Barr Blasts House Redistricting Plan

Republican congressional candidate Andy Barr is criticizing Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, over the a redistricting plan that passed the lower chamber Tuesday.The GOP challenger is running against U.S. Ben Chandler, D-Ky., in a rematch from 2010, where the Lexington attorney lost by razor-thin margin of less than 700 votes.Barr says the Democratic-controlled state House passed a "politically-motivated gerrymandering" plan that is designed to protect the incumbent."While most Kentuckians are worried about finding or keeping their jobs, Ben Chandler is obviously more concerned about protecting his own job by promoting an incumbent-protection scheme that removes tens of thousands of central Kentucky voters from the 6th Congressional District," he says.Asked about Barr's statement, the House speaker brushed off the accusation and said politics had no influence on how the map was crafted."Even the most, one of the most noted journalists in the state (CNHI's Ronnie Ellis) wrote back in the summer when that map was introduced that it was a fair and common sense approach to solving the problem of redistricting," he says.The map for Kentucky's new congressional seats now goes to the Republican-controlled state Senate, which is likely to reject the proposal.Stumbo added that politics had no influence in the decision.