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For those closely watching Iowa’s decade-long political border reshuffle, what happened last week set a precedent.
Ed Cook, senior legal counsel for the Iowa Legislative Services Agency, said the first proposed maps would not be ready until the deadline set by the Iowa Constitution for lawmakers to approve new legislative districts.
What does it mean?
This means that the Iowa redistribution process is in uncharted territory.
We are not aware of another time the Iowa Supreme Court was tasked with overseeing the redistribution of Iowa’s legislative boundaries, which the Constitution now requires.
For a state that is a model for the fair and balanced drawing of political borders, this is destabilizing.
It’s not that we don’t trust the state Supreme Court. But the Iowa redistribution system is a touchstone, a rock of reliability in a world where so much seems to be in turmoil; that it is now subject to uncertainty is an unfortunate concern.
It is not completely unexpected. When the federal government said it would not have the necessary census data until the end of the summer, lawmakers and judges began to think about what might happen.
In April, the state’s Supreme Court issued a statement, saying it “Discharge its constitutional responsibility by implementing a process that allows, to the extent possible, the redistribution framework currently set out in Chapter 42 of the Iowa Code to continue after September 15.”
It seems a little reassuring.
Indeed, some lawmakers have interpreted the court’s statement to mean that little will change.
We hope they are right. Unfortunately, the High Court declined to answer follow-up questions on how this would work.
Iowa’s unique system of redrawing political boundaries succeeds in large part because of constraints imposed by law and the fact that much of the heavy lifting is centered in a non-partisan agency. Politicians in Iowa are not allowed to do the kind of tinkering that is done in so many other states. (Yes, we are looking at our neighbors in Illinois, but also many other states, such as Texas.)
In fact, gerrymandering across the country has been so prevalent that it has distorted Statehouse and Congressional delegations to the point that it has given the much-quoted saying that lawmakers tend to choose their constituents, rather than l ‘reverse. (By the way, Iowa’s constitutional deadline does not apply to congressional redistribution.)
Unlike other states, in Iowa politicians are not allowed to direct the drawing of the map, and when presented with the boundaries, they do not have the ability to change them. It’s a vote for or against.
Our unique system is why every 10 years, during a redistribution, the people of Iowa can breathe a little easier than those of many other states. But this year is different.
Again, it’s not that we are suspicious of the state Supreme Court. But the silence in the face of questions is not encouraging.
We hope that when the technical work is completed we will see a process similar to what we have experienced in previous years; that the Redistribution Advisory Board hold its public hearings with a strong turnout – and that when it does, lawmakers assume the role they have traditionally played. No more no less.
We live in a world of turmoil, not to mention a state that has moved away in recent years from its more moderate political traditions. It would be a shame if this pillar of Iowa’s legacy of good government were weakened.
The Quad-City Times
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