TAKE THE POLITICS OUT OF REDISTRICTING

Dennis Ryerson
San Jose Mercury News
November 3, 2002

MY home state of Iowa is so squeaky clean, politically, that its Legislature's 100 representatives and 50 senators, with the exception of their leaders, aren't allowed platoons of staff or even individual offices in the Statehouse in Des Moines. The tiny desks of lawmakers, with a chair for a secretary, are jammed onto the floors of each chamber where, the theory goes, they must do their work in full public view.

That's relatively easy in a small state with less than a tenth of the population of California. Each representative in Des Moines represents 30,000 people; each Assembly member in Sacramento has a district of around 438,000 people. State senate districts in Iowa number about 60,000 residents, compared to 876,000 for California senate districts.

A very large state needs a larger government; the limits on staff and offices in Iowa wouldn't be practical here.

But there's one Iowa innovation California could adopt. That would be taking politics out of the legislative and congressional redistricting processes so competitive districts, and true democracy, could be restored to our state.

The process by which California redrew political district boundaries to conform with the 2000 census might just as well have been called the Incumbent Protection Racket. As in many other states, lawmakers crafted districts that protected themselves from significant election challenges. Portions of a Democratic incumbent's district with high concentrations of Republican voters were, where possible, drawn out of the district; nearby areas of heavy Democrat voters were drawn in. Republican incumbents were similarly protected.

It's a process that, in the view of a University of Pennsylvania lawschool professor and redistricting expert quoted in USA Today last week, is the reverse of what should happen. Instead of voters choosing their representatives, representatives choose their voters.

The result in California is only one strongly contested congressional race out of 53. That exception is the open seat created by the fall of Modesto's Gary Condit.

Compare that to Iowa, where three of five incumbents face serious challenges. That's more contested congressional races than in California, Texas and Illinois combined.

It means clear choices for voters. It means incumbents who can't assume they have a free ride. It means lively elections focused on issues of concern to Iowans. It means higher turnout as voters see real choices.

It means courageous votes. Republican veteran Jim Leach came out against the president's resolution on Iraq. He's reflecting the thinking of a majority of voters in his district, and knows that he goes against that thinking at his own peril.

New legislative and congressional districts in Iowa are created by a non-partisan legislative bureau that cannot take into account political party registration and voting patterns. Districts must be compact and contiguous.

Once the plan is drawn, it is presented to lawmakers for an up-or-down vote; no amendments. If rejected, the plan goes back to the bureau for revisions. Good government pressures are so strong that lawmakers are reluctant to vote against a bureau plan.

There's a downside. Because the process encourages competition and turnover, Iowa could lose some of the congressional seniority it has built up. In a state with a small congressional delegation, seniority and the power it conveys can pay dividends. Leach, for example, has been in Congress 26 years.

But the process also has a moderating affect on House members. They are less inclined to tilt toward the extreme elements on either edge of the political spectrum, and more inclined toward that moderate middle where most voters sit. Were that followed in every state, it would mean more compromise in Washington, less polarization, and more progress in addressing key issues from homeland security to health care costs.

California is an innovator in so many things. Surely, some good-government group can push another innovation. It can push a ballot proposition that would make California the first large state to take politics out of legislative and congressional redistricting.