[Vision2020] Legislative Redistricting and the North Idaho "Compromise"

Wed Sep 7 07:46:11 PDT 2011

Courtesy of today's (September 7, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Panel fails to draw districts by deadline

Idaho commission likely to be ordered back to work

BOISE - Idaho's bipartisan citizen redistricting commission failed Tuesday
to agree on new legislative and congressional districts by its
constitutionally set deadline, forcing the issue into the courts.

"I think the citizens of the state are going to be disgusted that we cannot
get to a solution here when we're down to just a handful of areas," GOP
Commissioner Lorna Finman, of Rathdrum, pleaded as the clock ticked away
Tuesday. "We are so close on this map. . There needed to be a little give
and take."

Said GOP Co-Chairman Evan Frasure, of Pocatello, "It's a shame that we
couldn't get there."

Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said he's ready to sue first thing today
in the Idaho Supreme Court. "Papers are prepared," he said.

Without new legislative and congressional district lines, Idaho has lines
from 10 years ago that don't reflect the big population shifts since then
and therefore don't comply with the U.S. Constitution's one-person, one-vote
rule. Ysursa said he expects the court to order the commission back to work.

Finman and Democratic Commissioner Julie Kane, of Lapwai, reached agreement
early Tuesday on a new legislative district plan for North Idaho that drew
praise from all the other commissioners, but the panel wasn't ready to vote
on just that piece without agreement on the rest of the state.

That plan would force North Idaho Sens. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Joyce
Broadsword, R-Sagle, into a face-off in the GOP primary if both want to stay
in office; it would also put several current incumbent House members from
North Idaho into competition with each other. But the plan won praise as
being reflective of public testimony from North Idaho about how new district
lines should be drawn.

The North Idaho compromise plan doesn't split precincts and doesn't violate
the rule that districts must be connected by highways. GOP Commissioner Lou
Esposito thanked Finman and Kane, saying, "I believe if we go back and look
at the testimony that we received up north that it gives incredible weight
to that testimony, and I applaud both of you."

Finman and Kane, the only two women on the six-member panel, offered over
the weekend to mediate between the feuding male members as the panel worked
through the holiday. Democratic Co-Chairman Allen Andersen said he liked the
idea, saying it would "get all of the testosterone out of it." GOP
Commissioner Lou Esposito said, "If that's what it takes, I'm all for it."

But even that mediation failed to bring the two sides together in time. By
Tuesday afternoon, Esposito was calling a Democratic proposal for
legislative district lines in Ada County "an abomination," and "the
definition of gerrymander." Democratic Commissioner George Moses blamed the
Republicans for the breakdown.

In 1994, Idaho voters amended the state constitution to take redistricting
out of lawmakers' hands and give it to a bipartisan citizen commission,
which is meeting publicly and which held hearings around the state before
trying its hand at new maps.

The first commission, a decade ago, reached a plan in 76 days, but it was
overturned in court amid multiple lawsuits; in the end, that commission
settled on a plan that held but included unpopular, sprawling districts in
North Idaho and southeastern Idaho. The state constitution sets a 90-day
limit.

----------------------

The North Idaho compromise

The North Idaho compromise legislative district map, L-71, developed by GOP
Commissioner Lorna Finman of Rathdrum, and Democratic Commissioner Julie
Kane, of Lapwai puts Boundary County and the majority of Bonner County,
including the entire Clark Fork area, into District 1. District 2 contains
the southernmost precincts of Bonner County plus northern parts of Kootenai
County. "That's a very similar community of interest, kind of rural
small-town area," Finman said. District 3 contains the core of Coeur
d'Alene, while District 4 has mostly Post Falls and the Rathdrum area.

District 5 consists of Shoshone County and parts of Benewah, Kootenai and
Latah counties, including the Moscow area, along with most of the Coeur
d'Alene Reservation. District 6 pairs two rural Latah County precincts with
all of Nez Perce County and part of Lewis County, and includes most of the
Nez Perce reservation; while District 7 has part of Benewah County along
with all of Clearwater and Idaho counties, and part of Lewis County.

The plan would mean at least four North Idaho incumbent legislators would
lose their seats. Sens. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, and Joyce Broadsword,
R-Sagle, would end up in the same district, forcing a face-off in the GOP
primary if they both want to stay in office. In the proposed new District 2,
there would be three incumbent state representatives vying for two seats:
Reps. Phil Hart, R-Athol; Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens; and Marge
Chadderdon, R-Coeur d'Alene. In the proposed new District 5, there would be
four incumbents vying for two House seats: Reps. Tom Trail, R-Moscow;
Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow; Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries; and Shannon McMillan,
R-Silverton.

----------------------

The proposed North Idaho "Compromise"

NorthIdahoCompromise_L71_B.jpg

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Counties shall not be divided to protect a particular political party or a
particular incumbent."

http://legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title72/T72CH15SECT72-1506.htm

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen

Moscow, Idaho

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110907/72040c2b/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 98594 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110907/72040c2b/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: NorthIdahoCompromise_L71_B.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 98594 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20110907/72040c2b/attachment-0003.jpg>