1st Round In Minnesota Redistricting Fight Arrives

ST. PAUL  (AP) - Three weeks before lawmakers hope to leave St. Paul for the year, a select few are at work over political maps that would play a role in elections for years to come.

The mapmaking assignment follows the once-a-decade census. Political boundaries are reconfigured to put roughly the same number of people in each of the 134 House districts and 67 Senate districts.

Republicans in charge of the House Redistricting Committee put out their first proposal Monday night and were holding a hearing to debate it Tuesday evening.

GOP senators are expected to produce their own proposal. The redistricting battle typically spills into the courts when there is divided party control at the Capitol, which is the case with a Democrat as governor.

A congressional redistricting plan will also come later.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)