HJR 2: In a word, dumb

Listen up fellow Idahoans. There’s deep trouble bubbling in the legislative cauldron in Boise. They are fixin’ to pack the state Redistricting Commission so that one party draws the lines. I mean the Republican Party. House Joint Resolution 2, the bill to allow and encourage gerrymandering in Idaho’s legislative districts, would trash one of Idaho’s brightest accomplishments.

Years ago, under the guidance of the League of Women Voters, voters adopted a constitutional amendment creating an equally balanced, bi-partisan redistricting commission. Six Republicans and six Democrats were to be appointed to draw the lines dividing the state into legislative districts. The map would need votes of two-thirds of the commission members to be adopted.

HJR 2 would add one seventh person, chosen by the decision of the governor, lieutenant governor, controller, state treasurer and superintendent of public instruction — all now and in the recent past Republicans. The resolution would also change the two-thirds vote into a majority vote to approve the redistricting map. One additional person, undoubtedly a Republican, would change the entire process into a completely one-party affair. Out the window goes the incentive to work in unity and the temptation to gerrymander is front and center.

In our large and dispersed state, the redistricting process is always a difficult task. The commission has forced Democrats and Republicans to work together in a united effort to draw as fair a map as the scattered population centers permit.

HJR 2 is a bad, unfair, unwise and dumb idea. I urge you to write your legislators. And remember, one-party dominance may not always be Republican.

MARY LOU REED

Coeur d’Alene