Striving to keep current representation

by Karla Pomeroy, Northern Wyoming News

WORLAND — County clerks from around the Big Horn Basin presented their preferred plan for legislative redistricting to the public, which has a -6% differential from the ideal population for districts.

Clerks at the Washakie County meeting Thursday night, Nov. 18, at the Worland Community Center Complex said the plan would keep the integrity of the Big Horn Basin intact and would ensure the Big Horn Basin retains current representation with six House Districts and three Senate Districts, thus three senators to represent the Basin.

The biggest change in the proposed legislative redistricting plan comes with House District 28 extending further up into Park County to just south of Cody and Powell and the Town of Basin being split between House District 28 and 27. Currently the entire town is inside House District 28. The split is primarily the southern and eastern parts of the town.

REDISTRICTING BASICS

According to the Legislative Service Office website, the Wyoming Constitution requires that the Legislature redraw state legislative districts at the first budget session following the federal census. Redistricting is based on a “one person, one vote,” following a lawsuit more than 20 years ago. Previously districts were based on county boundaries.

Washakie County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch said each legislative district, to be presumptively constitutional, needs to be plus or minus 5% deviation of the ideal population for that district.

Michael Swank of the Legislative Service Office (LSO) said via Zoom at Thursday’s meetings that the Joint Corporations Committee developed seven principles and established 10 regions. The legislative districts in each region were tasked to work together on their redistricting plan.

One of the principles was to maintain the current makeup of the Legislature with 60 single-member House Districts and 30 single-member Senate Districts with two House Districts nested into one Senate District.

In Region 8, the Big Horn Basin, there are six House Districts, three of which are entirely within Park County — HD 50 with a census population of 9,912 served by Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams (R-Cody); HD 24 with a census population of 9,224 and served by Sandy Newsome (R-Cody) and HD 25 with a census population of 9,326 served by Dan Laursen (R-Powell).

House District 50’s population is 3% above the ideal population for the House Districts. As set by the state’s population, divided by 60 equals an ideal population of 9,614 per each House District.

District 24 and 25 are below the ideal population by 4% and 3%, respectively.

House Districts 26, 27 and 28 encompass multiple counties. House District 26 is north Big Horn County including Greybull and Shell and a portion of Park County and is served by Rep. Jamie Flitner (R-Greybull); House District 27 includes all of Washakie County and Manderson and Hyattville area in Big Horn County, served by Rep. Mike Greear (R-Worland); House District 28 is all of Hot Springs County, Basin, Burlington and Otto areas in Big Horn County, southern Park County and a portion of Fremont County including Shoshoni and Lysite. House District 28 is served by Rep. John Winter (R-Thermopolis).

All three districts are below the ideal population with Washakie County and Hot Springs County having the largest drops in population per the 2020 census. HD26 was at -8% of ideal, HD27 at -15% and HD28 at -9.66% of the ideal population.

House Districts 27 and 28 are nested into Senate District 20. The 2020 census was at 16,847 or -12.38% of the ideal population. The ideal population was set at 19,228. Senate District 20 is served by Sen. Ed Cooper.

House Districts 25 and 26 are nested into Senate District 19, served by R. J. Kost (R-Powell). The district population is at 18,153, -5.59% of the ideal population.

House Districts 24 and 50 are nested into Senate District 18, with a population of 19,136, just -.48% deviation of the ideal. The district is served by Sen. Tim French (R-Powell).

THE REDISTRICTING PLAN

While several options have been considered over the past two months by the clerks in Region 8; the only alternative they plan to submit to the LSO is “version 3” with the biggest changes coming in House Districts 27 and 28 and Senate District 20.

The plan, however, brings all six House Districts into nearly identical population — HD24 at 9,031; HD25 at 9,018; HD26 at 9,027; HD27 at 9,021; HD28 at 9,012; and HD50 at 9,027. The districts range from -6.06% deviation from the ideal (HD24) to -6.26% deviation (HD28).

House District 28 boundary would extend further up into Park County just south of the Cody city limits and to the northern boundary of the McCullough Wilderness Study Area. District 28 would lose some of the Big Horn County representation with Basin being split.

To increase numbers for House District 28, the Big Horn County border extends from Manderson to take on the east portion of Basin and then north to the Shell highway (US 14). It does not take in the Town of Greybull. The plan has District 27 encompassing Sagebrush Lane subdivision near Greybull and then everything south of U.S. Highway 14.

Big Horn County Clerk Lori Smallwood said due to census blocks they are unable to just use US 16-20 as the boundary in Basin because it would not have given enough population to HD28.

According to the Census Bureau, census blocks are generally small in area. In a city, a census block looks like a city block bounded on all sides by streets. Census blocks in suburban and rural areas may be large, irregular, and bounded by a variety of features, such as roads, streams, and transmission lines. In remote areas, census blocks may encompass hundreds of square miles.

When asked how Basin felt about the plan, Big Horn County Clerk Lori Smallwood said that the plan was being presented in Greybull on Friday, but added, “voters are used to things changing so we don’t usually get a lot of pushback. They are pretty good at rolling with the punches.”

She said she will have to do some education on who is voting for which legislator, however.

Smallwood said people in Basin and Big Horn County feel that they can reach out to any of the Big Horn Basin legislators if they have a concern.

Cooper said of the plan and his new proposed boundary for SD20, that the clerks, especially Park County Deputy Clerk Hans Odde who handled the map work, made the plan “really equitable across Region 8.” He admits that SD 20 is now a large district, covering south of Powell and Cody to the Gas Hills in Fremont County.

“It’s the job I got, it’s the job I’ll do. I will need to build some new contacts in areas that I’ll be acquiring,” Cooper said of the expansion of SD20.

HD28 Rep. John Winter of Thermopolis said, “I think it’s the best we could do with the percentages that we’re working with. I am thrilled to death to have the people in District 28 that I do have and I will acquire. Up around Cody I will get a few more folks and I know a lot of them up there anyhow.”

He added, “We’re pretty united on that plan in the Basin and Fremont County has agreed to that as well.”

There are currently 685 people in the Shoshoni and Lysite areas that are in HD28 and SD20.

Winter attended a meeting in Shoshoni recently and he said the rural representation was a big deal for the residents there. “That’s probably the main reason they want to go along with the Big Horn Basin plan. They feel like they have an extra representative and senator to vote for rural regions.”

Cooper said the rural representation in the Big Horn Basin is important. “We really have to hang on to every rural vote here and making sure we hang on to all six House seats and three Senate seats is important.” He noted that there are groups in the south end of the state who would like to pick up an extra seat.

OTHER PLANS

Odde shared with the nearly dozen members of the public in attendance at the Nov. 18 meeting that they considered other plans.

One plan was to go further into Fremont County but the issue is that there are four districts in Fremont County and it is the only area in the state where a minority group is the majority. Taking population from Fremont County would disrupt that dynamic, Odde said.

Another option was going through Yellowstone National Park to Teton County or over the Big Horn Mountains to Sheridan and Johnson County. He said while there are several challenges with both of those proposals the biggest issue is that it would bring people into the northern districts in the Basin, but the issue is that the two southern districts, HD 27 and HD28 are the ones needing the population boost.

They also looked at adding population from Natrona County but due to the census blocks they would have to go up to the city limits of Casper.

Odde said Region 8 could drop to just five House Districts without any negative deviation. However, there would be about 3,000 people too many in the Basin that would have to go somewhere. The logical thing would be to split Thermopolis with everything south and east of the stoplight going into Fremont County. That would then put Fremont County over the ideal population by too much and they would have to push some of their population to other counties.

Odde said that the goals for clerks and legislators are slightly different in drawing lines. “We as clerks, and one of the reasons why we’ve been asked to help in getting maps drawn, is how do these lines line up with special districts. We also try and avoid pockets of five to 10 voters and 10 to 20 voters, but it’s not always possible.”

He said in Park County he has three to four splits with under 20 voters.

The main legislative goal for the redistricting plan is to keep all six representatives and all three senators.

The preferred plan with the -6.1% deviation from ideal population, that includes Shoshoni and Lysite in Fremont County, alters inside district boundaries but does not change the exterior boundary of Region 8. All legislators remain in their same districts.

Other meetings have been held in Fremont County, Park County and Big Horn County meetings were being held on Friday, Nov. 19, the day of the deadline to submit their plan to the Legislative Service Office. The Joint Corporations Committee will consider all regional plans at their Dec. 1-2 meeting with the entire Wyoming Legislature then considering the statewide plan from the committee.

While the preferred plan for Region 8 falls outside of the preferred 5% deviation at -6.1% of the ideal population the area legislators feel that there is support for the Big Horn Basin plan because people understand the issues in the Basin.

Cooper said, “I feel confident, the folks I’ve talked to on Corporations will stand by us. It’s an issue up here. We’ve lost a few voters and it’s not a simple solution to us but we dug a little deeper and found a solution that works for everyone.

He added, “It’s not perfect but good equitable balance.”

Winter added, “We have a lot of support, we’re going to git er done.”

There is a question of whether the same groups that filed a lawsuit against the state for the “one person one vote,” would file another lawsuit because of the 6.1% deviation but the legislators said they feel that they can defend the plan as the only reasonable solution.

It was noted that the groups who filed suits were the League of Women Voters and the Wyoming Democratic Party. Two Hot Springs County Democrats in attendance suggested that the legislators reach out to the groups to explain the plan and the reasons behind it.

“The Basin creates a problem for the whole western part of the state if we don’t get approved for the -6.1% deviation,” Odde said.

Rep. Greear is a member of the Corporations Committee.