In the biggest surprise since humidity in July, a political party was tasked with making changes that might benefit its opponent in the next election, and it didn't create widespread harmony.
Now that the Alabama legislature has drafted and approved a measure creating a brand-new Congressional district map, per court order, and Gov. Kay Ivey has signed that measure into law, the next question is whether the courts will weigh back in on what Alabama's Republican majority did.
AL.com's Mike Cason reports that state Democrats are less than pleased with the outcome.
A federal court had found that Alabama's Congressional district map may have been defying the Voting Rights Act, that the state's Black population is high enough and dense enough geographically to support two highly minority districts, and that the Legislature should adjust the Congressional districts so that a second one was majority Black or something close to it.
So the Republican-dominated State House came up with a plan that would maintain a Black majority in District 7, and would increase District 2 from 30-percent Black to 40-percent Black.
That's clearly a change. But it's clearly not a Black majority. And it's clearly not suddenly a slam-dunk for the Democrats to take District 2.
What's not clear is how the court will feel about it.
