HELENA – A meeting to chart out Montana’s legislative geography and political future for the next 10 years kicked off last week, with many of the people asking Districting and Apportionment commissioners to not split their communities into different legislative districts and to leave them “whole.”
During a more than two-hour meeting at the capitol building, the nearly 50 people in Helena and another 30 people watching over a videoconference cable cast from Havre and Great Falls also urged the commissioners to take politics out of the equation and to follow the mantra of “one person, one vote.”
Every 10 years, the bipartisan five-member commission draws new boundaries for legislative district to reflect population changes and maintain voting rights for minorities. The changes to the state’s 100 House and 50 Senate districts – one of which is 17,438 square miles – are to be brought before the state Legislature in 2013 and will not be in place until the 2014 elections.
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Historically, districting has been used as a tool to give a party a political advantage as it lays the foundation of how people are going to be elected. Montana is one of 13 states that use a commission to do redistricting plans. In most states, the legislature takes on that task.
Jim Regnier, the presiding officer of the commission, told the audience the meeting was to gather public comment and to give everyone the opportunity to participate in the redistricting process.
Thursday was the first in a series of hearings the commission will have before drawing up new district borders. Other meetings will be held throughout 2012.
Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, speaking from Havre via a television screen, asked commissioners to keep “communities of interest” whole and not divide them into different legislative districts.
“It makes sense that Havre not be split as a community,” she said.
Dennis Taylor, a former city manager of four Montana cities, echoed those comments.
He urged commissioners that whenever possible they should include cities in a single district. He said even though he lives seven blocks from the capitol, his representative is from Clancy and his state senator is from Cardwell.
“I’ve always considered myself with the city of Helena,” he said.
Some lawmakers asked commissioners to redraw their districts.
One of them was Sen. Dave Lewis, R-Helena, who said his district spans six counties.
“I’ve worked hard for five years to represent my district,” he said. “It’s impossible.” He said some cities are so far away that he gets to them only two to three times a year. He said one reason he is running unopposed for reelection is that potential challengers also realize the district is extremely large.
Bowen Greenwood, executive director of the Montana Republican Party, told commissioners he would rather “have fair districts for people rather than fair districts for parties.”
During a break in the meeting, Greenwood said that move would help the GOP.
But the present layout of the districts was defended by a couple people.
One was Don Judge, a candidate for seat for House District 80, and the other was Joe Lamson, a districting commissioner.
“Since the last redistricting we have not had a majority in the House,” Judge said. “How can we say there’s political gerrymandering going on? No one will have a supermajority in the upcoming House or Senate.”
Lamson told audience members the commission is going over some of the same problems it faced 10 years ago. He said Havre wanted to be split into separate districts, and some of the Indian tribes wanted to be combined into one district.
“This last plan was fair to a fault,” he said.
In 2007, a Montana State University-Billings professor released a report stating Democrats gave themselves an advantage last time when they set districts after the 2000 Census.
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