AIRC Update: Compounding the error of their way

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

As I posted the other day, AIRC Update: the Commission takes a major step backwards:

A motion was [made Tuesday] to proceed with the Chair's "donut" map as the working map, and commissioner's reluctantly agreed to move forward with the Chair's "donut" map as the working map, expressing their reservations on the record, despite the fact that:

• No public testimony had been heard on the "donut" map
• No input from stakeholders (Hispanic Representatives and Tribal Nations representatives) had been heard on the "donut" map
• The "donut" map is incomplete, not filling in the districts in Maricopa County

I spoke to legal counsel for the AIRC during the break about what I believed was a procedural error by the Commission. A map that a vast majority of the public had never heard of was first introduced late in this process on Monday; a handout for that map was not available to the public until the next day; and the Commission approved moving forward with this map in a vote that occurred prior to taking any public testimony. Counsel responded that it would not invalidate the vote, but agreed with me that the public perception of what just occurred would be bad. I suggested that the Commission reconsider its vote, but that suggestion was ignored by counsel.

The public comments taken after the vote made my point in spades. Speaker after speaker, both from Republican interest groups and elected officials like Sen. Frank Antenori, and from Democratic interest groups and elected officials like Pima County Supervisor Richard Elías strenuously objected to the Chair's "donut" map as being unworkable and unlikely to survive Department of Justice (DOJ) preclearance, a goal that the Chair has repeatedly emphasised from day one.

On Thursday, the AIRC compounded the error of their way by proceeding with the "donut" map rather than reconsidering its action in light of public testimony. The Commission worked on filling in the "donut" hole in the Phoenix area, but this map is fundamentally flawed. See the tentative redistricting map.

The map divides the Southeastern Arizona Borderlands community of interest (Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise Counties) and puts Cochise County into a "super-legislative" District No. 1 that includes all of Eastern Arizona, the Tribal Nations and Northern Arizona, and extends westward almost to the Nevada border, essentially creating an "island" out of the Northwest corner of Arizona.

This is a classic "gerrymander" that throws together several very diverse and distinct communities of interest which share little in common and will lead to dilution of the representative voice of these communities of interest in Congress. I do not believe there is any way that this "super-legislative" district gerrymander would ever survive Department of Justice (DOJ) preclearance, nor a legal challenge under Prop. 106 criteria — two things that Chair Colleen Mathis has set as goals to be avoided with the maps adopted by the Commission. So why is she being so insistent that the Commission go forward with her fundamentally flawed congressional map? Admit the error of your way and choose another map as a working map. I strongly recommend the River District-Navajo Nation Map 8a as a working map.

As for the "donut" hole filled in on Thursday, the Arizona Republic reports Tentative Arizona congressional map emerges:

The map includes one district in the southwest Valley extending to central Phoenix, designed to favor minority voters, and another that commissioners believe would be a level playing field on which both a Republican and a Democrat would have an equal shot at winning. That district would run generally north-south, from northeast Phoenix through the Biltmore and Arcadia areas of Phoenix to Tempe and Ahwatukee Foothills, swinging east to pick up a large swath of south Scottsdale and west Mesa.

The districts fill in the "bagel hole" left open in a map presented Tuesday by commission Chairwoman Colleen Coyle Mathis.

Thursday's map is far from a final product, but it steers the commission on a path to completing a draft map that will be the topic of statewide hearings beginning Oct. 11.

Do not wait until then. You can submit comments online Public Input or attend today's meeting in Tempe to testify in person.

September 30, 2011

Fiesta Resort – Galleria Ballroom
2100 S. Priest Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85282

9:00 A.M.

Agenda Info