AZ GOP Congressional Caucus (FAIR Trust) is strong-arming Governor and Legislature on AIRC

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Fallout from our lame-duck Governor Brewer's autocratic attempt to assault the "independence" of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is continuing. It has come to light that the Arizona GOP Congressional Caucus, i.e., the "soft money" GOP redistricting organization FAIR Trust, is responsible for bringing pressure to bear on our lame-duck governor and Arizona legislature for action against the AIRC.

This is a full-court press by congressional Republicans for "incumbency protection," something the voters of Arizona expressly rejected when they enacted Prop. 106 in 2000 to create the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. This is Tea-Publican tyranny.

Press release from the Arizona Democratic Party:

AZGOP congressmen strong-arming Legislature
to impeach citizen-volunteer commission

PHOENIX — Gov. Brewer has some powerful lieutenants in her march toward impeachment of the citizen volunteers on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. Our state's congressional Republicans have joined her in using their influence to strong-arm senators in the state Legislature into voting for impeachment.

An excerpt from Thursday's Arizona Capitol Times' Yellow Sheet Report (emphasis added):

GOP DELEGATION MAKING REMOVAL PUSH
The congressional delegation has been calling Senate Republicans to gauge support for removing at least one of the redistricting commissioners, ostensibly with the hope of convincing Brewer to begin removal procedures by showing her there are the 20 votes needed in the Senate. One unidentified senator confirmed that Franks, Gosar, Schweikert and Quayle have contacted members of the majority caucus directly or through subordinates in order to press for some sort of action…. “They’re all frantic and they’ve started to get engaged when they should have been engaged all along. Now they want the Senate to do something they can’t do.”

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Luis Heredia, Arizona Democratic Party executive director, gives this response: "The voters who passed Proposition 106 took redistricting out of the hands of politicians, but now those politicians are waging all-out war to get it back. Republicans are trying to force their will on Arizona voters — and they just might get away with it."