Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa on Wednesday asked the Idaho Supreme Court to order the Commission for Reapportionment to reconvene and give it 60 days to complete its job.
Ysursa argues that the current political boundaries are on their face unconstitutional, with 96 percent population deviation between the smallest of 35 legislative districts and 15 percent difference between the larger 1st Congressional District and smaller 2nd District.
The six-member commission deadlocked along party lines and adjourned Tuesday after 92 days without adopting new districts for the 2012 election.
Shortly after Ysursa's writ of mandamus was filed, GOP Commissioners Evan Frasure, Lorna Finman and Lou Esposito sued the commission, using former GOP state Senate candidate Christ Troupis of Eagle as their lawyer. In April, the Legislature voted to pay the Idaho GOP $100,000 to cover Troupis' legal fees for winning the party's 2009 case against Ysursa to close Idaho primaries to registered party members.
The GOP asks the court to adopt its congressional map, C38, and to order the commission back to work for three days, with guidance on what criteria should take precedence. L38 submitted July 18; the GOP submitted rationale for the plan in the final 90 minutes Tuesday.
The GOP commissioners ask the court to decide whether the Democrats' view that limiting county splits, a provision in the Idaho Constitution, is tantamount. Or, alternatively, whether the GOP view is correct that a subsequent state law discouraging splitting of precincts and encouraging direct state or federal highway connections between counties in each legislative district should also be important factors.
In either case, the GOP says its plans L68, L76, L77 and L82, are "preferable to any plan proposed by the Democrat members of the Commission" because they have smaller population deviations. L68 was submitted Saturday. L76 and L77 were submitted about 75 minutes before final adjournment; L82 was submitted in the final hour.
Unlike the Republicans, Ysursa says the court should defer to the commission, which was created by a 1994 constitutional amendment.
"The Secretary of State asks the Court to defer to the Commission to provide it the fullest opportunity possible to comply with the Constitution's directive that the Commission apportion Legislative and Congressional districts," says Ysrusa's petition, filed by Idaho Attorney General Lawerence Wasden's office. "Alternative means of apportionment should only be considered as a last resort."
Ysursa asks the court to affirm a hierarchy for the commission to follow: first, one-person, one-vote; second, dividing counties only when necessary to achieve population equality; third, "other statutory requirements as permissible after compliance with the preceding Constitutional requirements.
Ysursa also asks the court to:
# Clarify the conflict created by a statutory requirement for five votes to split a precinct or create a district without a direct highway connection and a constitutional requirement for four votes to adopt a plan.
"The two 5-vote requirements permit a statutory veto of the constitutional majority of 4 votes to approve a plan because if a single precinct is split, or if a State or Federal Highway does not 'directly' connect counties in the Legislative district, the plan would require a five-vote supermajority instead of the Constitutional four-vote majority for approval," writes Ysursa.
"The Commission may benefit from a clear statement whether four votes" may approve a final plan or whether five votes "are necessary if precincts are split or counties within a legislative district are not connected by federal or state highways."
# Clarify whether constitutional provisions trump statutory provisions, as the court held in a 2002 redistricting case, Bingham County vs. Idaho Commission for Reapportionment.
# Clarify whether, given Idaho's difficult geography, the statutory factors cited by the GOP commissioners "may make apportionment of the Legislature unachievable under the added voting requirements."
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Why did the Republicans wait
until the last 75 minutes of the commission to present L76, L77, and L82? If they are good maps, that didn't give the Dems nearly any time to look over them.
Seems like they've been preparing a court case all this time they should have been working.
our tax dollars at work ...
what a sorry bunch!
Huh?
I have no idea what this story says.
Oh that's easy
It says that our elected officials from both sides of the isle acted like a bunch of selfish children and refused to work together for the common good. It also says that they put their respective party needs above those of the electorate and the state itself.
And then when they all took their marbles and went home and nothing got done they went screaming "MooooOOOOooooOOOOMMMMMM look at what THEY did!!!!"
Children. Our elected officials, on both sides of the isle, are nothing more than selfish little brats.
Christ Troupis? Oh boy...
Troupis of Bill Sali, Ten Commandment, Idaho Chooses Life, David Ripley fame? The guy who milked the taxpayers to pay his fees for the GOP lawsuit against the state over closed primaries?
Like we didn't have enough problems, now we have Troupis in the mix?
Christ Troupis? Oh boy...
Sorry for the duplicate
Will we have to pay Troupis on this lawsuit, too?
Will they find a way to sue themselves and then have the taxpayers foot the bill?
What a shocker
Another ANTI-Republican hit piece from the "genius" that is Popkey.
Which part did you find anti-Republican?
?
You were asked a question
Can you come up with an answer? I would also like to know how this is an ANTI-Republican hit piece. If reporting the facts is a hit piece then Dan must do an incredible amount of them.
POPKEY
It's not anti-Republican- that's the way the maps were presented-Dan Popkey couldn't change the chronology. The questions that Ben Ysursa asked are the questions asked by ALL the Commissioners from June on.
Interesting
So the GOFP which constantly whines about trial lawyers and taxes are the first to spend the tax payers dollars on trial lawyers in hopes that an activist judge somewhere will intervene and fix the outcome they desire. It seems to me that the plan that adheres best to the constitution would win. But this is Idaho where the GOFP is never held accountable for anything.
More incest and incompetence
This is a numbers issue. It should not be a political issue, but with the group we've elected, we would be naive to think it could be any other way. They are suing themselves. The unfortunate part for us (and of little consequence to them) is THEY ARE US! We pay the bill for their complete unwillingness to rise to the task. If we were managers and they were employees, they'd be fired and the next phase of life would find them standing in the cheese line on a rainy day. However, as it stands, I expect the lot of their sorry selves to be re-elected, because we seem to reward bad behavior more than not.
Ship of Fools Sinking Fast
What a waste of time and money. I guess the gerrymandering is taking longer than expected. What is it with the republicans lately? They can't seem to agree on anything.
But that's just MY opinion, I could be wrong.
So Idaho's GOP authoritarian
So Idaho's GOP authoritarian party has turned to an extremist Christian, anti-government activist attorney to force the GOP’s gerrymandering efforts upon the state of Idaho and completer the expulsion of moderate republican form the party.
Christ Troupis is a serious proponent of the new GOP party loyalty oath......he is a big promoter of a litmus test...are you conservative enough to be allowed in the GOP.......how can this man be in charge of a fair legal challenge to establish a new redistricting boundaries.
Christ Troupis is in a perpetual culture war and it does not include fair voting rights for all Idahoans...Christ Troupis is dedicated to a christian controlled Idaho government.....I dare him to deny it.
The legal facts clearly indicate is that Christ Troupis has consistently proven that he is willing to abuse the American justice system and waste hardworking American tax dollars to conduct his manufactured culture war using the court system as a tool in his radical agenda to force free thinking Idahoans to comply with his intolerant authoritarian belief system.
Christ Troupis willfully utilizes his Eagle, Idaho law practice as a base for extremist christian activism.
Christ Troupis activist attorney is simply a hateful narcissist that somehow believes he and his personal radical christian beliefs are the moral high ground of life……..insane….LMFAO……he believe that if you don’t believe as he does you are less than human and that you don’t count and you should not have a voice in governance or freedom of choice.
How many times?
How many more times could you use Christ Troupis' name in a post?
I'm not disagreeing with anything you said but come on man! (Unless of course you're trying to seed Google Search results so that your post comes up on top. If that's the case then good on you!
I dang near died laughing...
... when our esteemed Attorney General, Lance Wasden, sued the State Land Board, on which he sits. This tom foolery comes close. Of course, when you realize that, we the taxpayers, are paying the attorneys on both sides, it's not quite so funny.
So sad, actually. Now I've got myself crying.
You don't know much
These guys receive a very small per diem while on the committee, but they do not get paid.