The AZ GOP’s Gerrymander is Underway!

If you are a reader of the Blog for Arizona, you know that Arizona is in the process of redrawing its boundaries for congressional and state legislative districts. The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) is required to provide a 30-day public comment period. We are in that time window now. The last hearing is currently scheduled for December 4th – in Tucson. So far, Arizonans have not been shy about telling the commission where to draw said lines.

Redistricting is inherently political; but it doesn’t have to be partisan. Sadly, this current iteration, the third in our state’s history, is perhaps destined to be the most partisan of the three. And that is saying something. The first commission was chaired by the “independent” Steve Lynn, current board member of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council (SALC) and former executive with UNS Energy Corporation and Tucson Electric Power. Under his leadership the first AIRC did not pass federal pre-clearance of its maps. This means that despite the Commission knowing the new districts must not diminish minority voting rights, the U.S. Department of Justice believed that they did and sent them back to the proverbial drawing board. Current mapping consultant, Doug Johnson, was the lead mapping consultant in that round as well. Final districts were not approved until May of 2002. But what maps they were!

Maps drawn by the first AIRC were more favorable to Republicans in the state legislature than Republicans in the state legislature could have drawn for themselves. It was these maps, the districts drawn by the 2001 Commission, led by an SALC board member, that gave the Republicans a super-majority for the entire decade.

In 2011, the second iteration of the AIRC produced maps that have been acclaimed by nationally recognized politicos and academics alike for their fairness and competitiveness, and withstood five lawsuits brought by a hostile Republican governor, a Republican majority state legislature, a Republican Attorney General, and two lawsuits brought by the Republican party itself. The fundamental flaw these lawsuits sought to overcome? The 2011 AIRC did not give advantage to Republicans. Or Democrats. But seemingly, only Republicans were offended.

In 2021, the Republicans came ready for bear. Governor Ducey made sure the appointments to the commission would favor Republican bias. The first commissioner selected was David Mehl, a Tucson area developer, and founder of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. There are only fifteen people over two decades (2000 – 2021) to serve on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, and two of them have been principals of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. This seems more than coincidental. And calls into question the non-partisanship of the SALC.

And alas, they have delivered. On the fifth day of mapping last month, Commissioner Mehl reported that he had received an email from the SALC that a map for the Tucson area had been submitted and he’d like to see it. This proposed plan created a safe Republican district in Pima County. Not a competitive district, but a 10-point safe district. Not more than 24 hours later the districts to which he was alerted to had been integrated into the emerging draft district plans.

It was not long after that we learned that the SALC had not submitted the proposed map as implied. Rather it was submitted by a local Republican Pima County partisan operative. Steve Lynn and the entire SALC board must be so proud. So. Very. Proud.

Knowing this, the current AIRC voted 3:2 to integrate the districts regardless. Now, that is brazen. Corrupt, possibly. Brazen, certainly. (Do I need to point out it was the two Democratic Commissioners who opposed the Motion to integrate these proposed districts?)

This partisan play in Tucson does not stand alone. There are equally brazen efforts, if less exposed, to create Republican partisan gerrymanders in Yavapai and Maricopa Counties. The effects of which shatter communities of interest in every county as presented in mountains of testimony since June.

The current AIRC has multiple channels to receive public comment – in person hearings, virtual hearings, email, contact forms, mapping tools, presumably telephone messages as well. What they didn’t address was how to assess, analyze, synthesize, align, or reconcile the mountains of testimony received.

The commissioners reassure the public every meeting that they “get” and “read” the written comments. The professional engineers that are doing that actual mapping have a new access point for the public input every week it seems. But none, none at all, ever, have any semblance of integration or retrieval. So, the public must repeat itself. Again. And again. Because there is no system in place to give the commissioners or the public any confidence that what was said last is not the only thing that will be remembered. And they have made clear by their actions, that all testimony received is not treated equally.

Witness the proposed district plans submitted by the Republican party operative in Pima County. Proposed plans in compliance with the Voting Rights Act (VRA) for congressional and state legislative districts submitted by the Latino Coalition for Fair Redistricting were dismissed. A proposed (VRA) state legislative district submitted by the Navajo Nation was dismissed. Essentially 183 of the 184 submitted plans have been ignored and dismissed.

Last week the AIRC reviewed three congressional districts and seven legislative districts of the draft plans. It was mostly a feel-good activity to allow the Chairperson Erika Neuberg to recite how each district reflected each of the six constitutional criteria to the “extent practicable.”

In this space over the next few days, I will be doing the same. But it is not intended to be a feel-good exercise. Instead, I hope it will be a rallying cry for the public to continue, and increase, engagement; to give very specific directions to the AIRC on how to make better districts. To create more districts that are competitive. To create more districts that respect Latino and Native Indian voters. To create districts that respect the constitutional criteria with some modicum of consistency. Or state a reason why one criterion in one area is relevant, but not in another. There may be good reasons. Or not. Either way the public deserve to know.

Hearings are taking place from now until December 4. You can attend a hearing. You can submit comments 24/7 (received and read, we are regularly assured.) You can make specific comments on specific districts. It does not matter how you share your voice. It is important that you do.

Arizonans in 2000 voted for fair and competitive districts when they passed Proposition 106. In doing so they gave us – the general public – a front row seat to the most important act in participatory democracy: the creation of political boundaries for Congress and the State Legislature. Do not let partisan interests, special interests, and those very well connected, diminish the promise of fair and competitive districts. For your community. And for the entire state. Speak up. It will be our last chance for the next decade.

– Deborah Howard, Gerrymander Slayer w/ Arizona Indivisible Redistricting Team