DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Legislature has passed the second redistricting plan after the first one was rejected, ensuring the state continues decades of nonpartisan drawing of congressional and legislative districts.
The plan passed the Senate 48-1 with one senator absent and the House 93-2. Republicans in the Iowa Senate rejected on a party-line vote the first plan drawn by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency during a one-day session on Oct. 5. Republican Sen. Roby Smith says the second set of maps weren’t perfect but were improved by creating more compact and more balanced population deviation among congressional and legislative districts.