Senate rejects redistricting plan

It’s back to the drawing board to get a new plan for re-mapping Iowa’s legislative and congressional districts. The Senate rejected the first plan on a 21 to 27 vote. That means lawmakers will be back in Des Moines in June for a “special session” that’ll cost taxpayers 30-thousand dollars a day. A second redistricting plan for congressional and legislative districts must now be drafted, as Republicans who control the legislature didn’t like the first one because they feared it favored democrats. Senator Steve King, a republican from Kiron, says the districts aren’t equal enough, with a number of voters that’s roughly equal from district to district.King says that “population deviation” in the plan is too great. King says it is mathematical possible to have a “one-person, one-vote” than the first redistricting plan. King also objects to the plan’s proposed western Iowa congressional district which covers 32 counties and runs from Missouri to Minnesota. He says the congressional plan will limit connecting western Iowa to the rest of the state. Democrats called the plan “fair”. Senate Democrat Leader Mike Gronstal of Council Bluffs says republicans are using fake arguments in the hopes of writing another plan that’ll favor the G-O-P.Senator Mike Connolly, a democrat from Dubuque, says republicans are going down a “slippery slope.” Senator Steve Hansen, a democrat from Sioux City, says republicans are making a big mistake. The first plan was and now the second plan will be drafted by a non-partisan agency and uses 2000 Census data to realign districts.