ICYMI: Kansans Advocate for Communities of Interest During Redistricting Town Halls
For Immediate Release:
November 29, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Lillard
lillard@redistrictingaction.org
Washington, DC -- As the second round of redistricting town halls moves ahead this week, Kansans across the state are calling on the legislature to carefully consider communities of interest, particularly regarding the needs of the Kansas City metro area.
These virtual town halls, announced after the first round of public hearings on redistricting held this past August, “were announced on short notice, and held during working hours at a time when census data had yet to be released.” They have been scheduled around the Thanksgiving holiday and double-booked with a special session requiring legislators’ attention.
Just two of the 12 virtual town halls are scheduled in the Third Congressional District, but that hasn’t stopped residents from making their voices heard and calling for Kansas City to remain whole within the current boundaries:
Connie Brown-Collins of the Concerned Voters of Wyandotte County summarized the first round of hearings in the Kansas City Star: “...one consistent theme was imparted to legislators: Leave the 3rd Congressional District untouched. Do not gerrymander based on partisan politics.”
State Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore said, “I think any splitting up will just work against that and work against [Wyandotte County] getting the kind of congressional help we need...I think we’re stronger as one community speaking with one voice.”
As reported in the Kansas City Star yesterday, “the everyday lives of thousands of Wyandotte and Johnson county residents are bound together in countless ways. They cross county lines to get groceries, to work, to worship, to go to the movies...Stacey Knoell, director of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, has described the connections as ‘fluid transitions and close associations across the county line.’”
On the flip side, rural Kansans are advocating for their representation to remain separate from the Kansas City metro area, where Wyandotte County and Johnson County have been in the same congressional district since the 1970s:
The Kansas Farmers Union wrote to the redistricting committee to say, “If rural Kansans’ voices are made to compete with more urban communities in the northeastern region, we fear that the current population trends will only worsen, further hurting our state’s agriculture-dependent economic outlook.”
Jimmy Beard, a teacher at Garden City High School, put it this way: “The people of southwest Kansas deserve elected officials who are dedicated to the interests of southwest Kansas and the people of Wyandotte and Johnson counties deserve elected officials who represent the interests of Wyandotte and Johnson counties. We presently have borders that largely represent this ideal.”
The two Congressional Third District hearings are scheduled simultaneously for 5:30-7:30 PM CT tomorrow, November 30, in Bonner Springs and Stilwell.
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