Western IA Rs not happy with proposed redistricting map.

[Skidmore]

Iowa lost a seat after the last census and redistricting is underway.

http://www.easterniowagovernment.com/2011/04/04/western-iowa-republicans-dont-like-new-redistricting-map/

Western Iowa Republicans don’t like new redistricting map
April 4, 2011, 8:13 pm
By Rod Boshart/SourceMedia Group News

COUNCIL BLUFFS – Western Iowa Republicans made it clear Monday they do not like a new redistricting map that would throw Pottawattamie County in with Polk County and end Congressman Steve King’s representation of southwest Iowa.

Jeff Jorgensen, chairman of the Pottawattamie County Republican Party, said Council Bluffs was combined into a congressional district with Polk County before and he does not want to see Pottawattamie County to become “the forgotten step-child again” in a newly configured 3rd congressional district.

“I am adamantly opposed to this,” said Michael Patomson, one of more than 40 Iowans who turned out for the first public hearing being held this week by a special five-member Temporary Redistricting Advisory Committee. Monday’s meeting had a heavy GOP flavor because the public hearing took place next door to the local Republican central committee meeting.

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Following is an editorial which describes Iowa's redistricting process, one which is designed to prevent gerrymandering.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110405/OPINION/104050319/-1/GETPUBLISHED03/Guest-opinion-Iowa-pulls-politics-from-redistricting&community=Johnston

Guest opinion: Iowa pulls politics from redistricting
4:03 PM, Apr. 3, 2011 |

http://www.gannettonline.com/external/scripts/momslikeme/?siteid=6171
Written by
state Rep. Erik Helland

STATE REP. ERIK HELLAND, R-Grimes, represents District 69 in the Iowa House. The district includes Grimes, Johnston, Polk City, Alleman, Elkhart and much of rural northern Polk County. Helland can be reached at 281-3371 or [e-mail].

The first redistricting maps were released last week. Iowa is unique in that our redistricting is done through a nonpartisan process, unlike most states. The Legislative Services Agency has initial responsibility. It must develop up to three plans that can be accepted or rejected.

The redistricting is based on four criteria: population equality, contiguity, unity of counties and cities, and compactness. That means we do not draw districts to protect legislators, members of Congress or majorities. Iowa has pulled as much of the politics from this process as possible, and the result is a very fair process with the Iowa voters as the biggest winners.

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[Skidmore]

1. Kicking this to keep it on the front page a little longer.

I want people to know what is happening in Iowa.

[progressoid]

2. No matter how you slice it, Repubes won't like it.

It's too bad we're losing a Rep., but if it's King, it's worth it.

[FBaggins]

5. King may be gone, but the lost seat will probably be Blue.

Too many republican voters on the western side of the state to not end up with at least two districts. King may not live in one of them, but there's no place to stick those red voters.

Our best case is probably two safer blue seats and two safe red seats that happen not to include King's current residence.

He'll probably move though, unless he plans to run against Harkin (or for the seat if harkin retires) in 2014.

[kickysnana]

3. "Gerrymandering was a bad thing so it is now illegal"

Paraphrasing my 5th Grade Minnesota Social Studies textbook:

Town Halls were were everyone was welcome and could speak their mind.

Government buildings were of the by the people and for the people (and did not need swat teams to guard them.)

(Flying was a grand adventure, not an extension of a police state.)

Labor and business worked together to keep America strong. (However there were riots to gain unions in Minneapolis ca 1934)

Segregation was wrong (but still evidently exsisted in Minneapolis.) (Mechanic Arts was the first integrated High School in St Paul U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a 1925 graduate of Mechanic Arts.

Roy Wilkins dedicated more than fifty years of his life to the cause of civil rights for black Americans. Born in 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri, he was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, by an aunt and uncle after his mother died of tuberculosis when Wilkins was four years old. In an early display of his love of journalism, Wilkins edited the student newspaper while he was a pupil at the integrated Mechanic Arts High School. At the University of Minnesota, where he majored in sociology and minored in journalism, Wilkins took a number of jobs (including slaughterhouse worker and Pullman car waiter) to support his studies, but he also made time to write for the university newspaper, the Minnesota Daily; edit the St. Paul Appeal, a black weekly; and join the local branch of the NAACP. After graduating in 1924, Wilkins moved to Kansas City to work for the Kansas City Call, an influential black newspaper.

Prisons reformed people to allow them a second chance to become productive citizens.

After the 1929 Wall Street Crash and Standard Oil event laws were enacted to protect the country and citizens from greedy dishonest business people.

War was bad and to be avoided.

============================================

Who knew that my 5th grade Social Studies text would become fairy tales in the 21st Century. Things were supposed to keep getting better for all citizens.

To my grandparents and my grandchildren I am sorry I could not manage to find a way to stop what is happening.

[FBaggins]

4. Hardly a surprise.

They won 58% of the House vote in IA, but they're stuck with the same two seats that they've had since the 2006 election results because they're packed into two districts while the other three remain comparatively competitive.