“We’re surrounded by mountains. We’re surrounded by a geography that drives us all collectively, north and south of that Freeway 2. So this map, I believe, goes in opposition to lots of the standards,” Skees mentioned, including he didn’t disagree with conserving the Blackfeet and CSKT in a single district.
“Splitting Flathead County, the most important Republican county, straight in half alongside largely partisan traces like the way in which this map is drawn is a failure,” Skees mentioned.
State Sen. Mike Lang, a Republican from Malta, additionally submitted a remark advocating for minimizing the splitting of cities and counties, utilizing the identical duplicate language as dozens of different submissions that mentioned districts needs to be compact and contiguous. However he ended his letter saying he favored an east-west map that divided Gallatin County.
That type letter additionally urged that commissioners “Don’t create ‘aggressive’ districts – based mostly on politics! The Congressional district traces needs to be drawn based mostly upon Montana legislation, NOT gerrymandered based mostly on political knowledge.”
Nancy Leifer, president of the League of Girls Voters of Montana, known as for the fee to attract “two congressional districts which might be truthful to all Montanans.”
“Equity consists of taking into consideration the seemingly political affect of proposed districts in representing the voters of Montana,” Leifer wrote. “This isn’t gerrymandering; that is guaranteeing that the purpose of not unduly favoring one occasion shouldn’t be left to probability.”
