Florence County Republican Chairman Bill Pickle joined the chorus of dissenters from the Pee Dee protesting the newly proposed congressional district lines presented to the S.C. State Senate on Tuesday.
“That plan makes absolutely no sense for the Pee Dee,” Pickle said.
Pickle called an impromptu press conference at his Florence home Wednesday to voice his frustrations with the plan proposed by Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkley, backed by a coalition of 10 Republicans and 14 Democrats that would award the 7th Congressional District to South Carolina’s Low Country and split the Pee Dee between the 1st, 6th, 7th and 5th congressional districts.
Pickle’s contention is that the counties located in the Pee Dee River Basin (Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Marlboro, Marion, Florence, Horry, Williamsburg and Georgetown) should either be included in the new congressional district or have that district consist of just those counties.
Those nine counties, he said, have more in common with each other than any of the others each is paired up with in the Grooms plan.
Pickle contended that the Pee Dee should never have been broken apart when redistricting took place in the 1990’s that divided the Pee Dee into the present 1st, 5th and 6th districts.
“Historically the Pee Dee has been a regional congressional district,” he said. “It’s time for us to become that district again.”
As much as Pickle disagreed with the proposed district, he acknowledged that the power sits squarely on the shoulders of state legislatures, who were scheduled to entertain third reading of redistricting Wednesday.
“We need proper representation in Columbia, we need proper representation in Washington because we’re not getting it now,” he said.
Pickle said the only thing Pee Dee residents can do is call their representatives and urge them to push hard for the 7th Congressional District.
“We’re not giving up,” he said. “We’ve got people calling and emailing right now. We plan on targeting the ten (Republican) senators who voted for this plan against the Leatherman amendment and try and persuade them to do the right thing, not the political thing they’re trying to do.”
Pickle said he had not spoken with Senator Hugh Leatherman, who proposed an amendment that would have brought the 7th Congressional District to the Pee Dee region, but had been in touch with his chief of staff.
“He was on the floor still fighting it,” Pickle said of Leatherman.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement