Associated Press: Rhode Island lawmakers approve redistricting map

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island lawmakers have approved a redistricting plan for state and federal elections that protected incumbents and didn’t make wholesale changes to the state’s contested second congressional district.

The new maps passed 58-8 in the House and 29-9 in the Senate on Tuesday. They now go to Gov. Dan McKee to sign into law.

The state constitution calls for the General Assembly to reapportion state and congressional districts after each 10-year federal census.

Although some district boundaries changed, no incumbent General Assembly members were placed in the same district, where they would have to run against each other.

“This is the culmination of a years long effort to maintain the status quo,” John Marion, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause Rhode Island, told The Boston Globe. “They did not hide the fact that the goal was to let the incumbents draw the maps as they pleased.”