Arizona Republicans enter the next election with favorable new voting maps. maps pushed by Republicans on the com- mittee, voting alongside conservatives for district maps of their choosing, and giving public maps submitted by conservative groups more weight. During a mid-December meeting, Re- publican David Mehl pushed back on maps submitted by the Arizona Latino Coalition for Fair Redistricting, claiming that they gave Democrats an unfair partisan advan- tage. But progressives complained about fair- ness too. “One of the concerns that we had going into this was that Governor (Doug) Ducey stacked the committee (with Republi- cans),” said Tomas Robles Jr., executive di- rector of Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, a social justice orga- nization active in election policy for pro- gressive causes. By contrast, commission members con- sidered suggestions submitted under the name of a business group without attach- ing a partisan label. The Southern Arizona Leadership Council map was created by the second vice chair of the Pima County Republican Party. “Therein lies the hypocrisy of the mem- New Times Illustration. Souce photos: Getty Images Arizona’s current representatives in the U.S. House skew bluer — Democrats have a slim majority with five seats compared to four held by Republicans. But the next election may yield Republicans six seats leaving Democrats with three. Two dis- tricts are highly competitive with a vote spread of less than 3 percent. Incumbent congressmen Democrat Tom O’Halleran and Republican David Schweikert could be unseated next year, while sitting Democrat U.S. Representative Ann Kirkpatrick is retiring. Mapmakers started from scratch, so elected officials may be running in differ- ent districts but generally would represent similar geographic areas. Every 10 years, the state’s U.S. congres- sional and statewide legislative districts are redrawn to adjust to the latest U.S. Cen- sus, as voters mandated. This year, the re- districting commission had to figure out how to reapportion seats to represent 7.1 million Arizonans. Consultants carved out new districts meant to have roughly the same popula- tion, stay compact in size and represent communities of interest. More than 4.2 million voters registered for the last presidential election in Novem- ber 2020 split into four major groups. There were 1.3 million Democrats, 1.5 mil- lion Republicans, 1.3 million independents, and 38,385 Libertarians in Arizona. “I think you could consider us a purple state. But we’re still centrist and Republi- cans have the biggest registration numbers in the state. But we’re trending purple, but not even solidly purple,” said Chad Camp- bell, Democratic strategist in Phoenix. “This process is inherently difficult, There’s no easy way to do it.” To ensure that voters are represented by roughly equally populous districts, voters from cities such as Phoenix and Tucson are blended with voters in rural and suburban areas, despite often conflicting political views. In 2011, each congressional district had 710,244 people each. Now each district has about 794,611 residents each, based on the 2020 U.S. Census. The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission — which oversees the process — has two Democrats, two Republicans, and is led by a chairperson registered as an Independent. Critics blame chairperson Erika Neu- berg, who was previously registered as a Republican, for favoring changes to the bers of that committee...we still lose voters (in those Latino Coalition maps). It’s highly concerning that they can call our maps partisan but the other maps are not,” Robles said. “Our goal has always been to mitigate any potential losses because we feel that the commission skews more to the right than we are comfortable seeing.” Rebecca Rios and Reginald Bolding Jr., Arizona Senate and House Democratic leaders, echoed those concerns, noting that Latinos, in particular, were underrepre- sented in some voting blocs. But then over- packed in legislative District 24, which includes some of Glendale and Phoenix’s majority Latino Maryvale neighborhood. “Throughout the mapping process, the chairwoman has repeatedly sided with Re- publican commissioners as maps were dis- cussed,” according to a joint letter from the Democrats. The independent chair, while denying favoritism, voted alongside Republicans each time except twice. Maps even ruffled the feathers of the Republican Party in Arizona, as represen- tatives called for the districts to become more competitive at the ballot box. >> p 20 19 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES JAN 13TH– JAN 19TH, 2022
