On Saturday the Kansas House approved a congressional map that would newly divide Lawrence between Rep. Lynn Jenkins’ 2nd District and Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s 1st District. Leading up to the vote, House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, claimed, “It is something the delegation can accept.” But Huelskamp’s campaign director, Jim Pfaff, told the Topeka Capital-Journal that was a “knowing misrepresentation, because we do not and never did support this map. He never even showed it to us before it was considered.” In any case, liberal-minded Lawrence is a poor fit in the rural “Big First.” The question now is the same as a decade ago, when Lawrence was split between the 2nd and 3rd districts: If such a city doesn’t represent a “community of interest,” what does?
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