Linn County's redistricting saga: What's happened, what's next

Iowa state law goes to great lengths to prevent state legislators, county supervisors, and city council members from having a direct role in redistricting, the once-every-10-years redrawing of political boundaries to reflect the latest Census. So this week, Linn County supervisors will pick their own new districts.

How did this happen? More or less like this:

• Aug. 18: The county's temporary redistricting commission, local volunteers appointed by supervisors, settle on a new election map. The redistricting commissioners, two Democrats, two Republicans, and an independent, unanimously vote to recommend a plan that puts Supervisors Linda Langston and Lu Barron, both Democrats, in the same Cedar Rapids district.
• Aug. 29: The proposed new map sails through the required public hearing with no comment.
• Sept. 7: The supervisors vote unanimously to adopt the new map, sending it to the Iowa Secretary of State for final approval.
• Oct. 12: The county receives letter from state Deputy of Elections Mary Mosiman rejecting the plan. The objection: the new map would place Cedar Rapids in four supervisor districts, while state law says political subdivisions "SHALL be divided into the smallest number of county supervisor districts possible:" three, in Cedar Rapids' case.
• Oct. 13: The redistricting commission reconvenes and votes to re-submit its first choice, along with a letter arguing its case: a map with four Cedar Rapids districts - one of which includes mostly non-city residents, one that's entirely within the city, and two with city majorities - gives rural residents better chance at electing at least two supervisors, and keeps district sizes manageable.
• Oct. 14: County supervisors agree, forwarding the map and letter.
• Nov. 4: The secretary of state's office again rejects the map, with an ultimatum to supervisors: submit a new plan with Cedar Rapids in three districts, adopt a plan drawn by the Legislative Services Agency, or wait to have the LSA plan imposed Dec. 1.
• Nov. 8: In protest, redistricting commissioners vote to send their map back to supervisors a third time.

Because the map has been rejected twice already, supervisors have the politically sensitive task of drawing it themselves. The secretary of state's s instruction that the map have only three Cedar Rapids district virtually assures most rural residents will live in a big doughnut-shaped district wrapping around the metro area.

How will supervisors design a new map without undue political manipulation, or even the appearance?

Lu Barron, D-Cedar Rapids: "Trying to draw the districts close to what we have now is something that's important to me. It's important to have some consistency and stability in the people you represent. I would love to keep as much of my district as I can, so the people that have been calling me know I'm their supervisor."

John Harris, R-Palo, lives in what will likely become the rural "doughnut:"  "It's not going to be fair, I believe, to the rural voters in Linn County." The 2007 referendum in which voters approved going from three at-large supervisors to a five-member board elected by districts "was to get more rural representation on the board. When you split Cedar Rapids into only three districts, two of them are 100 percent metro, the third is 98.5 percent metro."

Linda Langston, D-Cedar Rapids:  "I'm likely to choose a map that still requires me to move (to a new district). I don't see how you get around that, even though we're drawing a different map. There's a limited amount of tweaking you can do (to the LSA map). The only option left to us is to say we're going to be as responsible as we can."

Brent Oleson, R-Marion, will probably live in a new district that covers Marion and nearby rural precincts. The new district's boundary could run as far south as the Betram area or as far north as Central City, but not both: "I want the map to have Marion and Central City together. From a partisan standpoint that's probably bad for me because Central City is a Democratically-dominated precinct, but my theory is I wanted at least the possibility of two supervisors coming from northern Linn County."

"We have worked so well in this process and there's been no partisanship. I'm not terribly worried about it."

Ben Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids: "We're pretty limited in what we can do. We'll still have that horseshoe district, Marion will still be on its own with some rural, and then following the letter of the law, splitting Cedar Rapids into three districts."

State Deputy Secretary of Elections Mary Mosiman: "We' e been very consistent with all of the counties that their cities must be divided into the fewest districts possible, even townships. This has been consistently communicated. All the other standards play into it, but that's one of the key requirements."

Assuming Oleson is re-elected to represent the Marion-based district, "that's two supervisors that would be out of the city boundaries of Cedar Rapids,  which is the intent of the law."

Mosiman said Linn is a handful of Iowa's 99 counties still dealing with redistricting. A complaint with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board regarding Polk County, where claims of partisan manipulation have arisen.

Rogers, the board chairman, said he expects supervisors to select a new - and, they hope, final - new district map by the end of the week. They'll review some potential maps drawn up by Linn County Auditor Joel Miller's staff at their meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Linn County West in Westdale Mall.