January 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The Tennessee General Assembly moved a step closer Thursday to giving DeKalb County a new State Senator.
The State Senate approved congressional and state Senate redistricting maps but delayed a vote on a state House map until next week. The state Senate and congressional maps passed the full Senate, 26-5. The House map will be discussed in the Senate on Wednesday.
After the maps pass both legislative bodies, they will head to Gov. Bill Lee. Democrats have vowed a court challenge.
According to the plan, DeKalb County would be moved from the 17th State Senatorial District, now represented by Mark Pody (R) of Lebanon, to the 16th District represented by Janice Bowling (R) of Tullahoma. In addition to DeKalb County, the 16th District would include the counties of Warren, Grundy, Coffee, Franklin, and Lincoln. Senator Bowling currently represents Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren Counties.
The proposed redistricting plan calls for Senator Pody’s 17th District to include all of Wilson County and extend into Davidson to include portions of Donelson and Hermitage, along with areas near the Nashville International Airport and Percy Priest Lake. Pody currently serves Cannon, Clay, Macon, Smith, and Wilson counties in addition to DeKalb.
Senator Pody told WJLE Thursday he had hoped to hold onto DeKalb County.
“I have six counties right now in the 17th district and it looks like they will take five of them away. The 17th district will include Wilson County and a portion of Davidson County. I tried my best to negotiate and at least hold onto Cannon, DeKalb, and Smith County. I would have rather kept my rural counties rather than pick up Davidson County, but Wilson and Davidson County grew so fast in population over the last 10 years that the numbers for redistricting did not work as I would have liked,” said Senator Pody.
If the plan is adopted by both the State Senate and State House, is signed by the Governor, and withstands a court challenge, Senator Pody said it would take effect after the November election.
Senator Pody said although he may no longer represent DeKalb County after November, he would continue to help anyone here anyway he could, but that DeKalb County would be well represented by Senator Bowling.
“I have known Senator Bowling for a long time. She and I have worked together on a lot of bills. In fact, if you looked at our voting record, we probably vote 98% of the time exactly the same way. I think she will be very good for the county. She is looking forward to coming into DeKalb County and has already been working with me to learn all the issues related to the county and obtain the local demographics so she can hit the ground running,” said Senator Pody.
Unlike Senator Pody, Senator Bowling is not up for re-election in 2022.
Much of the Senate Democratic objection to the maps remained the three-way split of Nashville in the congressional map. Currently one Democratic U.S. representative (Jim Cooper, 5th Congressional) represents Nashville.