Sen. Frank Antenori’s lame idea rejected as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘irresponsible’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The other day Howard Fischer reported GOP state lawmaker wants Arizona voters to pick district boundaries:

A Republican lawmaker is proposing to amend the Arizona Constitution to give voters the final say on lines for the state's 30 legislative and nine congressional districts.

Sen. Frank Antenori of Tucson envisions a plan where Republican and Democratic legislators would each craft a map, as would the Independent Redistricting Commission. Then all six maps — three congressional and three legislative — would be presented to voters who would select which ones they want in place for the coming decade.

And Antenori wants a special legislative session before the end of the year to put his plan — and all three maps — on the ballot early next year, in time for the new system to be in place for the 2012 election.

That election, of course, would be the Republican presidential primary when only Republicans are voting in that election. How convenient. As I said before, this is election rigging.

The editors of the Sierra Vista Herald have rejected Antenori's lame idea. Our View: Not an issue for the voters | The Sierra Vista Herald:

We would prefer if Antenori contributed a practical solution, or simply avoided grandstanding by appealing to the common denominator among many Arizona voters: a feeling of being disenfranchised.

Antenori is not the voters’ champion. He’s a Republican champion.

If he represented a Republican district in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, it’s doubtful he would want a constitutional amendment that would empower people to choose their representative borders.

And that is the inherent challenge of redistricting.

This is a political process that pits parties against each other in determining the boundaries of our congressional and legislative districts.

It is not a issue for referendum, it’s politics in it’s purest form.

The idea of creating three sets of maps and submitting each for a vote is not well thought out and is simply not practical.

* * *

Asking voters in Maricopa County-Phoenix to decide whether the congressional and legislative districts in Cochise County are acceptable is also ludicrous.

* * *

Antenori’s idea plays well to the emotion of angry voters.

But the senator’s proposal is irresponsible and impractical.

Ludicrous and irresponsible pretty much sums it up.