Bleeding Heartland
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 Bleeding Heartland

Possible Iowa Map

(This map sets up the Latham/Boswell race most people are expecting. It has larger population variance than this map but more compact districts. - promoted by desmoinesdem)

I drew this map upon release of the new Census data for Iowa.  I paid no attention to partisanship and tried to correlate each district with a geographical area of the state.  Starting with Des Moines, I drew a district around it, then drew a district for the southeast, northeast and western Iowa.  My goal was to have each district within 1,000 persons of the ideal district population.  Amazingly, my configuration worked out on my very first try (which means there’s probably many possible combinations to how the state can be drawn).  Nevertheless, I kind of like the map here because I think it does a good job in keeping the different regions of the state together (in that respect, I think it’s better than, for example, the 1990’s Iowa map which had one district run from Des Moines to  the western border).

The population numbers are as follows:

blue – 762,255

green – 761,010

purple – 760,876

red – 762,214

ideal pop. is 761,589

Photobucket

I originally posted my map as part of  a comment on a diary on the Swing State Project , http://www.swingstateproject.c…  and reader OGGoldy crunched the partisan numbers for the map as follows:

blue – 55.3% Obama, 44.7% McCain

green – 58.8% Obama, 41.2% McCain

purple – 58.9% Obama, 41.1% McCain

red – 46.3% Obama, 53.7% McCain

Tags: Census, Iowa, Map, Redistricting

About the Author(s)

silver spring

6 Comments

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  • thanks for cross-posting

    I will bump this to the front page tomorrow.

    This is a logical map and very compact, but I agree with Bleeding Heartland user ragbrai08: Republicans would object to an IA-04 that large, using similar talking points to the criticism of the current IA-05 in 2001.

    desmoinesdem  Sun 13 Feb 4:28 PM

    • Republicans will have to learn to deal

      Western Iowa’s already low and now low and declining population mean that IA-04 is probably going to be pretty big.

      american007  Mon 14 Feb 5:14 PM

  • great map!

    when is the first map due to the Legislature?  

    natewithglasses  Mon 14 Feb 9:01 AM

    • timeline

      Link (pdf file):

      3. Plan Preparation.

      The timetable for preparing and finally approving a congressional and legislative redistricting plan is detailed in Code section 42.3 and Article III, section 35, of the Iowa Constitution.

      a. First Plan. The Legislative Services Agency is required to deliver the first proposed congressional and legislative redistricting plan to both chambers of the General Assembly by April 1 of each year ending in one.100 This deadline is extended, however, if the necessary population data to prepare a legislative redistricting plan is not received from the Census Bureau by February 15. If the information is received after February 15, the April 1 deadline is extended by the same number of days by which the receipt of the necessary census information is delayed beyond February15.101 For example, if the census data is received February 28, then the Legislative Services Agency is required to submit a redistricting plan by April 14.

      Once the first redistricting plan is submitted to the General Assembly, the Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission is required to hold at least three public hearings about the plan in different geographic regions of the state and to submit a report concerning the hearings to the General Assembly.102 The commission is required to submit its report no later than 14 days after the first plan is submitted to the General Assembly.103 Once the report is submitted, the General Assembly is required to bring the redistricting bill to a vote in one of the chambers expeditiously, but in no event less than three days after the commission report is submitted.104 If the bill passes in one chamber, then the second chamber is required to take the bill up in an expeditious manner. Only corrective amendments to the redistricting plan bill are allowed.105

      b. Second Plan. If the first redistricting plan fails to be enacted, the Legislative Services Agency is required to submit a second plan.106 The second plan must be prepared in accordance with the reasons cited, if any, by the Senate or the House by resolution107 or the Governor by veto message, for the failure to approve the first plan, as long as the reasons do not conflict with any redistricting standard provided by the Code. The second redistricting plan is required to be submitted to the General Assembly no later than 35 days after the first plan is disapproved. The General Assembly shall proceed to a vote on the second plan no sooner than seven days after the bill is submitted and, like the first plan, only corrective amendments are allowed. The Temporary Advisory Redistricting Commission is not required to hold public hearings concerning the second plan.

      c. Third Plan. If the second redistricting plan fails to be enacted, the Legislative Services Agency is required to submit a third plan.108 The third redistricting plan is required to be submitted to the General Assembly no later than 35 days after the second plan is disapproved. As is the case with the second plan, the third plan shall be prepared in accordance with the reasons cited for the rejection of the second plan, the Temporary Advisory Redistricting Commission is not required to hold public hearings concerning the plan, and the General Assembly is directed to proceed to a vote on the third plan no earlier than seven days after submission of the bill. However, unlike the first two plans, the third plan is subject to amendment in the same manner as any other bill.

      d. Judicial Intervention. If no redistricting plan is enacted into law or if a plan is challenged in court and rendered invalid, the Iowa Supreme Court will likely assume or be given the responsibility for establishing a valid redistricting plan.109

      • Legislative redistricting: For state legislative redistricting, Article III, section 35, of the Iowa Constitution specifically directs the Iowa Supreme Court to develop a redistricting plan for the General Assembly prior to December 31 of any year ending in one if the General Assembly fails to pass an apportionment plan by September 1 of that year that becomes law by September 15. If a plan is enacted by the General Assembly but is subsequently challenged and struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court, Article III, section 36, of the Iowa Constitution provides that the Supreme Court has 90 days to adopt a valid apportionment plan.

      • Congressional redistricting: For congressional redistricting, Article III, section 36, of the Iowa Constitution provides that the Iowa Supreme Court has original jurisdiction of all litigation questioning any apportionment plan adopted by the General Assembly. In addition, this constitutional provision provides that the Iowa Supreme Court shall review any apportionment plan adopted by the General Assembly (which would include both congressional and legislative redistricting plans) upon a verified application to the court by any qualified elector. As noted when discussing legislative redistricting, if a redistricting plan is enacted by the General Assembly but is subsequently challenged and struck down by the Iowa Supreme Court, the Supreme Court has 90 days to adopt a valid apportionment plan. Unlike legislative redistricting, however, the Iowa Constitution does not provide a time deadline for the General Assembly to redraw congressional boundaries or any requirement for the Iowa Supreme Court to redraw congressional districts if the General Assembly is unable to enact a new plan. However, if a state has not yet adopted new congressional district boundaries prior to the next congressional election, the U.S. Code provides for election of representatives on a statewide basis if the number of representatives for the state has increased or decreased based on the census, or, if the number of representatives for a state remains unchanged, permits election from the previously created districts.110 However, if districts that were drawn based on the prior census but not the current census are used, shifts in population within a state from one census to the next would probably result in population variations between districts that would not meet the constitutional requirement to have districts equal in population as nearly as practicable.

      desmoinesdem  Mon 14 Feb 9:31 AM

  • Wonderful

    It looks like starting in the center worked better than starting in the corners.  I’ll accept some minimal population variance to get compactness. Most of the maps appearing at this website have done pretty well on variance.

    iowavoter  Mon 14 Feb 9:06 AM

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