Strike Two
The latest proposed congressional redistricting maps were released yesterday. This is round two; the first set of maps was rejected by the legislature earlier this month. They’re drawn by a computer in the non-partisan office of the Legislative Services Agency…but I think the machine is going to need a reboot after this effort.
Keep in mind that partisanship is not supposed to enter into the designation of districts. Nor is where current members of the U.S. House live. But that’s for the computer. Humans vote on and approve such things, and the humans in Des Moines are no doubt going to notice a few things.
In the first set, based on current voter registration numbers, one district was solidly Republican, one was solidly Democrat, and the other two were pretty well balanced. This new set shows one solidly Republican district, and the other three have significant Democrat voter registration advantages…of 18-25,000 voters per district.
It alters the numbers from what we’re used to, but the numbers don’t matter. Waterloo was for years in the 3rd district, now the 1st, and under this plan, the 2nd. What counties are clumped together is what’s important.
This plan also puts two incumbents…Democrat Cindy Axne and Republican Marionnette-Miller Meeks…in the same district, leaving one district without current representation. That said, the proposed NE Iowa 2nd district looks a lot like the current 1st district, with the biggest geographic changes coming in southern and south central Iowa.
As noted before, the real issue is how the state legislative districts look, because those are the lawmakers who are voting on it…and for self-preservation, they could hardly care less about the congressional districts. But on the face of it, I’d say this is strike two…meaning brace yourselves for a third set of maps and the potential joys of amendments subject to political influence.
