Antelope Valley Leaders Fear Another Split

By Alan C. Miller

Sept. 13, 1991 12 AM PT

This article was reported by Times staff writer Alan C. Miller in Washington based on reporting by Times staff writers John Chandler in Palmdale and Mark Gladstone in Sacramento

Antelope Valley political and civic leaders expressed intense unhappiness Thursday over the prospect that the fast-growing region may again be split among various congressional representatives under the latest proposed redistricting plans.

“None of it’s any good as far as the valley is concerned,” Palmdale Mayor William J. (Pete) Knight said of the various congressional plans under consideration. “We’re still considered some kind of desert stepchild with jack rabbits and Joshua trees.”

In the 1980 reapportionment, the Valley was divided among four congressional districts--a sore point with many business leaders who thought it divided the region’s clout.

But the area grew dramatically during the 1980s, prompting hopes that it would make up a significant portion of a single high desert district.

Late Thursday, The Times obtained a Republican congressional plan backed by some GOP members that appeared to show most, if not all, of the Antelope Valley--including Lancaster and Palmdale--in a single district.

The proposed district extended into more urbanized parts of Los Angeles County.

The various plans drawn by congressional Democrats, however, would divide the Antelope Valley into three new districts.

“I think it reflects a basic ignorance of the geographical uniqueness of the Antelope Valley . . . and a lack of sensitivity to the reasons we need the unification,” Assemblyman Phillip D. Wyman (R-Tehachapi) said of the Democratic proposals.

Wyman, who lobbied Democrats to put the entire valley in a single district, said that one of their redistricting plans would tie Lancaster to the Simi Valley and another would connect the central part of the Antelope Valley to Glendale and the eastern region to a San Bernardino-based district.

Wyman reiterated Thursday that he would run for Congress if redistricting creates an Antelope Valley-based seat that is not represented by an incumbent.

Lancaster City Manager Jim Gilley said that the one-district concept is “terribly important” to the Antelope Valley.

“We would like to have some clout in the system,” he said.