This afternoon, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission convened at the Fiesta Resort in Tempe without Republican members Rick Stertz and Scott Freeman.
Professor Gary King, Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University presented the results of his racially polarized voting analysis. My hunch is that, like me, most (if not all) people will not understand the diagrams/graphs without King explaining them. I'm still not confident I understand them.
Within the next few days, when the video is posted, I will watch again and pause to study it. Hopefully, I'll be able to write more about it then.
When King was finished, the AIRC went into executive session. Except for a 10-minute break about 8:30pm, they remained in closed session until just after 10pm.
Once back in public session, McNulty directed the mapping consultant to work up potential changes to the legislative map in and around San Tan Valley and north Phoenix. The AIRC then adjourned for the night and will start back up at 4:30pm Tuesday (Jan 10).
No members of the public requested to comment on the record this evening.
Some information from county elections officials throughout the state has not been supplied to facilitate minor adjustments to fix certain split precincts. That and potential adjustments pursuant to the racial analysis must be completed before staff and consultants can compile the package of maps, reports and public testimony for submission to DOJ for preclearance. It seems very unlikely the Commission will be able to complete that work before the end of Tuesday's meeting. Therefore, the AIRC will likely also meet next week sometime.
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Changing the subject completely, Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will speak at a dinner in Phoenix on February 23. If you would like to attend, I am organizing (Progressive Advocates) tables for ten. For more details, you may contact me at ArizonaEagletarian (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thank you for keeping us up to date on this!
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