Redistricting bill approved in 11th hour

SHERIDAN —Around a quarter after nine Friday evening, a loud cheer echoed through the Capitol building.

“Well,” Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, said from his seat in the Senate chambers. “They must have figured out redistricting.”

Indeed, after a week of negotiations, the joint conference committee for redistricting came to a compromise in the final hours of the final day of the legislative session. Within an hour of the cheer’s echo through the Capitol, the bill had been approved by both the House and Senate. It was approved on a 44-12-4 vote in the House and on a narrower 17-12-1 margin in the...