Lewis and Clark County Commissioners have penned a letter to the Montana Districting and Apportionment Committee outlining their opposition to any map that would split Lewis and Clark County for congressional districts.
“Since most of the people who live in the Helena Valley, work in the City of Helena, we cannot imagine the logic that would prevent thousands of our Lewis and Clark County residents from voting in a Congressional district where they spend half of their waking hours,” the letter stated.
One of the new maps, CP 13 proposed by Democrat members of the commission, would split the city of Helena from the Helena Valley. The proposed map would but the city in the west district and the rest of the county in the east.
The districting commission has been deadlocked over how to divide the state and has a Nov. 14 deadline to file a plan.
This past weekend the commission members had hoped to narrow it from two maps to one. Maylinn Smith, the commission’s nonpartisan chair, again urged the two Democratic and two Republican commissioners to work toward a consensus, but the day-long meeting with Republicans and Democrats having each brought a new map to the table.
Members of the Montana Districting and Apportionment Committee are scheduled to meet again on Thursday.
