Hard-line partisan fighting could spell disaster for Idaho redistricting commission

Census data that is needed to redraw Idaho’s state legislative and congressional districts is expected to arrive by Aug. 16, according to Keith Bybee, deputy division manager for the Idaho Legislative Services Office.

The data is coming later than the usual March release because of the pandemic, but it’s a little bit earlier than the Sept. 30 deadline the Census Bureau had announced earlier. The commission drawing the new boundaries will need all the time it can get.

“Our vendor is going to take that data and provide it to us when it’s released, and we’ll get busy drawing some initial maps,” Bybee told me in a phone call Monday.

Once the Census data is released, six people — three Republicans and three Democrats — will be appointed and start the heavy lifting of finalizing new maps. Those meetings likely won’t start until September, possibly after Labor Day.

This process is important because the maps determine what legislative and congressional district you live in. Changes to the legislative districts may move an incumbent legislator into another district, pitting some incumbent legislators against one another in the next election. Some Idaho residents will change congressional districts and get a different representative.

This redistricting and reapportionment process takes place every 10 years, after the decennial Census.

Most states have their legislatures draw the maps, which can lead to gerrymandering and give political advantage to the majority party.

Idaho is one of 14 states with an independent commission that makes the redistricting decision. Partisanship varies from state to state, with appointees coming from various political offices, but Idaho is one of the few states with a bipartisan, even-numbered independent commission, meaning no one party has an advantage.

Idaho voters in 1994 approved a constitutional amendment creating our redistricting commission whose six members are individually appointed by the House speaker, Senate president pro tem, the House and Senate minority leaders, and the chairs of the state Republican and Democratic parties.

In Idaho, the people who are making the appointments to the commission this year are Republicans House Speaker Scott Bedke, Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder and Idaho Republican Party Chair Tom Luna and Democrats House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett and Idaho Democratic Party Chair Fred Cornforth.

Commission members have 90 days to hammer out new legislative districts and congressional district lines, and they need four of the six members to approve any map.

This year, because of the delayed Census data, the commission will be on a tight deadline: Idaho’s two-week candidate filing period begins Feb. 28.

Appointing hard-line partisans this year could spell disaster.

The last time we went through a redistricting — in 2011, following the 2010 Census — the first redistricting commission ended in a partisan deadlock after 92 days.

When asked about his experience on that first 2011 commission, George Moses doesn’t have fond memories.

“Well, the scars have mostly healed,” he only half-jokingly said to me in a video call.

Moses, appointed by Idaho Democratic Party then-chair Larry Grant, said the first commission had some partisan shenanigans and political grandstanding, which added to the already difficult task of coming up with reasonable, relatively equally populated legislative districts that respect county lines and communities of interest.

After the first commission failed to come up with a map that four members could agree on, a second commission with new members was formed.

That second commission agreed on a map in less than a month, on Oct. 14.

But that’s not the end of the story.

“The one thing that we know about any redistricting anywhere is somebody is going to sue,” Gary Moncrief, professor emeritus at Boise State University and Idaho’s foremost expert on redistricting, said in a phone interview. Moncrief has worked with state legislators around the country as a consultant to the National Conference of State Legislatures and Council of State Governments. “It always happens, and so it will certainly happen again.”

That’s exactly what happened in 2011.

Several counties and cities sued, and the Idaho Supreme Court rejected the plan on grounds it divided too many counties to meet constitutional muster.

The commission went back to work and resolved those issues, unanimously adopting new maps on Jan. 27, 2012.

So it can be done on a tight deadline, which is good, because the clock is ticking.

If the commission takes the full 90 days, goes into December, gets sued and has to go back to the drawing board, that could push it awfully close to that Feb. 28 candidate filing period. Even worse, if the commission deadlocks — like it did in 2011 — and a new commission needs to be seated, it would almost certainly mean that the candidate filing deadline would need to be moved.

It would be much better if the commission gets it right the first time around — and quickly. That means appointing the right people, who are politically knowledgeable and active but not partisan — people who have demonstrated an ability to work with people on the other side of the aisle.

Although lobbyists and recent elected officials are barred from the commission, people like Wayne Hammon, Shawn Keogh and Darrell Bolz on the Republican side and Mat Erpelding, Maryanne Jordan and Cherie Buckner-Webb on the Democratic side come to mind. Put folks like that in a room together, and you’d have maps before Halloween.

Cornforth was still accepting applications from the public interested in serving on the commission, but he shared a little bit about what he’s looking for in his appointee.

“I think all Idahoans are looking for people that have a deep understanding of what Idaho is all about and would like to have a fair and balanced districting plan throughout our state that really reflects what Idaho’s interests and concerns are,” Cornforth said in a video interview. “So we’re looking for well-balanced, thoughtful people that will have that outlook.”

Scott McIntosh is the opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. You can email him at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com or call him at 208-377-6202. Follow him on Twitter @ScottMcIntosh12.