Second Time’s The Charm
I was a bit surprised when the Iowa legislature made fairly quick work of passing the second set of redistricting maps yesterday.
Frankly, Republicans lost out in how the new districts in this plan lined up according to voter registration numbers, far different than the first set. Now that’s not supposed to be a consideration, but we all looked at how it broke down.
But I did tell you that regardless of what those congressional maps showed, whether this would pass or not depended on how the state house and senate districts came out, and by all accounts, those maps were better in terms of broad distribution of districts…and so the plan was passed.
Republicans really didn’t want to go to a third set of maps, because those could be amended and they’d be accused of playing politics and gerrymandering regardless of what they changed; we know that, because that was the constant drumbeat from Democrats who set the trap for them and basically forced Republicans to stop short of amendable plans.
Regardless, these are the maps for the next 10 years…done deal…far behind schedule because of census delays, but at least now we know what counties go with what districts and campaign plans can be set.
Republicans did get a victory by sliding in a quick bill limiting the impact of private employer vaccine mandates. Exemptions for faith-based and medical-based objections were written right into the law, with a provision allowing jobless benefits to be paid for those who leave a job due to improper mandates. It’s a strong signal of how the state GOP feels about the Democrat president’s mandates. The governor quickly signed it, and has another chance to poke at the White House as one of the dreaded red state governors who trust citizens more than government when it comes to medical decisions.
