Committee approves redistricting plan for legislative debate this week

LARAMIE — Wyoming state lawmakers spent much of Friday finalizing a redistricting plan to send to the full Legislature that includes 62 representatives and 31 senators.

The afternoon was not without tension, especially when discussing how the plan would affect Laramie County. In the morning, the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee voted to create shared districts between Laramie County and both Goshen and Platte counties. That meant changes would be made to the Cheyenne area that Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, said could not have been finalized before Friday, despite months of work.

Michael Swank with the Legislative Service Office explained that staff has not made a Senate nesting map yet. Rep. Mike Greear, R-Worland, asked if Rep. Jim Blackburn, R-Cheyenne, was aware of how the redistricting process would affect him, as he said it would move Rep. Clarence Styvar out of his district and into Blackburn’s district.

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne and co-chair of the Corporations Committee, said the county held a meeting including Styvar, and Blackburn sits on the Corporations Committee. He said that districting based on communities of interest outweighs the importance of keeping incumbents in their seats.

“There have been four maps that did attempt to keep every incumbent in those districts, submitted by non-legislators, but they all carved interesting block-by-block scenarios throughout Cheyenne,” Zwonitzer said. “We’ve resisted those.”

Nethercott said she wanted the committee and the public to be aware that she had never seen a map that overlaid lawmakers’ residences on top of any redistricting plan.

“It sounds like the committee wants to know where all the Laramie County legislators live,” Nethercott said. “Let’s do that exercise. Mr. Swank, can you put up a map? Because I have never seen one. I think it is really important for the committee and the public to know I have never seen a map with legislators’ current residences in them, not once. Nor have I been given a list of anyone’s residence.”

Blackburn said that if the committee had been operating well from the beginning, the discussion would not have devolved to the point of overlaying lawmakers’ residences with proposed maps.

“Anytime anybody comes to anybody else and says, ‘Well, I don’t want to be in such-and-such’s district,’ … this has happened in all regions across the state,” Blackburn said. Ultimately, he voted against the 62-31 plan.

“I basically have had about enough of this that I am happy going back to the original county clerk’s map with the 60-30,” Blackburn said.

County clerks’ plan

Legislators spent much of the morning discussing changes proposed by county clerks to the plan adopted on Jan. 27, which increases the size of the Legislature to 62 House representatives and 31 senators.

Clerks in Teton and Lincoln counties submitted adjustments that would better align with precinct boundaries, according to Swank, as did Sweetwater and Carbon counties. The 62-31 plan does bring areas in the Bighorn Basin into an allowable 5% deviation in size in a way that previously discussed maps did not.

The committee also discussed how Laramie, Goshen and Platte counties would fit into the 62-31 plan.

For months, Goshen County representatives have asked the committee to allow it to “remain whole.”

But a motion made in the morning by Rep. Shelly Duncan, R-Lingle, to do that failed. Instead, a second motion she said she made “reluctantly” to split Goshen County in two passed.

Splitting counties

To accommodate its growing population, Laramie County will split into three areas, with shared districts in Goshen and Platte counties. Previous options split Goshen County into three, or even four, parts.

Candace Wardell, assistant deputy clerk of Goshen County, spoke about how her county has been split in the past.

“We have been split four ways, three ways and three ways since I have been here,” Wardell said. “Every time those splits happen, it just creates more problems.”

Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper, told the committee that he had pre-filed a bill, as a precaution, that puts forth a 60 representatives, 30 senators plan. Scott was one of three legislators to vote no on the 62-31 plan. The others to vote no were Blackburn and Rep. Aaron Clausen, R-Douglas.

“I wanted to make sure there was a Senate file in case our leadership needed it,” Scott said. “The intention is strictly backup, and if all goes well, it will sleep peacefully in committee. … With any luck, we won’t need a backup, but I have had prior experience where it was needed.”

Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower and co-chair of the Corporations Committee, said he appreciated the effort, but cautioned the committee to remain supportive of one, single plan during the legislative session.

“My only concern is people trying to kill our original plan because they like the backup better,” Driskill said. “I will caution everybody that this committee really needs to come out and support a plan, and that be our plan.”

This story was originally published on Feb. 13.

Editor’s Note: House Bill 100 was introduced, passed out of the House Education Committee 8-0 on Monday and was placed on General File Tuesday.

The Scott bill, Senate File 60 had not been introduced as of Tuesday.