>> MILLEDGEVILLE
Ken Vance has seen the district he serves in the state legislature radically changed – to his disadvantage – during the redistricting session in Atlanta, but the first-term state representative holds no ill will.
Vance said last Friday the map crafted by the Republican-led House redistricting committee, necessitated by a recent U.S. District Court judge’s ruling, changes his district in number, geography, and population makeup. Vance, a former member of the Milledgeville City Council, was elected to the House in 2022 in District 133 when then-representative Rick Williams ran successfully for a State Senate seat.
The newly created House District 149 will include all of Baldwin County west of the Oconee River but will now run through south Jones County into East Macon. The new district will be the same size, both in total population and those 18 or over eligible to vote.
The huge difference is in the ratio of whites to Blacks. In Vance’s current district, whites account for 56.35 percent of eligible voters, while 37.05 are Black. In the proposed District 149, 50.98 percent are Black, compared to 42.45 percent of whites. Hispanics, Asians, and others make up the balance of the population.
Vance said that the judge’s order, more than 550 pages in length, ordered that three majority Black districts in metro Atlanta and two in the Macon area be established for the House of Representatives. Vance stated Sunday night that the map passed in the House Friday afternoon and was sent to the Senate for its consideration.
“It was a majority Republican district,” the representative said of the area he represents. “Now it is a majority Democratic district. It was the only district that was flipped.”
The slight majority Black district was created by including a small portion of Bibb County, Vance explained “It goes from the Oconee River to the Jones County line.
Then there is a sliver in Jones County south of (Highway) 49 that connects Baldwin with four precincts in east Macon.” Vance now represents Jones County east of Gray to the Baldwin County line. That will all be gone, and in its place will be the small stretch south of Highway 49.
The four precincts in Bibb County are heavily minority-populated areas. The breakdown of registered voters there as compared to the overall number in the district demonstrates why the map was drawn as it was.
According to unofficial figures obtained by the Bulletin Tuesday afternoon, in 2022 there were 8,941 Blacks to just 1,319 whites eligible to vote in the east Macon precincts. District-wide, with the breakdown of Blacks/whites unavailable for one partial precinct in Jones County, the minority advantage was just under 11 percent, 49.4-38.6. The remaining 12 percent were Hispanic, Asian, Indian, or unknown, the exact number of each is not available.
Vance, noting that the remaining 12 percent could be important, acknowledged his situation.
“It’s a winnable district for a Republican,” he said, “but it’s going to be hard. You’ve got to get your turnout. It’s according to what kind of excitement there is at the end of the day, around the presidential race and other races.”
Despite the challenge he knows he faces in the new district, Vance holds no grudges.
“It’s just complying with the judge’s order,” he said. “Even though I took the hit, or District 133 took the hit, I believe the committee got it right in what they had to do per the judge’s order... When the judge says there are two areas in particular, he wants these five districts to come from, well, that takes everybody else out of it that isn’t in those areas.
“There is no ill will whatsoever,” Vance added. “The Speaker (of the House) reached out to me and told me not exactly what was coming, but to expect something (unfavorable), and I appreciate that.”
Maps for both legislative chambers passed Tuesday and will be sent to the judge before the Dec. 8 deadline, Vance said.