Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Exhibiting complete and utter contempt for the voters of Arizona who enacted the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission by a citizens initiative in 2000 to put an end to just this sort of political gamesmanship, our lame-duck Governor and her Tea-Publican Arizona Senate Star Chamber engaged in the most heinous violation of the Arizona Constitution and the rule of law in state history.
Jan Brewer, sitting as accuser, prosecutor, judge, and jury removed independent Chair Colleen Mathis from the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission without a trial or evidentiary hearing or an opportunity to defend herself. It was a summary dismissal predetermined by executive fiat. As I predicted, not one Republican had the courage to stand up and defend the rule of law and rubber-stamped this decision. The entire Tea-Publican leadership of this state are co-conspirators and are equally guilty of this travesty of justice.
This gross misconduct (abuse of power) and malfeasance in office by the Governor, her Attorney General, and members of the Arizona legislature hellbent on removing AIRC commissioners in violation of the Arizona Constitution and the rule of law should result in THEIR removal from office by impeachment or recall.
I understand that the Democratic Party is threatening ill-advised recalls of four so-called "moderate" Republicans for their act of cowardice. Dems vow to recall moderate Republicans if they toe party line - Arizona Capitol Times. It is too late in the election cycle to be wasting time and money on recalls that would occur during the primary campaign and be followed by a general election in November. Focus on next year's elections. Put your money and efforts to good use on voter registration, something the Arizona Democratic Party has woefully neglected. Registered voters declining in Ariz., state numbers show.
Stephen Lemons at the Phoenix New Times writes Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Removes Redistricting Chair, Calls Special Session (w/Addendum) – Phoenix News:
The citizens of Arizona can now be assured that whenever an honest, non-partisan individual such as Mathis steps forward to work without compensation on behalf of an "independent" body created by Arizonans to remove politics from the redistricting process, that individual will be vilified and hounded from office by hard-right partisans.
The governor called the special session today. In fact, it's already over, blood on the floor. Hey, thanks for the advance notice to the public, Guv. What, are you afraid someone might actually pay attention as you and your fellow GOPers trash the constitution?
What was the rush? Because if they gave the people of Arizona a minute, at least some of them would have mobilized against this travesty.
But we can't have that now, can we? Yahweh help us if democracy were to break out across this state. The Rs might lose a couple of seats in the Legislature, then.
* * *
Arizonans should take this for what it is: Complete and utter contempt for the electorate, the Fourth Estate, and anyone who does not do Chuck Coughlin's bidding.
So tell me this, folks, are you going to get angry and act? Call the governor's office, call your representatives, call the SOS, deluge them with e-mails and letters?
If not, we deserve what we get. Or what we've got, to be more accurate: A banana republic without the republic, rotten with corruption, ruled by a small clique of extremist Republicans and lobbyists.
The action now moves to the court today. Late yesterday, AIRC legal counsel Mary O'Grady petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to enjoin this travesty of justice, but it came too late for the court to act. Arizona redistricting chief ousted. Counsel will petition the court today to allow Mathis to remain as commission chairwoman. "It's my view that she is most certainly still the chairman," said Paul Charlton, Mathis' attorney.
"Commission attorneys and Charlton argue that Brewer exceeded her authority, did not substantiate her grounds for removing the head of an independent panel and denied Mathis due process by not giving her a chance to respond to the decision to oust her." Arizona redistricting chief ousted:
Work should start soon on replacing Mathis, barring a court order blocking the governor's action.
The state Commission on Appellate Court Appointments has 30 days to nominate three people who are registered independents as the new chairperson. The four remaining redistricting commissioners then have 14 days to pick one of the three.
If the four can't reach agreement, the choice falls to the 16-member appellate-court commission.
Meanwhile, the commission can continue its work, which includes wrapping up work this week on a series of statewide hearings on the draft maps. After that, the commission can adjust the maps but without a chairperson to break what might be 2-2 ties, it could be hard to proceed.
This delay created by the actions of Tea-Publicans could result in a panel of three federal judges drawing the redistricting maps. GOP-led Senate votes to oust redistricting chairwoman – Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required):
[W]ith the IRC facing the possibility of completely restarting a redistricting process that has gone on for months, there are questions over whether the commission will be able to finish its congressional and legislative maps in time for the 2012 election, which has a May 30 filing deadline for candidates. There is no set deadline for the IRC to complete its work, but if a panel of three federal judges determines that the commission’s work is not done in time, the judges – two from Arizona’s district court and one from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – can draw the maps themselves, as happened with Arizona’s congressional map in 1992.
There is reason to believe that the end-game of Tea-Publicans is to take redistricting to the panel of three federal judges where the over-priced lawyers/lobbyists from the GOP redistricting organization FAIR Trust apparently believe they can get maps favorable to a "permanent GOP majority." This kernel was hidden in The Yellow Sheet Report reported by Steve Muratore yesterday. The Arizona Eagletarian: Redistricting — extreme short notice (emphasis added):
According to The Yellow Sheet, a complicating factor for the senate GOP arises from the illustrious Frank Antenori:
…Antenori told our reporter he has the votes needed to kill any attempt to remove commissioners if the special session call doesn’t include language allowing for the referral of a measure to the February presidential preference primary ballot to either amend or repeal the IRC – something he said Brewer is unwilling to do. “I’m not going to let this freaking governor push me around. This is pure, stupid, stubborn Jan Brewer,” he said. Antenori placed the blame for Brewer’s position on the GOP congressional delegation and FAIR Trust, and said they prefer dismantling the IRC via removal and sending the maps to a three-judge panel because they believe they can persuade them to draw favorable lines.After a flurry of phone calls last night and this morning, Antenori said he now has the backing of four other caucus members and expects to peel another two or three off from leadership before the closed caucus ends: “If I go into this caucus room at 12:30, this thing goes down. I’m not playing around…. This is the line in the sand. We’re referring it to the ballot, whether we’re amending (prop 106), scrapping it, fixing it. I don’t care. It cannot stand as is.”
Antenori is not done with his attempt to kill the AIRC altogether. He still wants to refer an amendment or repeal of Prop. 106 to the ballot for the Republican presidential preference primary in February when only Republican voters are permitted to vote. Our little totalitarian is not bothered by election rigging.
UPDATE: John Avlon’s big-picture assessment strikes me as accurate: “If Brewer gets away with this power grab, it will suddenly appear on the menu of every other governor looking to artificially preserve his or her party’s hold on power, Republican or Democrat. It is nothing less than an attempt to hijack representative democracy.”