Democratic redistricting Commissioner George Moses moved this morning to approve a congressional redistricting plan - starting with a publicly submitted plan that kept all counties whole, and created a new District 2 in the southwest corner of the state, including Ada and Canyon Counties, while the rest of the state is District 1. "The public has done, in many cases, a very good job in meeting the criteria," Moses said; that plan has a population deviation of .28.  GOP Commissioner Lou Esposito said, "I guess Commissioner Moses is entitled to a vote. We've been over all this ground over and over again. We've had staff research the fact that congressional districts nationwide have gone to zero deviation, let me repeat that ... zero deviation. ... If this is the effort by our Democratic colleagues to move this process forward, I'm kinda sitting here scratching my head. ... we already have agreement on the record on another plan, only held because of wanting to vote on a legislative plan."

GOP Commissioner Evan Frasure said, "I appreciate the fact that we're voting - the only way to find out people's position is to cast votes. ... Hopefully we can salvage a congressional line, hopefully today," before tomorrow's 5 p.m. deadline.

The congressional district plan, C-2, then was voted down on a 3-3, party-line vote, with the Democrats in favor and the Republicans against. Moses then moved another publicly submitted plan, C-4, with a deviation of .16 percent; it, again, creates a new District 2 in the southwestern corner of the state, with the rest of the state making up District 1. It too failed on a 3-3 vote, as did C-9, another publicly submitted plan that created a northern District 1 including Ada County, and a southern District 2 including Canyon County.

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