

partisan, and one woman, who did not identify herself, said the blame

rests squarely on the shoulders of Gov. Roy Barnes.

"He gets an 'F' in geography

and a 'needs improvement' in getting along with others," she said.

"I've seen splatter art that's better than this."

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