The fourth and final public hearing on the first proposed state redistricting map is tonight in Des Moines. There have been few complaints in the hearings thus far on the new districts created using information from the 2010 Census. There were a few complaints at the hearing in eastern Iowa Wednesday.
One came from Cedar Rapids resident, Adam Wright, who doesn’t like how this map splits Cedar Rapids and Iowa City into separate congressional districts. “We’re trying to brand as one metro area: Cedar Rapids, Iowa City. Splitting us up will give us two different representatives and maybe two different ideas of about how this branding of the two counties will work,” Wright explained.
Clark Riecke of Cedar Rapids, also said he doesn’t like Cedar Rapids and Iowa City split into separate congressional districts. “There’s only so much money for Iowa, and then if one congressional district is competing against the other congressional district across the boundary of in the middle of a regional corridor development like Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, that has a lot of negative risks to it,” Riecke says.
Overall the people in Bettendorf, Dubuque, and Waterloo have for the most part approved of the map. On the other side of the state, some residents in Western Iowa say they don’t like losing Iowa’s fifth congressional district, which is currently represented by Republican Steve King. The legislature will vote on approval of this map next week. If they vote it down, up to two more maps can be proposed.
The Des Moines public hearing is today from 7-9 p.m. at the Wallace State Office Building Auditorium.