On Thursday, the House of Delegates sent members an email indicating that Speaker Rick Thompson, D-Wayne, "anticipates a special session on redistricting to begin Monday, Aug. 1."

In the Senate, Majority Leader John Unger, D-Berkeley, said the Select Committee on Redistricting is aiming to complete its proposals by the end of July, in anticipation of an early August special session.

"I've been pushing for that," Unger said Thursday of an early August special session. "Our task force has kind of targeted that as the date we want to be completed and ready to roll."

The Senate has been conducting a series of public hearings around the state on redistricting, with the last of the hearings set for Princeton in mid-July.

The House redistricting committee held its first meeting Tuesday. At that meeting, county clerks from around the state urged lawmakers to complete the redistricting plans by Labor Day, so that they will have time to redraw precincts as necessary to conform with the new districts. Those changes need to be finalized before the candidate-filing period for the 2012 elections opens in January.

Unger said he favors that timeline.

"If you start getting into September, some of the clerks in smaller counties don't have a lot of staff," he said, "and that puts pressure on them."

Jacqueline Proctor, spokeswoman for Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, who is acting as governor, said it is premature for the Governor's Office to set the special session call for Aug. 1.

"It is anticipated that we'll have a special session then, but the governor can't call it until things are further decided upon," she said. "We're looking at August, but things could change between now and then, as to the Aug. 1 date."

Unger said he wants to see the special session wrap up in no longer than three or four days.

He said he hopes Tomblin will limit the special session agenda to redistricting, with the possible exception of agreed-to legislation, such as the bill that died at the end of the regular session to allow coal-producing counties to keep a larger percentage of coal severance tax revenues.

In 2001, the redistricting special session lasted 10 days, starting on Sept. 10 and ending Sept. 19.

However, Unger noted that a couple of days in that session were effectively lost because of the Sept. 11 al-Qaida terrorist attacks. That session's agenda also included other issues, including final passage of legislation to create the state's Family Courts system, and corrections to legislation passed earlier that year legalizing statewide Limited Video Lottery.

In 1991, it took even longer to complete the redistricting plans.

After several false starts, legislators began a special session on Sept. 30. That session ended 19 days later, with passage of bills dealing with landfill regulation, and creating a $6 million medical education fund, but with redistricting unresolved.

Legislators returned to Charleston on Dec. 6 and completed work on redistricting plans seven days later.

The key struggle that year was over eliminating one of the state's four congressional districts.

In the House, the key issue this time will be whether to reduce the number of multi-member delegate districts, while Unger said the Senate will have to deal with a shift in the state's population from the Southern counties to the Eastern Panhandle and north-central areas of the state.

Unger said that population shift likely will require the elimination of the 17th Senatorial District in Kanawha County, with part of the county going into an adjoining senatorial district.

"The question is," Unger said, "which way will part of Kanawha County go? Which county or counties will it attach to?"

Reach Phil Kabler at ph...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1220.