Members of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission hear public testimony during a hearing at the Mesa Convention Center on Aug. 9, 2021. Photo by Jeremy Duda | Arizona Mirror
By Jeremy Duda | Arizona Mirror
A congressional district that was among the most controversial flashpoints of the last redistricting process a decade ago may be largely recreated with little dispute.
The Arizona Redistricting Commission proposed a host of major changes as it adjusted the latest iterations of its congressional and legislative districts at a day-long meeting at the Sheraton Phoenix Crescent hotel in Phoenix on Friday. Among those proposals was the broad outline of the new 4th Congressional District.
The version of the district that’s currently on the commission’s draft congressional map encompasses Ahwatukee and most of the area to the east within the Loop 202, besides eastern Mesa, including much of Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe.
Democratic Commissioner Shereen Lerner proposed that CD4 expand to take in the remainder of Tempe, south Scottsdale, the Arcadia and Biltmore areas of Phoenix and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. She suggested using Gilbert Road as the dividing line between CD4 and its neighbor to the east, which would move the district’s eastern boundary, currently set at Greenfield Road, several miles to the west.
The hypothetical CD4 would largely be an analog to the current 9th Congressional District. The crescent-shaped district includes Ahwatukee, western Chander, western Mesa, Tempe, parts of south Scottsdale, and through the Biltmore and Arcadia neighborhoods of Phoenix, ending in the Sunnyslope area in the northern part of the city.
