Call to Action!You can make a comment at the Virtual Town Hall on Saturday, Nov. 6th, starting at 10 am and ending after all comments are heard. Participants must be registered by 9 am Saturday. To register to speak click Link: https://azgov.webex.com/azgov/j.php?RGID=r91ba073859ca081b83b5bd8760f9460b For further suggestions on talking points/your testimony click here.
Use the link below to view maps and the IRC’s Demographic and Competitive Data Analysis for these final versions. Comments are accepted through Saturday, December 4th. |
We need you to speak up during Saturday’s virtual town hall on Saturday, Nov. 6th, starting at 10 am. Your testimony will matter.
Make some time tomorrow, Saturday morning, and please register to speak at https://azgov.webex.com/azgov/j.php?RGID=r91ba073859ca081b83b5bd8760f9460b. (NOTE: the Webex registration page was recently down, so please check back again.)
We must continue to show our strength and commitment to fair and competitive district maps. The Commission needs to hear from you.
Here is the YouTube link to watch live: https://youtu.be/
| Join from the event link |
| https://azgov.webex.com/azgov/j.php?MTID=m0e2f0bb03cc828acd0124ac720627883 |
| Join by event number |
| Event number (access code): 2457 127 7022 |
| Event password: AZfbQ5fba36 (29327532 from phones) |
JOIN WEBEX EVENT
https://azgov.webex.com/azgov/j.php?MTID=m0e2f0bb03cc828acd0124ac720627883
Event number (access code): 2457 127 7022
Event password: AZfbQ5fba36 (29327532 from phones)
LD17 is partisan and clearly favors Republicans (See below)
Six of the legislative districts in the adopted Legislative Draft Map have an over 40% voter spread and 5 of those 6 are Democrat. This is called packing. By concentrating one party’s voting power into a few districts this reduces their voting power in other districts, reduces competitiveness, and promotes extremism.
The underhanded route that the gerrymandered LD 17 map took to become first in line and be zealously supported by Commissioner Mehl reeks of self-dealing conflict of interest. This unethical process makes a mockery of the very purpose of Prop 106, to promote collaboration and minimize partisanship.
The gerrymandered LD 17 map affects every Pima County Legislative District adversely. It also affects LDs across the state. Multiple maps, drawn by citizens, submitted properly and meeting critical checks and balances, demonstrate that accepting and adopting this map is unnecessary and detrimental to the intent of Prop 106.
- District 17 in the Adopted Draft Legislative Map disregards some of the goals of redistricting set out in the Arizona Constitution. This map promotes the goal of creating a safe Republican district in a predominantly Democratic County. This is gerrymandering.
- District 17 is not “compact and contiguous to the extent practicable.” It is made up of selected Republican-leaning suburbs from opposite ends of the Tucson area that are separated by a mountain range and an unnecessarily long drive.
- District 17 does not “respect communities of interest to the extent practicable.” The residents of both Tanque Verde and Vail have little to do with the distant suburbs of Marana and Oro Valley, and have much closer ties to eastern and midtown Tucson.
- Designing District 17 to create a safe Republican district violates the constitutional requirement that “to the extent practicable, competitive districts should be favored where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals.” Democratic Commissioner Lerner proposed an alternative version of District 17 that was highly competitive, but it was rejected on the grounds that it failed to create a safe Republican district!
For these reasons, the IRC should go back to LD Test map version 9.0 as proposed by Commissioner Lerner.
Subversion by republicans
The next few weeks will be our last chance to make a major impact in the fight for fair elections. This is our once-in-a-decade opportunity to make our voices heard. Fair elections cannot happen without fair congressional and legislative maps.
Unfortunately, the Arizona Republican Party has subverted the very best thing we in Arizona have to ensure fair and competitive elections, the Independent Redistricting Commission.
This started six years ago with Governor Ducey’s appointment of individuals to the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. These individuals are responsible for selecting the candidates for appointment to the Independent Redistricting Commission, and with the Governor’s thumb on the scale, a Republican-leaning Commission was ensured.
Fearing the movement towards a blue Arizona and knowing that this would end the 40-year Republican domination of Arizona politics, the Pima County Republican Party crafted and submitted a draft legislative map that would create a safe Republican district with a predicted 9.9 point Republican advantage.
This district, LD17, creates the white crescent or the inverted C around Tucson, or what Republican Commissioner David Mehl now calls “Marana, Oro Valley, the Tanque Verde corridor all the way down to Rita Ranch – that’s the suburban ring around Tucson……”
Despite repeated attempts by Democratic Commissioner Lerner to propose alternative versions that would make this district more competitive, the Republican commissioners and Chair Neuberg rejected the proposals on the grounds that the proposed versions would fail to create a safe Republican district.
The Chair wants to ensure that her right-of-center friends in Pima County have the ability to elect someone to represent their views. This is the very definition of gerrymandering.
If this map is ultimately approved by this Commission, the effects of this blatant gerrymander will ensure continued Republican control of the state legislature for the next 10 years.
Register to speak at https://azgov.webex.com/azgov/j.php?RGID=r91ba073859ca081b83b5bd8760f9460b
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