...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM TO 9 PM MDT
WEDNESDAY...
* WHAT...Temperatures up to 103 expected.
* WHERE...Portions of southwest and west central Idaho and
northeast and southeast Oregon.
* WHEN...From 3 PM to 9 PM MDT Wednesday.
* IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out
of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young
children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles
under any circumstances.
Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when
possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent
rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone
overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location.
Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1.
&&
Legislative budget analyst Keith Bybee, right, answers a question from Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, center, about legislative redistricting on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, during a Legislative Council meeting at the state Capitol in Boise.
Legislative budget analyst Keith Bybee, right, answers a question from Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, center, about legislative redistricting on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, during a Legislative Council meeting at the state Capitol in Boise.
BOISE — The COVID-related delay in getting U.S. Census figures this year could have big implications for the political careers of sitting Idaho lawmakers, as new legislative districts aren’t likely to be drawn and final until well after the time they could move into a new district before the next election to keep their seats.
“There’s a law that says you have to live in your legislative district for a year prior” to the election, noted Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, as the Legislative Council got its first briefing on the upcoming redistricting process on Tuesday. “If this doesn’t come out till Thanksgiving, we have missed the year deadline. So for example, if you have a legislative district that has seven or eight incumbents, for example, they couldn’t move. They would have to run against each other or not run. Is that correct?”
Elizabeth Bowen, an attorney with the Legislative Services Office, told Horman, “I do believe your interpretation is correct. The way the law reads is whomever has to have been a registered elector in your district for a least a year prior to the election.”
She added, “If there is great concern about that in the Legislature, it is possible that some emergency legislation is going to have to be adopted by the Legislature early next year to cover other things that have arisen as a result of the redistricting delay. I’m hoping this won’t be necessary, but there is the potential that the date of the primary election may have to change, for example.”
Legislative staffer Keith Bybee added, “It’s Article 3, Section 6 of the Constitution. So emergency legislation at this point is not going to get it done. That’s where we are at this point.”
It is not uncommon for multiple sitting lawmakers to end up in the same district once districts are redrawn by Idaho’s bipartisan citizen redistricting commission, especially in parts of the state that are slower-growing, so they’re losing districts; rather than faster-growing, so they’re gaining districts. The Treasure Valley is expected to gain a legislative district in the next round of legislative redistricting.
“As a zero-sum game for redistricting, that comes at the expense of the rest of the state,” Bybee said.
In the last round of redistricting a decade ago, 15th-term Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, then the Senate’s most senior member, landed in the same district as then-Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Co-Chair Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert, one of the Senate’s most powerful committee chairs and a Darrington ally. Rather than run against Cameron, Darrington opted to retire from the Senate.
That district map created a dozen potential matchups among incumbents in 10 legislative districts. Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, R-Huston, ended up in the same district as then-Sen. Melinda Smyser, R-Parma. Smyser opted to retire from the Senate rather than face Lodge in the primary.
Two other sitting GOP senators, Tim Corder of Mountain Home and Bert Brackett of Rogerson, ran against each other in the 2012 GOP primary; Brackett won.
Numerous House members were affected; then-Rep. Bert Stevenson, R-Rupert, opted not to seek a ninth term, rather than face off against either GOP Reps. Scott Bedke or Fred Wood. Both of them still serve; Bedke is the speaker of the House, and Wood is the House Health & Welfare chairman.
An earlier version of that year’s redistricting plan would have pitted then-North Idaho GOP Sens. Shawn Keough and Joyce Broadsword against each other in the GOP primary, but the Idaho Supreme Court overturned that plan.
Both Bybee and Bowen told lawmakers Tuesday that normally, redistricting already would be under way. But this year, Idaho won’t get its official U.S. Census numbers until Aug. 16. Bybee presented a schedule that would allow for a new plan to be completed by Thanksgiving, but then it still likely would face court challenges before becoming final. If Idaho’s citizen redistricting commission works speedily, it could potentially approve a plan by Halloween, Bybee said.
The U.S. Constitution requires that voting districts be redrawn every 10 years, based on the Census, to ensure the one-person, one-vote principle still applies in elections, as populations shift.
Idaho already has its statewide total: 1,839,106 residents. But it doesn’t have the details it’ll need to draw district lines, and preliminary figures from the American Community Survey appear to be off substantially in the fast-growing state.
Idaho’s two congressional districts must be near-equal in population, at 919,553 residents apiece; its 35 legislative districts must be within 10% of equal populations.
The ideal size for a legislative district in the next go-round will be 52,546, about 12,000 more people per district than in the last redistricting, due to the state’s population growth. The numbers also mean Idaho will have the second-largest population per congressional district in the country, Bybee said. “Only Delaware, which is a single congressional district, has more people that they’re representing,” he told the Legislative Council.
At the close of Tuesday’s briefing, Bedke said, “Let the parlor games begin.”
Betsy Z. Russell is the Boise bureau chief and state capitol reporter for the Idaho Press and Adams Publishing Group. Follow her on Twitter at @BetsyZRussell.
