Arizona panel OKs legislative, congressional maps

PHOENIX - Arizona's redistricting commission approved new congressional and legislative district maps on Tuesday, voting 3-2 along party lines on both votes.

The commission's two Democrats and its independent chairwoman voted for the maps, while the panel's two Republicans voted against them, saying the maps were drawn to pack Republican voters into some districts to increase the chances of Democratic candidates to win in others.

"This is the Democratic map, the Democratic Party map," said Commissioner Scott Freeman, a Republican.

That prompted Democratic commissioner Jose Herrera to point out that Republicans still stand to control the Legislature and are nicely positioned to win a majority of the state's nine U.S. House seats.

"If somebody will explain to me ... how these are Democratic maps, I will apologize," Herrera said.

The new congressional map puts Rep. Ben Quayle in a newly created competitive district. But he may choose to challenge fellow Republican incumbent David Schweikert in an adjacent GOP-leaning district.

Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar has already decided to run in a Republican-leaning rural district instead of a competitive one that includes his current Flagstaff home.

Republicans now hold five of the state's eight current U.S. House seats and apparently would hold solid edges in four of the nine new districts, while two overwhelmingly lean Democratic and three are arguably competitive between the parties.

Republicans, who now have two-thirds majorities in both legislative chambers, would hold solid edges over Democrats in at least half of the 30 districts under several competiveness ratings considered by the commission.

There could be as few as three legislative districts regarded as competitive between the major parties, and some Democrats have said there could have been more.

Tuesday's vote may prove to be the end of a nearly yearlong process, which included a recent effort to remove the chairwoman, Colleen Mathis.

The Arizona Supreme Court on Nov. 17 overturned Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's Nov. 1 removal order, which cited open meeting law violations and violations of state constitutional mapping criteria and processes used in preparation of draft maps. The court said the governor lacked a constitutional basis for her action.

Arizona voters created the five-member commission in 2000 to take the once-a-decade mapping process out of the hands of the Legislature and the governor. Supporters said the change would eliminate lawmakers' self-interest as motivations for where lines are drawn and also spur creation of competitive districts.

Jennifer Steen, an Arizona State University political science assistant professor who tracks the state's redistricting process, said the GOP has overstated their potential downside from the legislative map.

"Republicans are still going to have a majority," she said.

As for the congressional map, "the proof will be in the election results," she said after Tuesday's vote.

The maps are still subject to a federal review for compliance with a law protecting minorities' voting rights, but commission members plainly hoped Tuesday's final votes would finish their work.

"We've got to get through preclearance, but this was a great milestone," Mathis said.

Even the Voting Rights Act review produced some last-minute controversy, with the Republicans saying the commission should submit the maps to a federal court for review, not just the Obama administration's Department of Justice. None of the other three commissioners favored doing that, so the suggestion died without action.