CHEYENNE – As state lawmakers continue to discuss redistribution plans, they debated Tuesday whether a statewide plan should least disrupt current borders or accurately reflect Wyoming’s changing population.
By Tuesday afternoon, four national redistribution plans dated December 28th had been posted on the Legislative Service Office website, including an approved and revised version dated December 14th.
House Majority Floor MP Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, approached the Interim Committee of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions with one of the four plans that he presented. Sommers, who is not on the committee, on Tuesday urged members to review their long-term goals.
As published online, his plan proposed eight house districts, sharing the population with Region 9 in Counties Carbon and Sweetwater for one house district. It also offered an alternate approach to Region 9 for a total of 14 house districts between Region 9 and Region 10, or counties of Lincoln, Sublette, Teton, and Uinta.
“To highlight one of the problems, it’s really close with the people of Evanston,” said Sommers. “But my idea here was not to disturb people, not to hand them out. For me that’s one thing you all have to consider, disturbing people. “
On December 14, the committee approved a plan proposed by Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, who chairs the corporate committee co-chairs. Senator Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, called this the “Z-Plan” and said it was “redistributing me from my district.”
“It’s extremely disruptive to Sweetwater and Carbon counties, and the net effect of it is that you’ve now taken and nested communities of interests that is very rural Wyoming, one in the town of Cheyenne. And you took all of south Carbon County and put it together with Green River, ”Hicks said.
Moving a Senate district and two representative districts from mostly rural areas to parishes would “destroy this rural community of interest” and leave the rural areas with a lack of representation, Hicks said.
Zwonitzer pointed out that Hicks’ current district is the largest land mass district on the map proposed by the continental US. Sommers’ proposed map would add an additional 1,000 to 1,500 square miles to that district.
“Your district shows you going from Rock River to Farson to Eden, around Green River and south to Flaming Gorge. Does that worry you? “Said Zwonitzer.
“There are probably only about 400 people scattered in those 1,500 square miles,” Hicks said. “It is consistent with the fact that these are extremely rural, isolated ranches. It forms a consistent community of interests. “
Senator Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, pointed out earlier that morning that the committee must decide whether to continue advocating the creation of Senate districts with two house districts nested within them.
“This question needs to be answered fundamentally before we can move forward with any thoughtful neighborhood plan,” said Nethercott.
Nethercott said the idea of having two house districts within one Senate district has worked well in the past, especially in Laramie County.
“I think it makes sense to stick to some of these principles, mainly having two house districts within a senate district, similar to the circle principle, but going something outside of a house district in my opinion doesn’t cause the mess we all feel that it might be so, ”said Nethercott. Rep. Shelly Duncan, R-Lingle, asked if the legislature could possibly come up with a plan that would include both nested districts and multi-member districts, if appropriate.
“With the trouble in Carbon (County), why couldn’t we do the multi-members and do the nesting elsewhere?” Asked Duncan. “That way, if the multi-member seems to be gaining traction and work in 10 years, maybe do it everywhere? But couldn’t we mix the two to solve the problem? “
Zwonitzer said he was concerned, as the Laramie County legislature, that some of the proposals downsize six districts in his county with a population variance of -6.2% and another 14 with a variance of -4.85% in Laramie County experienced significant growth.
“It’s uncomfortable,” he said. “It strikes me as strange that the three largest counties in the state are all forced to be 3-5% above the variance, and the other counties are either static or declining.”
He agreed that Sommers’ plan was “the least disruptive” but said that it may not be the goal.
“We do a census every 10 years and distribute new districts based on population changes,” said Zwonitzer.
Nethercott reiterated that when the committee began work on redistribution, the principles outlined by its members did not include “least disruptive”.
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