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Opinion column
by Mary Rupert
Wyandotte Countians came together last Friday to support Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a gerrymandered redistricting map that would split Wyandotte County.
The effort last Friday saw support from Mayor Tyrone Garner and other officials for keeping Wyandotte County together in the 3rd Congressional District, and not splitting it between the 2nd and 3rd districts, as proposed by the map that initially was rushed through the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature.
Connie Brown-Collins, of the Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County, commented after the meeting that they are hoping the House will sustain the governor’s veto, although they’re not as hopeful about support in the Senate.
If they can’t override the veto, legislators will go back to the drawing board to redraw the maps again, she said.
The earlier testimony from Wyandotte County residents at redistricting hearings hugely supported keeping Wyandotte County together in the same district and not splitting it. The proposed map that passed the Legislature earlier split Wyandotte County along I-70. It looked absurd to longtime Wyandotte County residents, because it took the highly urbanized north side of Wyandotte County away from the 3rd District, generally the Kansas City area, and put it into the 2nd District, away from the rest of the Kansas City area.
Brown-Collins, who is in the Welborn area of Kansas City, Kansas, said she heard legislators were moving fast to try an override this week, to try to rush it through as they did the original bill.
“We would love for the Legislature to slow the process down,” she said. “We had been told they would allow testimony after they drew the maps and before they voted. That did not happen.”
The Voter Rights Network worked with the League of Women Voters all summer and fall to come up with what they thought were fair and viable maps for Wyandotte and Johnson counties, Brown-Collins said.
They came up with a plan to keep Wyandotte County whole, keep the core of Johnson County whole but to carve off some southern portions of Johnson County, and a little on the far west, that tend to be pretty rural, she said. The League of Women Voters submitted maps to the Legislature under the Blue Stem Congress title, she said.
The Voting Rights Network is against moving all of Wyandotte County to the 2nd District, she said, even though it would be kept whole that way, because “we don’t have a community of interest with Topeka and Lawrence,” Brown-Collins said.
Generally, Wyandotte County doesn’t share a lot of communication with Topeka and Lawrence, does not share that much employment with them, and often do not share the same concerns, according to Brown-Collins.
“Our communities of interest are across county lines of the Greater Kansas City Metro area,” she said. “Those are where we share resources that are critical to all the counties.”
During the public listening tours on redistricting, it was stated that this whole redistricting issue could wind up in court again, like it did 10 years ago. The finding then was that Wyandotte County should be kept together in the 3rd District.
“If we can keep from having it to g to court, that would be wonderful,” Brown-Collins said, “if the Legislature would draw maps that are fair. Wyandotte County in terms of land mass is small, why split us up? The population is large, but we are probably the smallest county in the state. We need to stay together. Our communities are diverse and we care about each other.”
Neighbors run the gamut of nationalities and ethnicities on her block alone, she said, including Black, white and Hispanic.
“We like it like that,” she said. “We care about our neighbors. Most of our community are that way. We don’t want to be broken up and opposing each other, one on one side of I-70 and the other on the other. It’s something we will continue to fight against, and we don’t want to be in the 2nd.”
It would be a long shot that a Democrat could get elected in the 2nd District, she believes, and it’s short-sighted, also.
“Let’s look at the long-term welfare of Wyandotte,” she said. “We’re just fine where we are in the 3rd, and connected to the metro area.”
Brown-Collins says I-635 runs from Wyandotte County through Metcalf in Johnson County, and she travels it several times a week. “It does not make sense to chop us up the way we’re trying to do it,” she said.
It’s clearly common sense to leave Wyandotte County together in the 3rd District, as part of the Kansas City Metro area, which it so clearly is. Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County has common interests of the urban community, and shares road projects, convenes together with other KC area communities to fight COVID, and works on other problems together with Johnson County quite frequently. It stands to reason to include Wyandotte County together with the 3rd District, not split it off into part of another district.
To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].
