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Herington returns to 70th District

Posted on May 9, 2022May 9, 2022 by Gail Parsons

New map pushes candidate out of district

Scott Hill to move so he can remain a candidate

After 10 years of being in the 68th Legislative District, Herington will return to the 70th. 

Every 10 years district lines are redrawn based on population. 

Much of rural Kansas is losing population. Dickinson County is not immune to that trend.

Dickinson County, which was near 20,000 population in the 1990s, has lost nearly 1,000 people since 2019. Today’s population is about 17,818. 

“Each House district must contain as close to 23,500 people as they can tally which is impossible to meet when rural Counties keep losing population, said John Nachtman, Chairman of the Dickinson County Republican Party.

The Party wasn’t happy losing four Dickinson and one Clay County township in the north to another House District, which needed more population, he said 

“However Dickinson County needed more population as well,” Nachtman said. “We are very happy that the entire City of Herington is finally back in the same House District as Abilene along with all our other incorporated cities in Dickinson County.”

Likewise, Rebecca Perkins, chair of the Dickinson County Democratic Party, said she was pleased that Herington was back in the 70th.

“The districts were redrawn with the intent to keep as much of the county together as possible that’s the logic behind putting Herington back into the district,” she said. “I can remember a day when Herington turned out a larger democratic vote. Herington is a vital part of Dickinson County so we are thrilled they are back in the 70th district.”

Being in the district that contains the majority of Dickinson County has benefits said City Manager Branden Dross.

“I feel being under one representative with the rest of our county could promote more countywide initiatives with the help of a singular representative from the State House instead of us being a part of another county,” he said. 

John Barker, who represents the 70 and filed for reelection March 29 was a member of the House Committee on Redisticting, which consisted of four Democrats and 10 Republicans.

“I’ve always gone to Herington quite a bit,” Barker said. 

Ten years ago, when he first ran for office, he started out in the 68th.

“I campaigned in Herington and some of the other areas of the 68th district,” he said. “I went to bed on a Thursday night I was in the 68th District and woke up Friday morning and I was in the 70th. That’s a risk of redistricting, you never know where the maps are going to end up.”

What Barker experienced 10 years ago, is what his opponent, Scott Hill, is facing. Hill was in the 70th when he filed to run in March. The new map moved the line between the 70th and the 64 three miles, which put his residence outside of the district he filed to run in.

“It appears to be politically motivated,” Hill said.

It has raised questions for him on the redistricting process.

“This is all done behind closed doors,” he said. “A group of people get together decide what’s going to happen. Part of the problem that we see with the current leadership in Topeka, our current representation is that it’s a good old boys club and one of the reasons we’re running makes it fairly obvious that that process does go on because we don’t know what happened. We don’t know why it was decided that way. But we do know that the surrounding districts around us all became more complicated. And less balanced because of moving that line three miles north of us to three miles south.”

The redrawn district has not dissuaded Hill from his goal but he has little to no connection to the 64th District and does not want to run there, he said. He is in the process of changing his residency.

Hill said he is glad the Herington has returned to the 70th because county lines make good district lines. People tend to gravitate to the cities in the county they live.

“That’s their commerce center,” he said. “That’s their social center. People in Dickinson County don’t go to Clay Center, we go to Abilene. When I went and visited (Barker) he said … that was his goal to keep the county district intact. Apparently, he was unsuccessful.”

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