DES MOINES, Iowa — In limbo. Frustrated. But not out of options. The four current members of the Iowa Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission are watching to see if Ohio provides any progress in delivering the necessary population information from the U.S. Census Bureau that members need to begin the process of redrawing congressional and legislative districts boundaries for the next decade.
Ohio is suing the Census Bureau to try to restore the customary March 31st release of 2020 census information, rather than delaying the information six months as the bureau deals with COVID-19’s impact on gathering demographic information and checking for errors.
The bipartisan group of Iowans is considering what it can do in the interim as it waits for the 2020 election. Deidre DeJear, a Des Moines Democratic member and 2018 nominee for secretary of state, asked during Monday’s meeting, “What do the next two to three months look like for this committee?”
Normally, that would not be a question with such uncertainty.
David Roederer, recently retired director of the Iowa Office of Management and Budget and Johnston Republicans, wondered whether the commission can use preliminary census data to begin work while it waits on final figures.
But Ed Cook, legal counsel for the Iowa Legislative Services Agency who has worked on the past three redistricting efforts, said that data could be inaccurate. “My experience from 20 years ago is we had estimated data then,” Cook said, “…not close to the extent that anything that we could come up with using to the estimated data would work once the real data was available.”
Members decided to use the next week to consider the three Iowans nominated to be considered to serve as chair of the commission.
- Carmine Boal — former Republican state representative and chief clerk of the Iowa House of Representatives.
- Jazmin Newton-Butt — Davenport attorney and president of the LULAC Council 10
- Terese Grant — Grinnell resident and president of the League of Women Voters of Iowa
They plan to meet again next Monday to possibly choose a chair.