Idaho's bipartisan citizen redistricting commission convened this morning, and began discussing meeting dates stretching all the way through August and possibly into September, signaling that its ambitious goal of arriving at new legislative and congressional districts by July 27 has been abandoned.  "With the glacial pace that we're on in making decisions in here, I'm not so sure we have enough meetings," said Co-Chairman Evan Frasure. "I'd have no objection to going all the way through Saturday this week, and ... every day until we come to a conclusion." The commissioners agreed to add more meeting dates, though some will need to check with their employers; they'll finalize that on Wednesday.

Frasure said he plans to "certainly honor the ruling from the co-chair" last week that the commission will now consider both congressional and legislative plans simultaneously, rather than, as he had preferred, finishing new congressional districts before moving on to legislative plans. At that point, GOP Commissioner Lou Esposito said he had hoped to present an analysis this morning of the Democrats' proposed legislative district plan, L-28, but it's not done yet; he proposed recessing until 2 p.m. so he can finish that up. "We have no objection," said Democratic Co-Chair Allen Andersen. The panel has until Sept. 4 to agree on new legislative and congressional districts; it's split evenly, with three Republicans and three Democrats, and it'll take at least four votes to adopt any plan.