SENATE LEADERS DEFY PARTY, AND PICK THE RIGHT SIDE
Our take: A solution in search of a problem, the anti-Occupy Boise bill makes lawmakers look like they are out to quash lawful public protest.
Post Register, Idaho Falls
Cheers to Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, and Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg.
Hill and Davis helped put the brakes on House Bill 404, which would eliminate camping on state property. That sounds benign enough, but the real object of this bill was to roust the Occupy Boise encampment at the old Ada County Courthouse, and the sooner the better.
The bill contains an emergency clause, meaning it would go into effect immediately upon passage. HB 404 designates Occupiers’ property as “litter” and allows authorized personnel immunity from legal liability “for the seizing and disposing of this property.”
The bill was fast-tracked in the House, passing with 54 Republican votes. Had the Senate been willing to mindlessly go along, Idahoans in a week or so likely would have been greeted by images of cops colliding with peaceful protesters determined to stand their ground. We don’t expect the House hard-heads who supported this attempted assault on their fellow citizens to realize it, but Davis and Hill just prevented a scene that could have ended in unnecessary violence.
The Senate Committee sent the bill to the amending order, where changes will be made.
Hill wants the emergency clause removed so the bill would not go into effect until July 1, giving the Occupiers time to react.
Davis nailed it when he said lawmakers have a right to regulate camping on state grounds but that it cannot be done in a way that threatens the constitutional rights of the protesters.
This isn’t the first time Davis and Hill have been at odds with the mouth-breathing wing of their party. Last year, they opposed the blatantly unconstitutional notion of states nullifying federal law and had the temerity to argue against allowing college students to take their guns to class.
Their reward was a no-confidence vote from the Gang That Can’t Think Straight, the Bonneville County Republican Central Committee.
So be it. Right-thinking people of all political persuasions are beginning to understand something: Getting on the wrong side of the GOP’s lunatic fringe is actually the right place to be.
DECLARING VICTORY AFTER A DEFEAT
Our take, from Kevin Richert’s column: Twin Falls County — the center of the fight over legislative redistricting — has 77,230 residents. The ideal legislative district has 45,000 residents. Something had to give, and the latest redistricting effort divides the county about as logically as possible.
The Times-News, Twin Falls
Two weeks ago, Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs and the Twin Falls County commissioners thought they had successfully led a five-county lawsuit that challenged the redistricting map proposed by the second Redistricting Commission. Turns out they were wrong.
The lawsuit — and the Idaho Supreme Court ruling — was due in no small measure to the commission chopping up Twin Falls County and placing portions of it in three separate districts.
On Jan. 26, the commission began its work anew and hammered out its latest map in less than a day and a half. The problem is the “new” map still divides Twin Falls County up three ways.
Loebs was not pleased with the newly drawn map. At least, he wasn’t on Jan. 27.
On Jan. 30, Loebs met with the county commissioners to discuss the possibility of challenging the latest redistricting map. When push came to shove, they decided to back off — acquiescing to a bad plan in the name of, well, time, pressure and political expediency.
County Commission Chairman George Urie stated, “Our victory in the Supreme Court resulted in a better plan for Twin Falls County and more constitutional redistricting of the entire state.” Really? A victory? When the commissioners’ press statement says they were “dismayed” by the new plan and reiterates that Twin Falls County was “unnecessarily” divided three ways, when Loebs says, “It’s not a good plan,” — how is it that Urie can consider this a victory?
When our county commissioners refer to defeat in the redistricting battle as “victory,” we’re disappointed. When Twin Falls County starts a fight on our behalf and then fails to see it through, we’re disappointed. And the residents of Twin Falls County should be disappointed, too.
