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PHOENIX — A panel of state lawmakers has approved change in the way legislative seats are assigned — a move its sponsor said may help some of them keep their seats.

Current law has voters elect one senator and two representatives from each of the 30 state legislative districts. HCR 2018, approved 5-2 last week by the Senate Government Committee, would split each district in half, meaning one House member from each of what would become 60 districts.

Rep. Sam Crump, R-Anthem, said the current system spreads House members too thin. He said the average district can have 90,000 registered voters, larger than many cities.

The proposal also would shrink the size of these new districts. So, for example, District 30, which now stretches from Mount Lemmon northeast of Tucson to Sierra Vista, would be split in half according to population, as would District 2, which runs from the Four Corners into Flagstaff.

But Crump conceded there's also a political motive behind his measure.

Right now, the top two vote-getters in each district are the ones who serve.

He said if district residents are unhappy with just one of the incumbents there may be several challengers.

What can happen, Crump said, is the other legislator, who isn't being targeted, could get "caught up in the whole race and campaign and nobody really wanted to run against you at all."

"I think it's a key democratic principle that if you want to try to replace somebody, you should have the right to do that," he said. But the current system forces a challenger to run against both incumbents and raises the real possibility that the one unseated is not the one targeted.

"That doesn't seem democratic," he said.

The measure, which now goes to the full House, would require voter approval.