A war over maps turned into a war over laws Monday when the Idaho Commission for Reapportionment could not agree to waive certain redistricting requirements to accommodate a Republican proposal.
State law requires that legislative districts avoid splitting counties, be accessible by designated roads and must not divide precincts. The last requirement posed a problem for Republican Commissioner Lou Esposito, whose latest redistricting map proposal splits one voting precinct near Idaho Falls.
However, waiving this requirement would take a vote of five of six commissioners, while a final plan would require votes from only four of the six commissioners. As the latest GOP proposal has yet to be approved, Democratic commissioners said they fail to see the point of approving the waiver before the plan.
"We don't even know if this plan is going to be the one we are going to deal with in the end," said Democratic Commissioner Julie Kane.
The most recent GOP proposal, L37, is a revised version of the proposal released Aug. 1 that would have combined Blaine, Lincoln and Camas counties with Custer, Lemhi, Butte and Clark into an enormous legislative district. Gooding County would go to the south, joining Twin Falls County for representation in the state legislature.
Democrats countered this proposal with one of their own on Tuesday morning. The plan, known as L46, divides six counties, including Twin Falls County. More than 2,500 Twin Falls County residents would be added to the district that includes Blaine, Camas, Lincoln and Gooding counties. The Republican plan would divide 11 counties, but more closely considers highway access to the furthest reaches of each district and has less population deviation.
Statutory requirements aren't the only obstacle facing the commission as it speeds toward its Sept. 4 deadline. Republican Co-Chairman Evan Frasure said Monday that he won't be able to attend three of the commission's remaining meetings, due to scheduling conflicts with his job as a high school teacher.
Esposito and Democratic Commissioner George Moses said Tuesday that representatives of the two political parties may attempt to solve this problem by meeting privately and attempting to reach an agreement outside of the scheduled public meetings.
The commission is scheduled to meet today, Aug. 30 and Sept. 2, 3 and 4. State code requires district lines to be redrawn every 10 years in accordance with the most recent census data.
If the plan is not approved by four of six commissioners before the Sept. 4 deadline, district lines will be decided by the Idaho Supreme Court, as occurred in 2001.
The commission consists of six citizens who are not members of the Legislature.
Katherine Wutz: kwutz@mtexpress.com
The Democrats' latest proposal, shown above, would keep District 25 mainly the same but add a small part of Twin Falls County to bring the population up by 2,500. The most recent GOP plan would split the current district, sending Gooding south and grouping Blaine, Camas and Lincoln counties with Custer, Lemhi, Butte and Clark counties as District 35.
Courtesy graphic
