So it’s over. Again. Maybe. A bipartisan commission has drawn up a new map of legislative districts.
Who won last week? Who lost?
• Lawerence Denney and Norm Semanko. Losers. Almost goes without saying. The hamhanded attempts to fire redistricting commissioners Dolores Crow and Randy Hansen make the House speaker and the state GOP chairman poster children for the politicians who overplayed their hand.
• Christ Troupis. Loser. The Denney/Semanko attorney for hire, Troupis took their redistricting grievance to the Idaho Supreme Court. The court didn’t consider the core issue — the question of whether redistricting commissioners can be fired — because Troupis had neglected to file the necessary legal brief. Oops.
• Crow and Hansen, and the “other” redistricting commissioners. Obvious winners. After Crow and Hansen were lavished rock star treatment — as the good guys in the good fight — these six commissioners quietly did what they know how to do. They got down to work and negotiated across party lines. It took them two days to approve a new map on a 6-0 vote.
• Twin Falls County. Winner. First, the county prevailed in the Supreme Court, persuading justices to toss out a map that carved 12 of Idaho’s 44 counties into multiple legislative districts. On Monday, three days after the commission approved a map that splits only seven counties, Twin Falls County declared victory and decided not to sue again.
It’s always smart to quit while you’re ahead. This new map still splits Twin Falls County into three legislative districts — but when a county has 77,230 residents and, ideally, a legislative district should have 45,000 residents, something has to give. And the new map splits the county about as logically as possible.
• Ada County. Winner. The state’s most populous county got what the Census numbers dictate. With nine legislative districts, Ada County will elect more than one quarter of the Legislature.
• Sens. Dean Cameron and Denton Darrington. Losers. Cameron is co-chairman of the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee; Darrington, the Senate’s senior member, has 30 years in office. If both run again in 2012, they would meet in the GOP primary. Among the other prominent lawmakers facing contested primaries: Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Boise; House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke, R-Oakley; and House GOP Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts, R-Donnelly.
• The “helicopter” lawmakers. Losers. Roberts faces a double whammy. He is in a district with three other House Republicans: Carlos Bilbao and Steven Thayn of Emmett, and Lenore Hardy Barrett of Challis. That tells you all you need to know about District 8, a monster stretching from the Montana border to nearly the Oregon state line. Other big districts: District 7, a two-time zone beast running from Bonner County south to the Idaho County-Valley County line; and District 32, an ungainly construction that wraps around the southeast corner of the state. Veteran political blogger Randy Stapilus calls these “helicopter” districts, because they can’t be covered by car. It’s an apt description.
• Denney. Winner. The old legislative map, tossed out by the Supreme Court, had Denney in a district with four other House Republicans. Now, he shares a district with fellow Midvale Republican Rep. Judy Boyle, and has a clear path to a nomination. So, maybe he got what he wanted most.
THE BATT GENERATION
There’s been a lot said in the past week about former Gov. Phil Batt’s pointed, public smackdown of Denney and Semanko. But let me offer up one more theory.
I think Batt represents a more savvy generation of Idaho Republicans — who view the GOP’s dominance in Idaho politics not as an entitlement, but a competitive edge that can be squandered.
Batt remembers when Republicans lost high-profile races in Idaho, including, of course, his narrow loss to John Evans in the 1982 governor’s race. He remembers when the Idaho GOP had lost favor with voters; in 1991, when Batt was named state party chairman, Democrats held both of Idaho’s U.S. House seats, the governor’s office, the attorney general’s office, the state auditor’s office, and 21 of 42 seats in the state Senate.
When Batt criticized Denney and Semanko, he took a stand for good public policy. I also think he was also trying to counsel a new generation of Republicans, one accustomed to and possibly spoiled by two decades of victory.
It’s not coincidental that much of the pushback over the closed GOP primary and a possible move to an August primary date comes from some of the party’s most experienced and successful vote-getters. They question, rightly, what their party can possibly gain by gaming the intraparty process and limiting participation to a small core of ideological loyalists.
Beyond the oft-discussed differences between the conservatives and the moderates, there are differences based in political life experience. It’s the difference between a “war horse” — as the Post Register in Idaho Falls called Batt in a editorial page headline last week — and the GOP’s wild horses.
Kevin Richert: 377-6437
