After 2012 redistricting's musical chairs, Iowa looks likely to host another interesting cycle of House races. In the 1st CD, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley's bid for Senate has created a free-for-all in a Democratic primary. And in the 3rd and 4th CDs, GOP Reps. Tom Latham and Steve King begin their races in the Likely Republican column against credible Democratic opponents, but for very different reasons.Reformers have grown accustomed to hailing Iowa as the gold standard for docile and apolitical redistricting. A panel of bureaucrats at the Legislative Services Agency draws an initial map, then sends it to the governor and legislature for approval. The agency is not supposed to take past voting patterns or incumbents’ places of residence into account, and in good Iowa fashion, they don’t. But the governor and legislators can and do. In 2001, the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate rejected the agency’s first plan on the grounds that its population disparities were too large, but passed a second plan that forced one incumbent from each party to move into new districts.Iowa’s loss of its fifth seat following
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