On April 14, Arkansas became the first state in the nation to complete Congressional redistricting when Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe signed a new plan into law. Arkansas was one of the very few states where Democrats held exclusive authority to redistrict, and some speculated that Democrats would take a machete to the districts of freshman GOP Reps. Rick Crawford (AR-01) and Tim Griffin (AR-02) to avenge their loss of both seats in 2010 and to “get even” in the delegation. Instead, the “compromise” plan doesn’t do Republicans much damage at all.
National Democrats would have preferred to pack Griffin’s 2nd CD with black voters in the state’s Delta region, but that was never really on the table. Many Arkansas Democrats wanted to shore up Democratic Rep. Mike Ross (AR-04) by stretching his southern Arkansas district to Fayetteville in the state’s northwest corner. This plan, which affectionately came to be known as the “Pig Trail Gerrymander” or “Fayetteville Finger,” actually passed the state House but fell under opposition from some Fayetteville area Democratic legislators.
Arkansas legislators, under pressure to come to
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.