The timesfreepress.com reports: Senate Republicans’ first redistricting effort in state history also provides some surprises.

It pits two GOP incumbent senators in Middle Tennessee against each other in a redrawn Senate District 25. The seat, now held by Sen. Jim Summerville, R-Dickson, adds Robertson County, which is home to Sen. Kerry Roberts, R-Springfield, who represents Senate District 18.

And Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, will have to deal with Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis, who suddenly finds himself drawn into what is expected to be a GOP-leaning district.

Republicans say in the description of what they call their “regional integrity plan” that the new map pairs four current incumbents into two districts “to meet equal population guidelines — three of these four paired incumbents are Republicans, an indication of the fairness of the overall plan.”

The GOP says minority voting strength “is enhanced to an historic level in this proposed Senate map, increasing from three majority-minority Senate districts in the Democrats’ drawn map of 2002 to four majority minority districts.”