Battle continues

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Anyone who has been following the redistricting process taken on by the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivision Committee knows that the process is fluid. Every map approved by the committee through the process that began last year has been different in some way. With less than a month until the start of the 2022 Legislature’s budget session, the clock is ticking and Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Sundance, and Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, plan to meet with the public on Jan. 24 to hear their thoughts on redistricting. 
As previously reported by the News Letter Journal, Weston County representatives have continually fought for the county to remain whole. 
Remaining whole means that the county’s voters would have a representative living in the county, as several individuals noted in their pleas to the joint committee on several occasions, including on Dec. 1. 
Redistricting, according to the Legislative Service Office, is the process of redrawing the geographic boundaries of an area from which people are elected as representatives to the Legislature. Under the Wyoming Constitution, the Legislature is required to complete the process before the first budget session following each U.S. census to reflect shifts in population. 
But, according to both Neiman and Driskill, the opinions on whether Weston County should be split or not conflict. 
“I have heard from many both ways on splitting Weston County,” Driskill said in a Facebook post. He did not respond for additional comment. 
Neiman also told the News Letter Journal that he has heard similar sentiment from Weston County residents. 
“I’ve heard some people in Upton country that they would like to stay the way they are,” Neiman said, noting that it has been suggested that being whole may actually take away representation from the county. 
Under the current districting plan, Weston County is split for both House and Senate districts; Therefore, the county technically has four representatives on the floor in the Cheyenne. If the county were to remain whole in the redistricting process, instead of having two representatives, the county would have one (in the House), with Senate representation still questionable. 
“I want to hear what people want to say before I get on the floor,” Neiman said, noting that the redistricting battle will continue until it is signed by the governor.
“It is important to me to know what the people want and to get their feedback. I want to find out what they want to see happen because it is going to be a fight,” he continued. “That fight is going to affect Weston County and Region 6.” 
The fight Neiman alluded to includes contention over areas that include a stretch along I-80, in the Big Horn Basin, in northeast Wyoming  and across southern Wyoming.
With the hopes of better gauging what the community would like to see happen during redistricting, Neiman and Driskill will hold a meeting on Jan. 24 at 6 p.m. in the Boal Gymnasium in Upton. 
The sentiment from this meeting, according to both, will be used to continue the redistricting discussion on Jan. 27 at the next Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions meeting. This meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. in the Wyoming State Capitol, Public Meeting Room No.  6.  The meeting can also be seen live on YouTube by following links listed on the wyoleg.gov website.