New 7th District could divide area

COLUMBIA -- Where the new 7th Congressional District will be drawn is still up in the air.

The state picked up the extra seat in Congress because of the growing population, but South Carolina lawmakers cannot decide where it should go.

One plan puts the new seat in Horry County, along the North Carolina border and swinging into the heart of the Pee Dee, leaving the 1st District mostly as is. The competing plan keeps Charleston County in the 1st District, but draws Berkeley and Dorchester counties into a new district that includes Beaufort County, a swath of rural counties along the Georgia boarder and captures portions of other counties.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, both Charleston Republicans, said legislators in the House and Senate are at work to come up with a compromise. The Legislature is tentatively expected back on July 26 to give a plan final approval, but at the moment, the majority of legislators in the Senate don't agree with the majority of the legislators in the House.

The idea is to draw the district lines without dividing up counties or areas with like interests, but politics has tremendous sway over the process. Democrats are trying to position the districts in a way that could allow the minority party to win a second congressional election while some Republicans want to draw the lines so individuals in the Legislature could make a run for Congress. All argue they want to do what is best for the state.

If the lawmakers can't agree, the court will draw the lines. The plan could also require approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, because of the state's past civil rights violations.

Harrell said he does not want the court to decide. "It is our duty to do this," he said.

McConnell said he and others are trying to build consensus to avoid gridlock when the Legislature returns.