Compliments of Erika Neuberg
By Jimmy Magahern | Phoenix Magazine
Until the state’s new voting district maps are approved, the most powerful person in Arizona politics may be a spotlight-shy Chandler psychologist with ties to neither party. Can Erika Neuberg remain nonpartisan?
Erika Neuberg doesn’t hesitate when asked to name her favorite music artists.
“Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, The Who,” the Chandler psychologist quickly rattles off, with the enthusiasm of a boomer dad setting up his first Spotify profile. Not that all her musical tastes skew incongruously male. “I also love Whitney Houston and the music on the new Cinderella soundtrack.”
Coming from anybody else, that’d be simple small talk – offhand replies to an off-the-subject question asked to round out a personality profile. But as the newly elected, nonpartisan chair of the citizen-led Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, the five-member panel responsible for redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative boundaries following each once-a-decade census, even Neuberg’s streaming choices are fodder for partisan zealots eager to place the self-proclaimed independent on either side of the political divide. Springsteen? Neil Young? Gotta be a leftist.
