Arizona Daily Star editorial opinion on the ‘Independent’ Redistricting Commission

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Daily Star came out strongly for preserving the independence of the Independent Redistricting Commission in its Sunday editorial opinion, with pointed criticism of Sen. Frank Antenori, Rep. Terri Proud, and Attorney General Tom Horne for their partisan hackery. Districting panel's distractions need to be swept away (excerpt, emphasis added):

But, of course, politics has reared its contentious head as the redistricting commission has begun its work. Most of this in our opinion is just that, politics, not substantive complaints.

The No. 1 issue so far has been Republican complaints that the commission chairwoman, Colleen Mathis of Tucson, is actually a ringer for the Democrats. These accusations surfaced after Mathis joined the panel's Democrats in selecting a Democratic-leaning consulting firm to help with the mapping process.

Critics, many of them identified with various tea parties, claimed Mathis withheld information that her husband did work for a Tucson Democratic lawmaker, the Star's Rhonda Bodfield reported. Mathis' response was that her husband also had worked for Republican candidates.

Rep. Terri Proud, a Tucson Republican, has demanded that a special election be held, asking voters to toss out the commission and have the Legislature take over the mapping.

That's a dreadful idea, of course, and a backward, politically hackneyed system that the state abandoned with a 2000 constitutional amendment approved by voters to install the independent-commission system now in place.

Bottom line here: Mathis was vetted by both parties before she was chosen to chair the commission as an independent. If Republicans feel they dropped the ball – and we do not agree that they did or that Mathis is not operating as an independent – there's nothing to be gained by whining about it.

We hope this particular kerfuffle will die away soon, as it should.

Next comes Attorney General Tom Horne, who's announced he's investigating the commission. "We don't have any reason to believe that anything was done wrong at this point," said Horne, a Republican. "But we think it's best for confidence in the system that we investigate thoroughly."

He said he'll look into complaints about how that consulting company was chosen and into whether the commission held extended executive sessions in violation of state open-meeting laws.

At the center of much of this has been Tucson state Sen. Frank Antenori, a Republican who isn't denying that he'd like to run for Congress in 2012 and who has an undeniable interest into how congressional districts are drawn.

Antenori wants Mathis out – and has said on that subject that "the gun is loaded and it's just figuring out what target to point it at." On Horne's investigation, Capitol Media Services quoted Antenori as saying, "We have evidence of destruction of government documents subject to public-record request, shredding, as a matter of fact." He also said there is evidence of "bid-rigging."

If Antenori is right – and we are deeply skeptical about his allegations – Arizonans need to know sooner, not later. The commission needs to quickly get back to the important job of creating fair, competitive districts.

And Baja Arizona needs to rid itself of this embarrassment, Sen. Frank Antenori.