One hundred thirty-eight people applied to serve on the next Independent Redistricting Commission, which will determine the boundaries of Arizona’s congressional and legislative districts for the next decade.
The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments received applications [pick one or many to read and evaluate] from 55 Democrats and 44 Republicans, 38 independents and 1 Libertarian.
Because no more than 2 commissioners can be from the same political party, the pool of independents, along with the Libertarian, will provide the pool of candidates to serve as the all-important chair of the redistricting commission who acts as a tiebreaker if the Democratic and Republican members are deadlocked.
The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments must winnow the list down to 10 Democrats, 10 Republicans and 5 independents or others. The Democratic and Republican leaders of the state House of Representatives and Senate will each select one commissioner, and those four will select a fifth commissioner to serve as chairman.
The Arizona Constitution requires geographic diversity among the commissioners, and no more than 2 of the first four selected can reside in the same county. There are 89 applicants from Maricopa County and 28 from Pima County, along with 8 from Coconino County and 3 from Pinal and Yavapai counties. No other county has more than two applicants. No residents of Graham, Greenlee, La Paz, Navajo, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties applied.
The total number of applicants for the IRC increased from 2010, when only 79 people sought seats on the redistricting commission. In 2000, the first year Arizona used an independent commission for redistricting, 311 people applied.
The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments will meet on Sept. 17 to review applications and take public testimony on the candidates. People can also submit public comments regarding the applicants via email at jnc@courts.az.gov, or by mailing them to the commission’s offices. Comments cannot be submitted anonymously.
By early January, the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments will narrow the list of applicants down to 25 people.
A number of notable people applied to serve on the redistricting commission. Among them are:
- Christopher Bavasi, independent, Coconino County: Former Flagstaff mayor and city council member.
- Cheryl Cage, Democrat, Pima County: Cage is the former chairwoman of the Pima County Democratic Party and was a candidate for the Arizona Senate in 2008 and 2010.
- Ernest Calderon, Democrat, Maricopa County: Calderon is the former president of the Arizona Board of Regents. He is also a former member of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments.
- Nick Dranias, independent, Maricopa County: Dranias is a former attorney with the conservative Goldwater Institute. Dranius appears to be a member of the Federalist Society, which is almost exclusively composed of Republican attorneys.
- Louis Hoffman, Democrat, Maricopa County: Hoffman is the former chairman of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.
- Leezie Kim, independent, Maricopa County: Kim served as general counsel for Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, and later served under Napolitano as deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
- Thomas Loquvam, independent, Maricopa County: Loquvam is general counsel and vice president for corporate services at the utility company EPCOR. He previously served as general counsel for Pinnacle West, the parent company of Arizona Public Service, [and apparently is brother to soon-to-be-former APS lobbying operative Jessica Pacheco].
- Randy Pullen, Republican, Coconino: Pullen is the former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. He ran for Phoenix mayor in 2007 and for state treasurer in 2014.
- Ken Strobeck, Republican, Maricopa County: Strobeck is the former executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. He served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives before moving to Arizona.
[Looking back to how things played out after the 2011 Redistricting Commission was reconstituted] The most contentious part of the selection process may be the vetting of the independent candidates and the selection of the chair, a pivotal decision that could allow the Democrats or Republicans to seize effective control of the redistricting commission.
In 2011, the four commissioners appointed by legislative leaders chose Colleen Coyle Mathis, an independent from Tucson, to serve as IRC chair. Partisan disagreements quickly emerged ... [as documented in detail in the Arizona Eagletarian's posts from 2011-2012]
Republicans filed lawsuits challenging the IRC’s congressional and legislative maps, both of which were upheld by the courts. Another lawsuit led by GOP lawmakers challenged the commission’s existence, arguing that the U.S. Constitution reserved redistricting duties for state legislatures and did not permit those duties to be delegated to an independent commission. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the redistricting commission in a landmark 5-4 decision in 2015.
Arizona is expected to gain a 10th congressional seat after the 2020 Census is completed.
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From the Commission on Appellate Courts Appointments,
The public is being asked for comments on 138 applicants for Arizona’s Independent Redistricting Commission, which will oversee the mapping of Arizona’s congressional and legislative districts in 2021. The Arizona constitution directs the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments to review the applications and to nominate 25 people to serve. The Commission’s nominees must be submitted by January 8, 2021. Four elected officials [who will be actual legislative leaders] will appoint the first four members of the Independent Redistricting Commission. The fifth member will be chosen by the four members appointed to the Commission.
No more than two members of the Independent Redistricting Commission can be members of the same political party. Of the first four appointed, no more than two can be residents of the same county. Among the applicants there are 55 Democrats, 44 Republicans, 38 Independents, and 1 Libertarian. Applications were received from nine of Arizona’s 15 counties.
An alphabetical list of all applicants follows. Their applications can be viewed online at the nomination website, https://www.azcourts.gov/jnc/IRC-Nominations/Current-IRC-Applications. The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments will review the applications and take public testimony in a meeting on September 17, 2020. The meeting will be held at the Arizona State Courts Building in Phoenix, 1501 W. Washington, beginning at 9:30 a.m. Further information about this meeting will be provided on the meeting agenda which will be posted on the nomination website at least seven (7) days prior to the meeting.
Public comment is accepted at this meeting, however, citizens are strongly encouraged to submit all comments to jnc@courts.az.gov or to 1501 W. Washington, Suite 221, Phoenix, AZ 85007. Written comments must be received by September 14, 2020 to be considered. Anonymous comments cannot be considered. Comments should not be sent directly to individual Commissioners.
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In a recent post, I noted the short-sightedness of the GOP-controlled legislature when it tried to hamstring any and all citizen initiatives. Former Republican state senator Rich Crandall and local Republican attorney Kory Langhofer made a case to the AZ Supremes that despite their misgivings about the Invest in Ed initiative, the issues raised by local Chamber of Commerce (special) interests in the lawsuit trying to get it knocked off the ballot were a bad idea. Today, the Yellow Sheet Report had Dominionist operative CQ (Constantin Querard) suggesting that even if Dems do flip the legislature in November, such gains won't last.
Even if 2020 turns out to be a banner year for Democrats, if Republicans play their cards right during redistricting, they should hold strong majorities in the Legislature and congressional delegation by 2022, conservative consultant Constantin Querard told our reporter. “If the Democrats do finally get control of something, it’s quite likely to be a two-year rental,” he said.
Querard envisioned a scenario where Arizona’s new 10-member congressional delegation included only three Democratic districts – Grijalva’s CD3, Gallego’s CD7 and perhaps O’Halleran’s CD1 or Kirkpatrick’s CD2. Because the US Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in its Shelby County v. Holder decision, Arizona map-drawers will no longer need preclearance from the US Dept of Justice when drawing maps. And the court’s 2019 decision in Rucho v. Common Cause declaring partisan gerrymandering outside the judicial branch’s scope means simply showing that the maps were drawn explicitly to benefit Republicans won’t carry any weight in the [federal] courts.
Those decisions will make it much easier for Republicans to control the process that Democrats dominated last time around, Querard said. Still, the long-term demographic trends are not on the side of Republicans, he said. “The fact is if California continues to move in and bring their bad ways with them, no matter how you draw the maps, the trend will still be towards Democrats over time,” he said.I neither agree nor disagree with CQ on this issue. My view is that vigilance is always necessary.
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