Committee Approves Legislative Redistricting Plans

A Wyoming legislative committee on Tuesday approved plans to redraw the state's legislative districts, allocating more lawmakers to some central and western areas of the state that have gained population while drawing legislators away from some places.

The plans face opposition in eastern Wyoming, where two incumbent Republican senators would be placed into one reconfigured district. It also faces opposition in the Star Valley of the far western side of the state, where residents oppose the prospect of having their area sliced into several legislative districts.

The Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee held meetings around the state this summer to get public comment on redistricting. The revisions are required because of population growth reflected in the latest Census.

The 2010 Census shows Wyoming's population grew 14 percent from 2000 to 2010, reaching 563,000. That means each of the 30 state Senate districts ideally should have about 18,800 people, while each of the 60 House districts should have half that many.

"I think it's been a good process, and there's been a lot of effort," said committee co-chairman Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander. "It's taken a lot of public comments to get here. It shows that because population is not evenly distributed across Wyoming, you've had to draw some lines somewhere."

One plan would extend a senate district from the eastern side of Cheyenne, currently represented by Republican Sen. Wayne Johnson, north into the southern Goshen County community of LaGrange, home of Republican Sen. Curt Meier.

Meier said he plans to oppose that change when the committee meets Jan. 19 in Cheyenne to vote on final approval of the redistricting bill. The full Legislature will consider the issue when it meets, beginning in February.

"I think that cooler heads will prevail at some time in the future, and hopefully we can get a plan that will work really good for that part of the state," Meier said after the committee meeting. "And frankly, if we get that part of the state worked out, we might go across the rest of the state and see if we can do a better job than the Corporations Committee."

Wyoming Attorney General Greg Phillips recently issued an opinion saying it's up to the Legislature whether it wants to require all state senators to run again after redistricting. Senators serve staggered, four-year terms.

The committee voted to recommend holding elections for senators serving ongoing terms only in cases in which their homes were no longer still in the district to which they'd been elected.

Sen. Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, submitted petitions and letters from many residents of the Star Valley, asking that they be kept together.

Dockstader said Star Valley residents don't refer to themselves as living in particular towns in the valley, but rather as residents of the valley itself. Although he said those residents want to remain together but that he told them the population has grown too much for that to be possible.

The plan the committee approved calls for portions of three separate House districts to take parts of Star Valley. Dockstader said he and others in the area intend to try to redraw those lines and will present an alternative approach to the committee in January.

Rep. Pete Illoway, Cheyenne Republican who is the other committee co-chairman, said the final plan didn't address Star Valley as nicely as it might have but that he was satisfied with it.

"The way the state is growing, things have to change," he said. "And I think we've done a pretty good job with the change."