Senator Jim Wilson Files Lawsuit Against Oklahoma Senate Redistricting Plan

Term-limited Oklahoma Senator Jim Wilson (D-Talequah) has filed a lawsuit claiming that the Oklahoma Senate Redistricting Plan violates Article 5 Section 9A of the Oklahoma Constitution.

...In apportioning the State Senate, consideration shall be given to population, compactness, area, political units, historical precedents, economic and political interests, contiguous territory, and other major factors, to the extent feasible.

In the lawsuit, he has attached a map drawn by George Mason University professor Michael McDonald which splits counties significantly fewer times and keeps cities and areas with uniform cultural influences as intact as possible while keeping districts as contiguous as possible. If the map by McDonald is valid, then it shows that the GOP political consultant who was paid $127,500 in taxpayer money did not deliver a map that meets the above requirements. (For comparison, McDonald's map cost $5,000.)

You can see the heavily gerrymandered Senate plan here. No fewer than 5 Senators were effectively legislated out of their districts.