Arizona Redistricting Battle Is ‘Scripted Theatre’
By John Guzzon
Modern Times Magazine
Dec. 9, 2011 — It was destined to be an ugly affair, as redistricting always is. But few could have seen that the process would become an epic, comedic-tragedy that would make Shakespeare or Stephen King proud.
The process has been a tragedy of the political kind that is reaching the apex of extreme polarization and partisanship thanks to such meddling from the legislature as the removal of the independent chair, her reinstatement, and threats to put a repeal of law that formed the commission on the November 2012 ballot.
So, as two representatives from the majority and minority of the Arizona house made their constitutionally mandated appearances before the commission Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 4300 E. Washington Ave., fireworks might have been on the horizon. But what happened was more of the same-old, same-old that has polluted this process from the beginning.
At that meeting, majority leader Andy Biggs and minority leader Chad Campbell brought the politics of the legislature — and their incessant drive to control the outcome — into what is supposed to be a process that limits their input.
Campbell seemed to hit the nail squarely on the head when he called the legislature’s wranglings with the commission nothing more than “scripted theatre.”
The description is especially apt because redistricting is the time every 10 years when politicians turn into Gollum from Lord of the Rings and the new maps are their “precious.” The “rings of power” are these maps.
To be fair, Campbell is much like Frodo Baggins. He is trying with all of his might to resist the temptations, especially since the draft maps didn’t dig a deeper hole for democrats. A fairer system that still favors republicans is much preferred by Campbell and democrats compared to the districts in place now.
But beyond the cinematic analogy lays the fact that when republicans — who hold an overpowering majority in the legislature — realized they were not going to get maps that help them, they began an all-out war. With two appointed republicans and two appointed democrats, the commission was built inevitably swing on the leanings of the “independent” that must chair the commission.
This person must be agreed upon by the four partisan-appointed members and this time, that swing vote is swinging left.
Ten years ago, the chairman, Steve Lynn, leaned right and his swing vote typically swung to republicans. He believed, as he stated to Policy Today in 2005, that creating competitive districts should not trump communities of interest. By happenstance that is the same argument Biggs pleaded before the commission Wednesday. If the current process focused on the same communities of interest as they are ‘drawn’ now, the result would once again be republican skewed districts — especially within Maricopa county.
This time, though, the independent appointed to the commission, Colleen Coyle-Mathis, is siding with democrats on most of the big issues. First, the commission jettisoned the mapping consultant from the last go-around in favor of Strategic Telemetry which did some work for the Obama campaign in 2008. The other big issue that “exposed” her as a “closet democrat” to republicans is that she has supported competitive districts even if that meant taking a fresh look at communities of interest.
Biggs and the republicans at the legislature are demanding the commission to start over since, the “process used to arrive at the draft congressional and legislative maps is so fundamentally flawed that the resulting maps have been unconstitutionally created and that the only remedy is to start the process over.”
Of course republicans would like to see the draft maps scrapped since the 2012 elections would most likely default to the previous maps that have brought republicans a super-majority in a somewhat balanced political landscape.
Regardless, the saddest thing is the scripted theatre, acted out in political style. Accusations of gerrymandering and that lines were moved — on purpose — were quickly diffused by politicians who refuse to point fingers, either because there is no conspiracy or because they know they are just as guilty.
Regardless, the process has already been smeared.
In the memorial report and in his appearance, Biggs alluded to the fact that when lines were adjusted over the weekend of Oct. 3, the new boundaries moved sitting legislators into new districts maybe 100 feet from their homes. But he blamed no one for it, and when asked to point a finger he mentioned “groups” with “interest” to do so.
“No one is saying that you did it deliberately or purposefully,” Biggs said. “So if a group does take into account where an incumbent lives or other particular outcomes and presents them to this commission, without some pretty strict filtering and I am not saying that is easy to do, but there is a chance that you might inadvertently violate the constitution.”
His governor and the senate removed the chairman he addressed because he thinks they might have been led to “inadvertently violate the constitution?”
By the time Campbell was finished talking about how republicans formed the joint legislative committee on redistricting, then violated decorum by not notifying democrats of the committee, and then ran an investigation based on a desired outcome — to find ways to bash the maps and the process — the scripted theatre became a comedic tragedy.
Everyone wants the “precious,” sure. But the situation is what it is. A swing vote is swinging left and most likely that is the way it will be for the next 10 years.
The maps will probably not clear all legal challenges for years and might not look the same as the maps Coyle-Mathis, Jose Herrera and Linda McNulty are expected to approve before Christmas. The final maps are a big step, but hurdles as big as the U.S. Justice Department and constitutional litigation can not be underestimated and lawsuits from the right are sure to follow.
If the final maps are close to the draft maps, they are a break from the past, but not patently unfair. In this last review process, a slew of new permutations have been created and it has yet to play out where the final lines will be.
Review current draft map changes
Republicans and the special interest groups that support them such as The Goldwater Institute and FAIR Trust, though, will not give up, until they get everything they want. They need their precious and they think democrats stole it from them by getting a closet democrat appointed chairman.
But this fight has already cost Gov. Brewer and the rest of the republicans who voted to remove Mathis. The few polls show a decline in support.
If the Justice Department approves the maps, pushing on with the scripted theatre of opposition and litigation could serve to backfire on the state’s republicans as they obsessively hunt their “precious” redistricting.
In the worlds of Gollum, “We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!”
Let it go, we all saw the movie. Gollum goes down in flames.
John Guzzon is editor of Modern Times Magazine.
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