What the newest voting boundary maps mean for Newport County's General Assembly seats

The new voting district boundaries up for General Assembly approval shuffles over 8,400 Newport County residents between Statehouse representatives and sees Tiverton lose one of the two state senators who currently represent the town at the State Capitol.

At its final meeting Wednesday, the State Special Commission on Reapportionment voted to send its final drafts for the new state House of Representatives, state Senate and U.S. Congressional voting districts boundary maps to the General Assembly for approval. While the finalized drafts were approved by the commission, they may still be altered before final approval.

These districts define the areas General Assembly members are tasked to represent. Should the General Assembly approve the maps as drawn, which it is expected to vote on sometime in February, these new boundaries will define which General Assembly member seats Newport County residents will vote on for the next decade.

Starting line: How will House, Senate and Congressional districts be redrawn? Newport meeting gives a preview

The draft voting district maps, approved by the commission in a 13-to-4 vote, represent the commission’s fourth boundary drawing attempt. Compared to the first iterations, House Map D and Senate Map D’s boundary lines for Newport County are closer to their current position, meaning fewer residents may have a different representative or senator than they voted for in the 2020 election following General Assembly approval.

However small these changes are percentage-wise, the new voting district boundary lines represent a change in house representative for many Newport County residents, the majority of whom live in Tiverton, which had one of the largest population growths from 2010 to 2020 in Newport County.

The tug-of-war for Tiverton: Four Newport County voting districts face major changes. But there is opposition

Of Newport County’s seven Statehouse voting districts, the two which have changed the most from each of the commission’s redistricting maps have been District 70 (Portsmouth, Tiverton) and District 71 (Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton). While most districts in the county retain over 90% of their original constituency in the new voting boundary maps, a little over 23% of people who are currently represented by District 71’s Rep. Michelle McGaw, a total of 3,359 people, were reapportioned in the new maps to be a part of District 70 instead. These residents live in the area of Tiverton south of Route 177, and would be represented by Rep. John "Jay" G. Edwards IV should these borders be approved.

Additionally, about 5% of current District 71 constituents, or 805 people, were moved to District 72 (Middletown, Portsmouth), which is represented by Terri-Denise Cortvriend. These displaced constituents are Portsmouth residents who live south of King Charles Drive and West of Route 114.

McGaw, District 71’s current representative, was first elected to the Statehouse following the 2020 General Election. McGaw won the Democratic primary that spring by 923 votes, beating out former Tiverton Town Councilman John Edwards V, the son of Rep. Edwards, who was endorsed during the race by McGaw’s predecessor Dennis Canario.

More on McGaw: State Representative-elect McGaw playing key role in Rhode Island's vaccine roll-out plan

Although McGaw loses about 4,164 of her original constituency in the new maps, her district also gained voters from neighboring districts, as all voting districts need to be roughly equal in population size. According to the draft House Map D, District 71 would now also include the section of Portsmouth north of Boyds Lane up to the top of Aquidneck Island that was originally in District 70. She also gains small portions of Portsmouth from Districts 69 and 72, representing a total gain of 3,838 new constituents for McGaw.

Like the House Map, Senate Map D changes very little from where the district lines are currently drawn. The most affected district, District 11, retains 89% of its existing constituency, although it loses all representation in Tiverton to District 10 (Tiverton, Bristol, Warren).

Although District 11’s representative, Sen. James Arthur Seveney, ran unopposed in both the 2020 primary and 2020 general elections, he narrowly beat out Republican incumbent John Pagliarini in 2016, who served one term when he ran against Seveny in a similarly tight election two years prior.

Seveney’s most competitive voting precinct in the 2016 election was precinct 3304, which he lost by 98 votes, is the portion of Tiverton he no longer represents on the new district maps. That area of Tiverton, residents who live south of Route 24 and north of Route 177 is now split between District 10, represented by Sen. Walter Felag, and District 12 (Newport, Middletown, Tiverton, Little Compton), represented by Sen. Lou DiPalma.

What's coming in 2022: Ten Newport County business people, politicians and more to watch in 2022

While the rest of the house and senate districts' borders in Newport County change by less than 10%, some district changes, like the border between Districts 73 (Newport, Middletown) and 74 (Middletown, Jamestown), still represent large population displacements.

The northern border for Rep. Marvin Abney’s District 73, which mainly consists of Newport’s North End, juts out from its current border following Coddington Highway to cover the Naval housing neighborhood, Coddington Cove, which originally sat in Deborah Ruggiero’s District 74. This change, while small, represents 693 new constituents for Abney.

While Ruggiero won handily against opponent Henry Lombardi Jr. in the 2020 Democratic state primaries, her most competitive precinct covered that area of Middletown, where she won by 288 votes.

The house district which changes the least, House District 75 (Newport), is represented by Rep. Lauren Carson. Carson gains 202 voters in the new maps from around the Broadway neighborhood southwest of Gould Street, but otherwise retains her entire constituency.

Similarly, Sen. Dawn Euer’s Senate District 13 (Newport, Jamestown) retains nearly all of her constituency, but loses 402 voters who live in Newport’s Broadway neighborhood to Sen. Lou DiPalma’s District 12.

Additionally, DiPalma gains constituents from two other neighboring districts for a total addition of 1,044 residents to his voter base while retaining about 96% of his current representation. His biggest gain came from Seveney’s portion of Tiverton, which he shares with Sen. Walter Felag’s District 10.

In total, the new district maps represent 8,470 Newport County residents shuffled into a new voting district with a new state house representative as well as 3,422 residents who will have a new Senator.

These changes also impact voting precincts, which are created from the overlap of House and Senate representation areas, which can create tiny “pockets” territories of people who would vote for a different senator or representative than a larger neighboring area and require its own precinct.

Get involved: Want to serve your community? Here are the board and committee vacancies in Newport County

In 2020, Newport County had 44 voting precincts total for the 2020 General Election, which caused issues for the short staffed polling locations. The new maps cut unique combinations of representatives down to 12 territories, but a few small pockets remain, such as Prudence Island, according to the presentation given at the final reapportionment meeting.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Newport County's General Assembly seats change under newest maps