Iowa’s partially non-partisan redistricting process has now resulted in some musical chairs, as the state adjusts to being reduced from five House seats to four. And in the latest development, Republican Rep. Tom Latham has announced he is moving across the new lines into the district of Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell, challenging him in the general election — and avoiding a Republican primary with Tea Partying Congressman Steve King.
The Des Moines Register reports:
Latham, who now lives in Ames in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, would have resided in Iowa’s in the same district as Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican, under new political boundaries approved Thursday by the Iowa Legislature. His move to the new 3rd District – which covers southwest Iowa – from Des Moines to Council Bluffs, avoids an intra-party primary battle between two GOP incumbents.
Latham sent a letter today to friends and supporters announcing he will move to the 3rd District, saying, “I have never let map boundaries block the great honor I have felt in representing the interests of all Iowans in the United States Congress.”
So which one of them won’t have a chair when the music stops in November 2012?
Iowa’s redistricting is conducted initially by a non-partisan commission, with the new map then being submitted for an up-or-down vote by the legislature and the signature or veto of the governor — that is, without modification by the elected branches of government. In a curveball in the process, the new map created not one but two potential incumbent vs. incumbent primary match-ups, between Republicans King and Latham, and Democrats Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack.
Meanwhile, a seemingly vacant seat was created in the Second District, made of much of the territory previously represented by Loebsack, whose home was now drawn into Braley’s First District. On Thursday, after the state legislature approved the plan, Loebsack announced he would move just across district lines into the Second District, avoiding a primary with Braley.
