A raft of changes is coming to a Republican-led effort to overhaul the Arizona commission responsible for redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative district boundaries
enate President Steve Yarbrough tells Arizona Capitol Times he hopes amendments he’s preparing for SCR 1034, which increases the membership of the Independent Redistricting Commission from five to eight, will bring Democrats on board and create truly bipartisan reform.
Opponents criticized the resolution as a measure designed to fail, noting that Yarbrough’s vision of an eight-person commission would inevitably lead to gridlock. Yarbrough has said an even-numbered commission would eliminate the power that the lone independent has had in previous commissions and force the members to find a true bipartisan compromise
With the IRC unable to function, Democrats pointed to another provision in SCR 1034 that allows the Legislature, currently controlled by Republicans, to refer their own redistricting maps to voters. If approved, those maps would become the final congressional and legislative boundaries for a decade to come.
Yarbrough’s amendment will propose eliminating the legislative-referral provision and increasing the IRC to a nine-member commission from eight.
Yarbrough still wants to bypass the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments and allow party leaders to choose six IRC commissioners, three for each party, and each party would select an independent commissioner to serve as well.
Information from Arizona Capitol Times
