Lawmakers may intervene in redistricting lawsuit

Friday, March 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ The Oklahoma Legislature may intervene in a federal lawsuit filed over the absence of an enforceable congressional redistricting plan, the head of a legislative committee said Thursday.

Rep. Lloyd Benson, D-Frederick, chairman of the House Congressional Redistricting Committee, said lawmakers may intervene in the petition, filed March 8, to challenge whether the federal court has jurisdiction to hear the case.

Benson made the comments a day after a three-judge federal court panel was appointed to hear the lawsuit, which asks the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to draw new congressional districts.

Other lawsuits have been filed in state district courts in Sequoyah and Oklahoma counties over the redistricting issue. An Oklahoma County judge has set a May 13 trial on the redistricting lawsuit filed there.

``There's a question as to whether or not the 10th Circuit has the authority to take action before the district court in Oklahoma County,'' Benson said. The federal court would have to usurp the state court's jurisdiction in order to hear the case, Benson said.

``There's a possibility the (state) Supreme Court may be asked to take jurisdiction over this,'' he said.

The lawsuit says the qualifying deadline for people wanting to run for the U.S. House of Representatives is July 10 _ the end of the three-day filing period for federal and state offices in Oklahoma.

It alleges there is no guarantee the Legislature will pass a redistricting plan and there is no guarantee that a redistricting plan enacted by the Legislature will be signed by Gov. Frank Keating.

Meanwhile, the state House's top Republican said the Legislature's failure to reach agreement on a congressional redistricting plan is ``an embarrassment.''

``It's disappointing,'' said Minority Leader Fred Morgan, R-Oklahoma City. ``It doesn't appear that we're making any progress. I don't see a lot of serious negotiating going on.''

Oklahoma is losing one of its six U.S. House districts because of the state's slow population growth in the past decade.

Keating has said he will veto any congressional redistricting plan that puts two incumbent congressmen in the same district.

Keating and Republican members of Congress from Oklahoma have drawn their own map and presented it to House and Senate congressional redistricting committees.

Democratic leaders in the Legislature have approved a conference committee report that would put 5th District Rep. Ernest J. Istook, a Republican, into a new 3rd District that would include a portion of Oklahoma County and a heavily Democratic area of southeastern Oklahoma.

Keating has said he would also veto that plan.