Round 2
Yesterday, the Iowa Senate rejected the first set of redistricting maps that would set boundaries for the next decade. That was not a huge surprise, because even some Democrats expressed concern about some of the legislative districts under the proposed maps…even less of a surprise was that all Senate Republicans voted to reject the maps, all Senate Democrats voted in favor.
That left the Iowa House off the hook, because there was no reason for them to even take up the bill at that point.
That could have been an accident, but perhaps not.
Let’s assume that the next set of maps is not to Democrats’ liking, but the Republicans pass it. Or round 2 is rejected and they have to go to a third round, which could be amended and thereby be subjected to claims of political posturing.
So as 2022 begins…there might be anger directed toward Republicans, anger that could hurt in that year’s election.
Only one half of the members of the Senate are on the ballot that year, while all the members of the House are up for election. If there’s an anti-GOP backlash due to redistricting, it would be better to be placed at the feet of the Senate because there’s far less chance it will flip. Granted, the GOP majorities in each chamber are so large, it would be hard for Democrats to get a majority in either in the span of a single election…but these are interesting times.
The first round of maps has been rejected in the past, so yesterday’s action was hardly unprecedented. Now we wait about a month for the bell to sound on round 2.
