A plan from the Senate redistricting committee last week moved all of Georgetown County into the 6th District, now held by Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat. That angered county Republicans. But state Sen. Ray Cleary of Murrells Inlet told a meeting of party members over the weekend he believed that plan could be amended to put at least the Waccamaw Neck into the 7th District with Horry County and several counties in the Pee Dee.
Cleary said he was optimistic that it would pass despite a vote last week to table the change. The Senate took up an amendment Monday by Sen. Hugh Leatherman, a Florence County Republican, that included the Waccamaw Neck and several rural areas in the new district.
It ran into opposition from Sen. Gerald Malloy, a Darlington County Democrat, who said it would create a district dominated by coastal interests in Horry and Georgetown counties. "This is an urban-rural issue," he said.
Malloy lost a procedural vote to move on to address some of the 30 other amendments to the redistricting plan.
"The people in Georgetown County kind of need to know where the Senate feels they need to be," Cleary said.
Debate resumes Tuesday at 11 a.m.