Mapquest
Every ten years, we redraw legislative boundaries based on the decennial census…yesterday, Iowans got their first look at a possible new map.
The maps are drawn by computer at the Legislative Services Agency, a non-partisan state office. We saw congressional districts that look quite a bit different from what we’ve had the past ten years, and those are the ones that have drawn most of the attention.
But as was pointed out to me yesterday, the real action is found with the maps for Iowa House and Senate. That’s in large part because it’s Iowa representatives and senators who vote on the plans…and they obviously care much more about how their districts are changed, than they do the four congressional districts.
And it’s all or nothing…they can’t approve, for example, the congressional map but send the state legislative maps back for tweaking.
If this first pass doesn’t gain approval, then the computer will crunch numbers and spit out another set of maps. Public hearings will be held next week, and the legislature will meet in special session beginning October 6th to debate the issue.
Iowa has a very good record of non-gerrymandered, impartially-drawn districts. You can always find fault and have other options, but this has typically not been a major issue in our state. But these are not typical times. How it will end up is truly anyone’s guess, but again…while most of us are looking at how the four congressional seats are mapped out, the ones who vote on these things will be looking at their own 150 House and Senate districts–which means we all should, too.
