Terri Proud’s fact-challenged petition

by David Safier

It's difficult for me to figure out exactly who is pulling Terri Proud's strings these days — or pushing her buttons, or whatever is going on. Is Proud's online petition to get rid of the Independent Redistricting Commission a trial balloon pushed on her by higher ups, or was it concocted by her local kitchen cabinet?

Based on a Yellow Sheet item on the factual errors in the petition, I'm going with kitchen cabinet.

The petition states Prop 106, which created the IRC, was voted on in 1998. It was actually 2000.

The petition says, "The AZ Constitution states that the appointment of commission members should strive for political balance and fairness." According to the Yellow Sheet,

That provision only applies to the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, if it is required to fill a vacancy on the IRC or if the four partisan members are unable to agree on an independent chair. There is no mandate that legislative leaders or the four partisan commissioners consider “political balance and fairness” when they make their selections.

Here's the wacky part, also pointed out by the Yellow Sheet. Proud put her petition on the change.org website, not exactly a bastion of conservative causes. Prominent on the change.org Petition Victories page are the raising of a Gay Pride flag on the Seattle Space Needle, Jerry Brown's signing of the Fair Education Act which requires LGBT history education in schools, allowing a legally married California gay couple to stay together in the U.S. and the Dallas Morning News' plans to publish same sex marriages in its Weddings section. What, there are no conservative petition websites?