By Evan Wyloge | Arizona Capitol Times
Testifying in federal court, Colleen Mathis finally had her chance to give a direct explanation for events that, over the past two years, have been woven into a full-blown conspiracy theory by Arizona Republicans.
Mathis, who has served as the independent chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission since early 2011, acknowledged she had some commission procurement documents shredded in June 2011.
And while Republicans said that showed Mathis helped rig the redistricting process to produce a map favoring Democrats, Mathis said it was the result of advice she received Jean Clark, director of the State Procurement Office. Mathis testified she was advised the documents were only preliminary, not part of the record that needed to be preserved.
She acknowledged she called other commissioners outside of public meetings, asking them to vote to hire a mapping firm with Democratic ties. Republicans said this was further evidence of her strategy to create maps favoring Democrats. But Mathis described the calls as attempts to satisfy Clark’s concerns. Under commission guidelines, she considered it important to reach a consensus on procurement decisions such as who to hire to do the mapping, Mathis said.
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(Editor’s note: RLG represents IRC Commissioner Scott Freeman in the case.)
