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MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The Alabama Legislature’s reapportionment committee Thursday approved a new plan for congressional districts that would divide the Shoals area and move Morgan County back into the 5th District.

After getting public input, the committee dumped a plan it had approved on Wednesday and voted for a new one that would split Lauderdale and Colbert counties between Huntsville Republican Rep. Mo Brooks’ 5th District and Haleyville Republican Robert Aderholt’s 4th District.

The new plan by Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, would also move Lawrence County from the 5th District to the 4th District. Lawrence County is the only county that Democrat Steve Raby of Huntsville carried in his November 2010 race against Brooks.

Under the previous plan, much of Morgan County had been moved to the 4th District, but the revised plan moved it back to the 5th District.

State Sen. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, said Thursday she was “very disappointed” in the committee’s decision to split Colbert and Lauderdale County.

“It has taken the Shoals years to unite as one economic unit,” she said. “We have done so and together we have been extremely successful.”

Irons cited numerous organizations that have been built around the two counties, such as the Shoals Chamber of Commerce, the Shoals Economic Development Authority, the Shoals Industrial Development Committee, the Public Park Authority and United Way.

Brooks said Thursday he had to be cautious about commenting on any plan the Legislature is considering.

“Here today, gone tomorrow, and what will it be tomorrow,” he said. If I had a vote I might have a more aggressive statement in expressing it, but it’s a legislative decision in what’s in the best interest of America and the state of Alabama.”

The committee’s plan now goes to the Legislature, which will begin voting on it next week and try to complete passage by the end of the legislative session on June 9.

Brooks said he would have preferred a plan by Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, chairman of the committee, that would have kept Colbert County in the 5th District, put Lawrence County in the 4th District and split Morgan County between the two districts. That plan was defeated, however.

He said he believed the Dial plan faced less risk of being challenged by the U.S. Justice Department or in federal court.

Irons said numerous calls, emails and visits to Brooks’ office in Washington, D.C., were made to seek his support for keeping

Colbert and Lauderdale counties in the same district.

“A large number of people from the Shoals even attended the public hearings in Huntsville and in Montgomery asking that Colbert and Lauderdale remain in one district,” she said. “Apparently the people’s voice from the Shoals fell upon deaf ears.”

With Colbert County removed from the 5th District, Irons said it would be easier for Brooks to be re-elected since Colbert County “generally trends Democratic.”

Former Congressman Glen Browder of Jacksonville, who also served in the Alabama Legislature, said it’s difficult to predict in reapportionment how individual communities and cities will ultimately fare.

“This is one of the nastiest things you participate in as a legislator or as a congressman,” he said. “There is simply no way to take care of everybody’s needs.”

Browder said members of Congress try to identify a “champion” in the Alabama House and Senate to protect their interest.

“You hope you have friends in the Alabama Legislature to look out for your district,” he said. “You hope that champion will take care of you. If you don’t have a champion on Goat Hill, your district will get carved up.”

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