Flathead growth drives new House districts
Population growth in the Flathead over the past decade will have an impact on state politics here. A tentative redistricting plan for Montana’s 100 House districts adds one district to the county’s current nine and reconfigures most districts around the county.
A plan adopted by the five-man redistricting commission on Aug. 17 would keep the current House district for Columbia Falls, the Canyon and the North Fork pretty much the same, but the district for urban Whitefish would grow northwards and take in Ironhorse, Big Mountain and all of Whitefish Lake. And the big rural House district currently surrounding Whitefish on its north and south sides and extending all the way to west Kalispell and McGregor Lake would be chopped in half.
Changes also would take place in the rapidly growing urban areas in Kalispell and Evergreen. Currently downtown Kalispell is one district, Evergreen and north Kalispell is another, and a third district joins south and west Kalispell with the south valley, Somers and Lakeside.
The tentative plan calls for redistributing those three urban area into five House districts — three urban districts centered around downtown Kalispell; a district joining northwest Kalispell with West Valley and rural areas all the way to Olney; and a district joining south Kalispell with Batavia, Somers and Lakeside.
Based on U.S. “census places,” 100 percent of the residents of Columbia Falls, Coram, Hungry Horse, Martin City and West Glacier would continue to be in one House District. The same would go for the census places of Whitefish, Bigfork, Lakeside, Somers, Swan Lake, Woods Bay, Helena Flats, Marion and Olney.
Kalispell voters, however, would be divided into five districts, and about 99.4 percent of Evergreen residents would share a House district with 10.9 percent of Kalispell’s residents. Overall, the population deviation in the Flathead districts from the statewide average of 9,894 residents per district ranged from minus 1.1 percent to plus 2.58 percent.
How the House districts will be joined to create Senate districts has not yet been decided. Ten years ago, Whitefish and Columbia Falls residents voted in separate Senate districts, but that changed in 2003 when a new redistricting plan was approved following much wrangling between Republicans and Democrats. Democrat Dan Weinberg won the 2004 election for the new Whitefish-Columbia Falls state senate district, but his success may have resulted from the amount of money he spent rather than redistricting.
House districts are reviewed every 10 years to adjust for new census figures, but while district populations often fall within a narrow range, political maneuvering can override the goals of keeping districts compact and contiguous, maintaining communities of interest, following geography and trade areas, and keeping counties intact.
Manipulating district boundaries to benefit one political party over the other is called “gerrymandering,” named for Massachusetts Gov. Eldridge Gerry, who in 1812 drew up a state senate district that resembled a salamander.
Montana has a long history of gerrymandering. Recognizing the Legislature’s failure to handle redistricting in the 1960s, the 1971-1972 Montana Constitutional Convention called for the creation of an autonomous five-person Districting and Apportionment Commission to take over the job.
This time around, Republican legislators chose Linda Vaughey, of Helena, and Jon Bennion, of Clancy, to sit on the commission. Democratic legislators chose Joe Lamson, of Helena, and Pat Smith, of Missoula. Unable to agree on a fifth member, the Montana Supreme Court chose former Montana Supreme Court Justice Jim Regnier, of Lakeside, to chair the commission.
This marks the fourth time since the Constitutional Convention that the Montana Supreme Court picked a fifth member. Only once were the commission’s members able to choose a fifth member. Three times, the high court chose a Democrat, including the highly contentious choice of Janine Pease Pretty on Top in 1999.
Regnier is credited with getting the four commission members to agree unanimously on a tentative plan. Republicans were able to eliminate the “wagon wheel” districts in Missoula, reduce Havre to one district and eliminate one of Butte’s districts, but they didn’t like Malta being included in a minority Indian district. Democrats were able to keep Anaconda’s two districts and had free rein in drawing boundaries for districts in Great Falls and Helena.
The commission’s final plan must be submitted to the 2013 Legislature by their 10th legislative day, allowing them time to review the plan and make suggestions. The final plan will be in effect for the 2014 election.