Here & Now

Redistricting: Iowa Non-Partisan Process Contrasts With WI

Frederica Freyberg:

Proposals to reform redistricting in Wisconsin call for shaping the process here similar to how it’s done in Iowa. In that state the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency draws the lines. By all accounts Iowa’s process is far less contentious, costly and partisan. Ed Cook is senior legal counsel with Iowa’s Legislative Services Agency and joins us from Des Moines to detail how it works in that state. Thanks very much for being here.

Ed Cook:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So every ten years, as we know, with the census your agency redraws the lines. What do you take into account when doing that?

Ed Cook:

Basically, Iowa’s process establishes factors that we take into account. It also has prohibitive factors. So obviously what we take into account is population, political subdivisions, like maintaining counties or cities, political subdivisions in precincts and townships, as well as compactness, you know, the shape of the districts. What we don’t take into account or are prohibited from looking at are political information such as incumbent addresses, party registration, voting patterns, anything that provides any kind of political knowledge in regards to what proposed districts might look like.

Frederica Freyberg:

So have population shifts then, if that’s one of the things that you take into account, is population, have shifts drastically changed or even eliminated a district?

Ed Cook:

Well, sure. I mean, obviously in the congressional scene, obviously, every ten years they determine how many seats, members of congress we have. In this last round we went from five to four, which obviously reduces the districts. But in regard to legislative districts there are some areas that have seen such a reduction in population that those districts have grown larger. And newer districts in some of the suburban areas or other faster-growing areas of the state have really had, basically, an entirely new district created as a result of population shifts.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how do politicians react to that? I mean, say you’re a congress person and all of a sudden there goes your district.

Ed Cook:

Well, Iowa’s process has been in place since 1981, and somewhat resulted out of an Iowa Supreme Court case in the ’70s, and so we’ve had several rounds of redistricting under this process. And I think what legislators and politicians, whatever, understand is that the process is as it’s established. The way it works, of course, is that legislature and the governor have the ability to, basically, veto a plan and go to a second plan by either not passing the legislation. So there’s always that stop-gap ability if they really don’t like a particular plan to reject it. They don’t have the ability to really control what the second plan is going to look like. So there’s an acceptance, I think, that the plan that’s drawn without taking any political factors into account is a fair one that meets all the constitutional requirements. And I think they’ve accepted the fact that there are going to be some that are going to be advantaged and some disadvantaged from the plan. But they know that going in, and so there’s a comfort, I think, in regards to what the resulting plan looks like.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s the opportunity for the public to weigh in on this?

Ed Cook:

Iowa’s process has limited public hearing aspect. Once the plan that we develop is created and submitted to the legislature, there is a temporary commission that, basically, holds public hearings throughout the state and to gather input in regards to the proposed plan. Largely, I think it’s a way for the public to basically communicate to legislators. We’re going to be pretty much– going to go with what the statute requires, but it is a way for them to express whether they like or dislike a plan. Once that process is complete, the legislature will then proceed to either vote the plan up or down, and obviously they will have the public input in regards to whether or not they want to accept the plan or to reject it and have us draw a second plan for them to consider.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s the overall effect on competitiveness of districts with the Iowa process?

Ed Cook:

It’s a little hard to know as far as competitiveness. I mean, Iowa’s a fairly even state in regards to the partisan distribution. It’s about a third Republican, third Democrat, third Independent. And in regards to control of the legislature, the state legislature, it’s flipped back and forth since we’ve had this system in place. Probably the one thing that people can kind of look at and acknowledge right off the top is that each time we have this process in place, since we don’t look at incumbents, we pair a fair number of incumbents in the same district. That means you’re going to have a competitive district if they both decide to run. One of them may retire. So that does increase competitiveness every ten years. We do tend to have a higher number of new legislators after we go through redistricting, at least in the state legislature.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Ed Cook, we need to leave it there, but thanks very much for joining us from Des Moines.