Congressional map wins court approval; 2nd District smaller

Hartford - The Connecticut Supreme Court on Friday accepted a new map for the state's five congressional districts that slightly shrinks U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney's 2nd district but maintains its general boundaries.

State officials said the biggest change for the 2nd District is that the entire town of Durham in Middlesex County moves into U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro's 3rd District. Durham had been split between the 2nd and the 3rd districts.

The new map is a final product of the once-a-decade reapportionment of Connecticut's legislative and congressional districts based on new U.S. Census figures. Each of the five congressional districts was allowed 714,819 residents.

The 2nd District shed about 15,000 residents, but remains the largest geographically of the five districts.

The state Supreme Court became involved in redistricting because members of the General Assembly's bipartisan Reapportionment Commission could agreed on new statehouse districts but remained divided on congressional districts.

Democrats, who hold all five congressional seats, sought to keep the general outlines of the existing map while Republicans argued for moving Democrat-heavy Bridgeport out of Jim Himes' 4th District and into DeLauro's 3rd District.

The GOP's requested change likely would have made the 4th District more amenable to Republicans, as it covers Fairfield County.

In December the court appointed Columbia University law professor Nathaniel Persily as "special master" to produce the map. He submitted his proposal last month, which more or less kept the existing boundaries.

The court accepted Persily's work Friday, and ordered the legislature to pay $36,400 for his services.