CHEYENNE – The Joint Corporations Committee convened on Wednesday to continue discussions on redistricting proposals for the district map.
The first of the two-day meeting was dedicated to redistricting. The state map was broken into 10 regions with the idea of having legislators make their own section of the map and the committee would put them all together.
The meeting started with updates from representatives of each region on how the map-making process went and the feedback they received from their constituents. The updates were supposed to last up to the lunch break, but instead became the bulk of the meeting which started at 8:30 a.m. and adjourned around 6:30 p.m.
Two maps were discussed for Region 7 which consists of Goshen, Niobrara, Converse, and Platte Counties. District 2 Senator Brian Boner presented a map with the help of District 5 Representative Shelly Duncan. The map keeps Torrington whole and connected with Lingle and Fort Laramie along US Highway 26. The district goes South along the eastern border and encompasses Yoder and LaGrange.
The rest of the county would be with Niobrara County as well as the eastern half od Converse County. Duncan said the map emphasizes the feedback she received from her five regional meetings in Goshen County.
“The biggest concern is to keep our rural areas represented rurally,” Duncan said.
The previous district map was unfavorable to most citizens in the southern part of the county as they did not want to be represented by someone from Laramie County. Communities of interest is one of the main focuses for the committee when deciding who stays together in a district. National Committeeman of the Wyoming Republican Party Corey Steinmetz echoed Duncan’s statements by saying rural Goshen and rural Laramie are not the same. Steinmetz was asked by District 16 Representative Mike Yin from Teton County how the two actually differ from each other.
“Goshen County is primarily a cattle producing agriculture, whereas in Laramie County it’s more about wheat and dryland farming,” Steinmetz said.
Steinmetz also said the smaller communities in Goshen County such as LaGrange, Hawk Springs, Yoder, and Veteran do a lot together and are communities of interest.
Senator Boner stated the region is more likely to share with its northern neighbors in Region 6 (Campbell, Crook, and Weston) than with Laramie, but they are ready to work with the other regions to work out the borders.
“[We’re] looking forward to working with our neighbors seeing how we’re going to interact with them and once we get that direction, we’re going to really dig into getting these lines solidified,” Boner said.
The second map presented to the committee was by the county clerks which draws a diagonal on US Highway 26 to keep Torrington, Lingle, and Fort Laramie together and goes straight South to the county border. Everything North of the three municipalities goes in the district with Niobrara County and almost all of Converse County North of Douglas.
Candace Wardell with the Goshen County clerk’s office requested the committee consider the second map instead.
“It just keeps the lines cleaner for the judges and it causes a lot less splits,” Wardell said.
Representative Duncan added the second map may cause similar problems to what the region is facing with the current map.
“Some of the concerns that we have is we’re looking at some of the same lines and issues that we had going into it as far has House District 5 coming all the way right up into Torrington,” Duncan said.
District 2 Senator Cheri Steinmetz also testified and agreed with the regional approach from Boner and Duncan. Steinmetz also added the people of Goshen County would rather be nested North rather than South with Laramie County for their senate district.
Region 2 (Laramie County) and Region 6 were the two regions with direct correlation to Goshen County’s region in terms of possible sharing.
The representatives from Laramie County expressed the need to acquire an 11th house seat which would require going into Goshen County. Senator Boner said the region would prefer not to share with Laramie to avoid the same problems and said he is willing to call the current districts in Goshen County gerrymandering.
The area of Region 6 which may impact its neighbor to the South involves Weston County. The commissioners of the county said the two representatives and two senators all live outside of Weston. Chairwoman Marty Ertman said the representatives of the county voted differently during the special session which causes an unwanted divide.
One of the plans for Region 6 includes Newcastle going to Niobrara County’s district and the rest of Weston would group with Crook County.
The second day of the meeting was meant to focus on other committee issues such as election reporting requirements and updates of the Public Service Commission. However, the committee decided they couldn’t vote on the final map until they saw a new draft of what all the regions looked like when put together.
The Legislative Service Office (LSO) was given until the next day to create a draft of the state map for the committee to vote on at the start of the meeting.
While the committee has the final plans from each region, Chairman Dan Zwonitzer said there could be one to two more meetings to finalize plans before the state budget session in February.
