Why the Linn County Supervisors Hate Their Own Map

Brent Oleson didn't expect this. Not from his own party.

Part of his duty as Linn County Supervisor is to ensure that residents in his district, and all other districts are fairly grouped in voting blocs for the 10 year supervisor seat redistricting process.

The Republican from Marion said through a convoluted and frustrating series of events, Linn County was forced to submit a district map that many in the area say is far worse than the map previously unanimously agreed on by Democrats and Republicans in the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

Oleson is particularly miffed at a fellow Republican, Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, who he says forced Linn County’s hand in drawing the new inferior map.

"Republicans are supposed to be about small government, but here you have these absurd orders from Des Moines," Oleson said.

The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office was contacted multiple times for comment, but has not responded.

Rural representation is at the heart of the issue.

The absurdity that Oleson is referring to is that, pending the approval of the map, rural voters will primarily be confined to one district. That means there may only be the possiblity for one rural voice on the next board of supervisors.

"It is just one of the great ironies of life," said Linn County Supervisor Linda Langston. "No good deed goes unpunished; we made every effort tot do this in a nonpartisan way. This was a map that was supported unanimously by the redistricting comission, the board of supervisors and the auditor's office."

That’s worse than it sounds, said Linn County supervisor John Harris, who will represent the doughnut district. It means that only one representative will influence road maintenance, public safety, economic development and all kinds of appropriations.

But, why would the Iowa Secretary of State push a map that many say clearly disenfranchises rural voters?

To fully understand the perplexing twists and turns of this story, told in the language of Iowa legal and regulatory code, you need to understand how redistricting is supposed to happen, according to law.

Redistricting for supervisor districts is done every ten years. The board of supervisors typically appoint a bipartisan omission to look at shifts in population and census data to draw a new map under the following guidelines: to have districts that are representative and compact, to divide the districts into the fewest amount per city, if possible, and not to divide any city that is smaller than a district (i.e. Marion).

Population Makeup Limits Rural Representation

But Linn County's population complicates things. Oleson said the population of Cedar Rapids is just large enough to have three districts. So, that's three out of the five allotted districts for Linn County. According to the other rule, you can't divide any city that is smaller than a district, so in Linn County you have to have a district that mostly comprises of Marion. Since that's four out of five allotted districts, that means the remaining district resembles a doughnut that snakes around Cedar Rapids and the area around Marion, effectively grouping all rural residents into one district.

Langston said the solution to that was simple. The aforementioned confusing laws were meant to be applied in harmony with one another. That meant that they didn't have to draw Cedar Rapids into three districts, because if they drew Cedar Rapids into four districts that all included chunks of rural areas, including one district that was mostly rural and only minimally in Cedar Rapids, it would better satisfy the rule that states the districts have to be representative.

Here is where things get complicated.

Around the same time that the plan is being appealed, a controversy was growing in Polk County. Their majority-Democrat redistricting commission had their plans rejected twice by Schultz. Oleson said he thinks Schultz was miffed that the proposed map consolidated two Republican districts in Des Moines. According to a Des Moines Register article, Schultz rejected the map, citing one of the redistricting standards that said cities need to have the fewest amount of districts possible.

After that, Oleson said the Linn County Supervisors received a letter from the Schultz’ office that said the Iowa Secretary of State’s office had assigned a "junior staff member" to Linn County’s map and they allege he had overlooked how parts of Cedar Rapids were split in four districts.

However Oleson said that by law the redistricting commission — the ones in charge of drawing the maps — were in frequent contact with the Secretary of State's office. Oleson said they were made aware of their new map prior to the controversy and had raised no objections to it.

Linda Langenberg, former Linn County auditor and former deputy Secretary of State, said she has been following the issue. She agrees with the Linn County Supervisor’s claim that all of the complicated redistricting statutes have to be read in harmony with one another, and believes that Linn County’s original map was fair. She said she doesn’t know why Schultz is enforcing this rule over all others.

"I don't know why, whether he is just flexing his muscles a bit or what," she said.

Finally, this leaves one question for the frustrated supervisors: If the new map is approved by the Iowa Secretary of State and Linn County is left with a map that doesn’t well represent rural voters, how can the so-called absurdity come to light and be addressed?

Linn County supervisor John Harris, who will inherit the donut shaped district, said he thinks the appeals process to Schultz is inadequate. Only the legislature can take action after it is approved, something Harris doesn’t think is likely, as a group of state-wide legislators don’t have a great interest in redrawing a map because of one so-called lousy district in Linn County.