FRANKFORT — A Democrat from far Western Kentucky will soon represent downtown Lexington in the state Senate under a redistricting plan approved by the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday.
Under the plan, which is expected to become law within a few days, Democratic Sen. Kathy Stein of Lexington will be out of office at year's end. Statewide, 10 senators will be placed in districts with other incumbent lawmakers.
The Senate's passage of House Bill 1 on a 22-14 vote moves Stein's Senate district to northeastern Kentucky. Stein, whose four-year term ends this year, would have to move to the new district in order to seek re-election in 2012.
Central Fayette County's 13th Senate District, where Stein lives, will become the 4th Senate District under the new plan. That means Sen. Dorsey Ridley, a Democrat from Henderson, will represent the central portion of Lexington until his term ends in 2014.
Stein could run for the 4th Senate District in 2014, when even-numbered Senate districts are up for election.
The new 13th District will be made up of Mason, Lewis, Robertson, Fleming, Bath, Montgomery and Harrison counties. Stein said she plans to finish her term as senator for the new 13th District, but she has no plans to move her residence.
She called the Senate's actions "petty" and said she is considering legal action to stop the proposed plan.
"You just have to laugh sometimes to keep from crying," Stein said Wednesday during debate on the Senate floor.
Stein, a lawyer who was first elected to the House in 1997 and later the Senate in 2009, has been an outspoken critic of the Republican Senate majority and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.
Stein said she did not learn of the move until 1:30 p.m. Thursday while watching the Senate State and Local Government Committee meeting on TV in her legislative office.
Stein had filed about two weeks ago to seek re-election in the 13th, but that is not possible under the new Senate map.
Ridley said he understands the political process, and will try to make the best of the situation.
"I'm ready to serve the people. I've always believed the primary purpose of a legislator is to serve the constituents," he said. "But I'll continue to live in Henderson."
Senate State and Local Government Chairman Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said moving Stein out of Fayette County was not political retaliation. The move was necessary to redraw Senate district lines to reflect the state's shifting population, he said.
His committee approved the plan a few hours before the full Senate took it up.
Thayer did not answer a reporter when asked if Williams had ordered that Stein's district be moved because of a vendetta. Stein said she was glad that Thayer at least did not lie. Williams later said he did not direct Thayer to move Stein's district.
Several Democrats blasted the Senate GOP redistricting plan during debate.
Sens. Gerald Neal and Tim Shaughnessy of Louisville invoked the name of Martin Luther King Jr. in expressing concern about fewer minorities in two Jefferson County districts.
Shaughnessy said the move was payback because Jefferson County did not support Williams in his unsuccessful effort last November to unseat Democrat Steve Beshear as governor.
Williams later said he was not involved in the redrawing of the Jefferson County districts and that GOP leadership had worked hard not to remove minorities from Neal's district.
He said Neal and Shaughnessy were "trying to play the race card."
Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, was the only Democrat to vote for the redistricting plan. He said he did not want to tell the new counties in his district that he was voting against them.
Under the Senate proposal, 10 incumbent senators would live in districts with other senators, including:
■ Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and Sen. Walter Blevins, D-Morehead, in the 25th District.
■ Williams and Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs, in the 16th District. McGaha already has said he will not seek re-election.
■ Sen. Denise Harper Angel and Sen. Perry Clark, both Louisville Democrats, in the 35th District.
■ Sen. Shaughnessy and Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, in the 36th District. Shaughnessy has said he will not seek re-election.
■ Sen. Ridley and Sen. Jerry Rhoads, D-Madisonville, in the 6th District.
The Senate plan also creates a new 27th District made up of Muhlenberg, Todd, Logan, Simpson, Allen and a small area of Warren County.
It apparently was designed for state Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green, who would lose his House seat under the Democratic-controlled House's redistricting plan.
HB 1 also included new boundaries for the state's seven Supreme Court districts and the 100 state House districts, which the Senate did not change.
The measure now goes back to the House, which is expected to approve it and send it to the governor for his signature because each chamber has a "gentlemen's agreement" to accept the other's legislative redistricting plan.
Republicans, who make up the minority in the House, have expressed outrage with how House Democratic leadership drew up House district boundaries. That plan would put nine Republican incumbents in the same districts.
