If Greg Stumbo's plan for redistricting prevails, the 4th Congressional District would once again include part of Jefferson County, with the remainder of the county exclusively the 3rd district. That could mean both the third and fourth district Congressmen could be from the same neighborhood.
Gene Snyder, who represented the fourth District prior to Jim Bunning, had been the 3rd district Congressman from Louisville until he lost after one term to Louisville Mayor Charllie Farnsley. Snyder then moved to Oldham County and defeated Frank Chelf for the fourth district seat in 1966.
Jim Bunning brought the seat home to Northern Kentucky in 1986 and it has been considered a Northern Kentucky seat ever since. Geoff Davis, the current Congressman, moved first to Oldham County and then Boone County before taking office in 2005. Prior to Davis, former Boone County Judge Executive Ken Lucas held the seat.
In discussing the house plan for redistricting, Speaker Greg Stumbo said that he was trying to make the fourth district more of an urban district centered on Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties. And while the removal of some eastern counties might make the house plan look that way, the inclusion of a portion of eastern Jefferson County could mean that the next Congressman after Davis might come from elsewhere.
The total voter registration for Boone, Kenton and Campbell Counties is 257, 496. The total voter registration for Jefferson, Oldham and Shelby and Nelson is 606,544. Granted, only a portion of Jefferson would be in Stumbo's new 4th, but the good folks in Oldham, Shelby, Jefferson and Nelson Counties get their news from Louisville, identify with Louisville and can tap into a great deal of money in that prosperous region of the state.
Giving a portion of Jefferson County to the fourth district could mean quite a different tasting recipe than that we in Northern Kentucky have enjoyed for the past twenty plus years. In fact, it could mean that two of Kentucky's six Congressional seats could come from Jefferson county.
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