Redistricting plan should be approved

By Mason City Globe Gazette

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Will they or won't they? Presented with redistricting maps dramatically changing Iowa's political landscape, especially in congressional districts, it's up to Iowa legislators to study, listen and decide.

Study as in study the maps to see just what impact they will have (we can guarantee you, lawmakers and their staffs have been poring over them ever since they came out).

Listen, to their constituents and other state officials.

Then, finally, decide whether to accept this first offering from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency or seek a second version.

It's all part of an intriguing process that takes place based on new census results. It's a system highly praised for its nonpartisan nature. Yet, as would be natural, it produces many questions and many raised eyebrows.

The new boundary lines have perhaps more impact on North Iowa than any other area.

Iowa lost enough population to lose one of its five congressional seats. And its population has been increasingly concentrating in the Des Moines-Ames area and Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City area, leaving District 4 in the new map encompassing a huge rural area to equalize the population in each district as required by the Constitution.

Much of North Iowa would be in District 4 in an area that extends to the far western-northwestern border and includes Sioux City. Only Mitchell and Worth counties would be in a different district, District 1, which encompasses the northeast portion of the state.

District 4 would also be an attention-getter because it would combine the seats of two incumbent Republicans, Tom Latham, and Steve King.

King has said he intends to run; Latham has taken a more political stance, saying the Legislature will make the right decision. If both longstanding congressmen decided to run, it wouldn't be a clash of the titans but it would be pretty close for Iowa politics. ...

More communities and more counties would mean more requests for shares of the federal budget pie.

That would make it more important than ever for local groups to make their wants and needs known loud and clear, to study with a powerful magnifying glass the availability of federal funds and get their requests in early to hopefully beat others to the punch.

Every year, North Iowa officials go to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressional representatives to give them their wish lists. We could see those kinds of trips becoming even more important, perhaps more frequent.

So, back to the question: Will they or won't they? The earliest legislators expect to take action on the first plan is April 14. If it's voted down, the Legislative Services Agency must submit a second redistricting proposal within 21 days. If that fails to be approved, a third proposal would be issued and could be changed by the Legislature and governor - which goes against the spirit of the non-partisan drawing of new boundaries.

So we believe legislators should look at the first maps to see that they meet the goals of compact districts with equal population. If not, then go on to the second version (there's no going back to the first, of course).

But if they do, and we have to believe the Legislative Services Agency knows its stuff, we believe the first version should be approved.

Ed Cook, legal counsel for the Legislative Services Agency, said this was “the best plan that as selected by the director, the best bet that met all the criteria.”

We'll bet not everyone likes it, but professionals charged with redistricting have deemed it the best for the state. That's good by us.