AIRC Update: In other news

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The concerns raised by Republican Commissioner Richard Stertz that the executive director of the Commission executed the contract with Strategic Telemetry without proper authority was disproved by minutes from the June 29 and June 30 meetings of the Commission. The Commission voted 4-0 to reaffirm the contract, with Stertz voting "present."

The first two hours of the public hearing was a presentation by Bruce L. Adelson, Esq., a former Department of Justice Voting Rights Section Compliance attorney and currently a Federal Compliance Consultant hired by the Commission to advise them in presenting a "clean" and fully supportable redistricitng plan that can pass muster with Department of Justice pre-clearance for Section 5 states (Arizona is one of 16 states required to do so).

Mr. Adelson gave the most thorough and complete description of Section 5 and Section 2 Voting Rights compliance that I believe I have ever heard. From one lawyer to another — the only people who can appreciate such things — it was a masterpiece. Mr. Adelson also discussed the problems with prison-based gerrymandering and possible solutions, addressing my concerns.

Hiring Mr. Adelson as a Federal Compliance Consultant should allay the fears of anyone, however contrived and irrational their fears, that this Commission has hired highly competent consultants that will do an excellent job.

Certainly a better job than the last redistricting Commission to which Mr. Adelson's DOJ office issued a letter of objection to the Arizona Redistricting Plan in May 2002, finding intentional discrimination in one district and raising concerns about several other districts. That Redistricting Plan did not pass DOJ pre-clearance until 2004, and was litigated in court for over seven years. And the Tea Party wanted to hire those same consultants again? Puh-lease! For your information, the last three Arizona redistricting plans — 1980, 1990 and 2000 — were objected to by the DOJ. Maybe this time they can actually get it right.

Strategic Telemetry presented a powerpoint presentation on cleaning up data bases that found a subtantial number of minor errors in county and census data bases that they were able to clean up for accuracy. The Commissioners requested that this information be shared with the counties to clean up their data so that this problem will not have to be revisited 10 years from now. It will be posted to the AIRC web site, as are all other public documents. Again, this Commission has hired highly competent consultants that will do an excellent job.