[Vision2020] Certainly No Thinking Person is Surprised . . .

[lfalen]

Just some background information.
I was appointed to the Republican Redistricting Task Force. Our job was to recommend 3 people for the redistricting 
Commission. The Actual appoint ments were made by the Legislature  and the Governor. Three  people were also appoint by the Democrats. This is a 6 member board and there is equal representation by both parties, even though the Republicans hold 80% of the seats. There are some fairly strict guide lines set out for them to follow. A few of them are -
1. 44,000 in size give or take 5%. 2. Keep counties intact as much as possible, but there will have to be some division. 3. should be contiguous, access by major highway. There are many more but these are the main one. Some possibilities would be to take part of Lewiston and put in with district 6. This is probably not feasible. Put  Elk River and Orofinio in District 6. Not feasible because good access is through Nez Peirce. Put St Maries in District 6.  Split Latah, part going in with Lewiston and part going in with Benewah, and Kootenai or Shoshone. U. S. congressional districts 1 and 2 must also be redrawn. 
Any one can go online To Idaho redistricting , access the map and submit their ideas. Threre are 35 districts. Reducing it to 30 districts is also a possibility.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Saundra Lund" v2020 at ssl1.fastmail.fm
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:28:32 -0700
To: "'Moscow Vision 2020'" Vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Vision2020] Certainly No Thinking Person is Surprised . . .

>  . . that Moscow rejects the theocracy inherent from the "views" of people
> like Paula Bauer (a la Gresham Bouma & his pastor Lloyd Knerr).  The genuine
> rub, however, is that the outlying areas are no more interested in the
> peculiar theocracy Bauer & Bouma crave than the city of Moscow is, something
> the blogger unfortunately missed in a big way.
> 
> Frankly, I'm disappointed there's not been discussion on the Viz about the
> reapportionment . . . 
> 
> 
> Saundra Lund
> Moscow, ID
> 
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
> nothing.
> ~ Edmund Burke
> 
> ___
> http://lmtribune.com/blogs/political_theater/article_2a7f6630-9def-11e0-a494
> -001a4bcf6878.html
> 
> Moscow not feeling the love
> 
> by Bill Spence | 0 comments 
> 
> There was a distinct anti-Moscow flavor to the Idaho Commission on
> Reapportionment meeting in Moscow this afternoon.
> 
> A number of rural residents, including several Republican Party officials,
> urged the commission to split the rural portion of Latah County away from
> Moscow and pair it with Benewah and Shoshone counties to the north.
> 
> "There's a widespread sense of disenfranchisement in the outlying areas ...
> a strong sense that it's futile to fight against Moscow," said Paula Bauer,
> the Republican precinct chair for Viola and the first person to address the
> commission during its public listening session at the University of Idaho
> today.
> 
> Bauer said rural Latah County has more in common Benewah and Shoshone
> counties, whereas Moscow is more similar to Lewiston. When it redraws
> legislative district boundaries to reflect the 2010 census populations, she
> urged the commission to put two cities together in a single district, while
> pairing the rural communities in a second district.
> 
> "It's not that we don't like them (Moscow residents)," she said. "It's
> recognizing that our values, our interests and our needs are different."
> 
> Pam Kaynor, chair of the Benewah County Republican Central Committee, said
> her county commissioners have no interest in being put in the same district
> as Moscow.
> 
> "The only part of Latah County we feel linked to is northern (rural) Latah,"
> she said. "If not that, we don't want it."
> 
> Latah County is a standalone legislative district right now, but that will
> have to change because it's population isn't great enough. Either it gets
> split between two or more districts, or it gets paired with other areas.
> 
> Latah County Commissioner Tom Stroschein encouraged the commission to keep
> it whole. The primary options would be to pair it with Benewah County to the
> north or with Clearwater County to the east. He didn't indicate which he
> would prefer, but said he'd "hate to see local government have to work with
> legislators who didn't live in the county and didn't understand our county
> roots."
> 
> Commissioner Evan Frasure of Pocatello said the Latah, Nez Perce, Clearwater
> County region "is one of the more difficult areas in the state to lump
> together in a logical way. I've redrawn this area 15 times and not come up
> with anything."
> 
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