"It's been a long

hard fight."

With those words, Rep. Lynn

Westmoreland (R-Sharpsburg) assessed a district court's ruling Tuesday

that effectively threw out the state's legislative districts drawn

in 2001 and threw this year's General Assembly session into chaos.

In their ruling, the three-judge

panel said the new maps violate the one person, one vote principal. The

judges also directed the Legislature to redraw the maps by March 1, which

will then be used in the July primary and November general election.

"I've been around

this state for three years showing different maps. It's been a lot

of hard work," he said.

The ruling also said the Democrats

violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause by "partisan

gerrymandering and racial gerrymandering." The judges also said the

maps were above the standard population deviation of five percent. The

justices said the house plan had a total population deviation plan of

9.98 percent.

Westmoreland said the redistricting

should dramatically affect the look of Fayette and Coweta's legislative

group.

"There will be no multi-member

districts, which will cut the delegation down by four immediately,"

he said.

And no on will feel the impact

greater than the four representatives who share House District 48, one

of 23 mulit-seat districts in the state thrown out by the federal judges.

While about 46 percent of Fayette

falls within the 48th, the county's portion only makes up about 25

percent of the total of the entire district, which mostly covers South

Fulton including College Park and East Point, as well as portions of southwest

Atlanta. The district is 64 percent black, and all four legislators are

black.

Rep. Virgil Fludd is the only

Fayette resident who serves on the 48th, which also includes Sharon Beasley-Teague,

Joe Heckstall and Bob Holmes. He's also the only one of the four

who has shown much interest in Fayette County affairs.

It is unclear how the district

might be redrawn to eliminate the four representatives, but Fludd has

made an effort in his two years in office to connect with the community

in which he lives.

"Fayette County is unique

in a lot of different ways," said Fludd recently. "You have

a convergeance of values, ideas. There are more people who agree than

disagree."

Westmoreland, a Republican

from Sharpsburg, already has maps ready to go, but conceded it's

probably going to be a difficult struggle to get those passed.

"Last time, it took us

two months to get maps passed, and that's when both chambers were

controlled by Democrats," Westmoreland said.

The state's Democrats

have not decided whether to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.