Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

GOP submits ‘5 Mile Plan’ for dead-even Idaho congressional districts

Commissioner Lorna Finman has submitted a GOP congressional district plan, which keeps the 1st and 2nd congressional districts essentially as they are now, just moving the line in Ada County west two miles from Cole Road to Five Mile Road. "We call it the Five Mile Plan," Finman said. Commisioner Evan Frasure said, "That is zero deviation, and that is the cleanest one I could come up with." The line was shifted at its south end in a sparsely populated area near Blacks Creek Reservoir and I-84, to shift the final 56 people to reach zero deviation. "The nice thing is it shouldn't be too confusing because nobody lives out there," Frasure said. The northern line between the two districts would stay where it's been for the past 40 years, he said.

"It does divide the one county," Ada County, Frasure said. But Idaho has divided Ada between its two congressional districts for the past 40 years.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

Follow Betsy online: