Peoria City Council is slated to vote on one of five proposed maps on Dec. 14. The maps will lay out what parts of the city the six council members will represent ahead of the 2022 election.City of Peoria
On Dec. 14, the Peoria City Council is slated to select one of the five maps, which will dictate what areas the six council members represent ahead of the next election
By Taylor Seely |Arizona Republic
A Phoenix-area city faces accusations that proposed redistricting maps were redrawn to safeguard a longtime incumbent and dilute minority voting power in the city’s historic southern region.
The uproar comes as Peoria, a northwest Valley suburb of just more than 190,000 residents, redraws its City Council district boundaries to account for population growth after the 2020 U.S. Census.
The redistricting process happening in four Valley cities is separate from the state’s legislative and congressional redistricting, conducted by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.
Three of the five proposed maps in Peoria would reduce the number of challengers incumbent Vicki Hunt could face in the 2022 election. Whether minority voting power is lessened under the proposed maps is harder to ascertain without seeing an analysis commissioned by the city. Peoria officials have so far refused to release that report.
On Dec. 14, the Peoria City Council is slated to select one of the five maps, which will dictate what areas the six council members represent ahead of the next election.
Half the council will be on the ballot as Councilmembers Hunt, Denette Dunn and Michael Finn are up for reelection and Councilmember Bridget Binsbacher plans to run for mayor. Mayor Cathy Carlat has reached the two-term limit.
Dunn, who represents south Peoria’s Pine district, and two other potential council candidates who live in the other southern district, Acacia, claim several of the proposed maps divide historic neighborhoods with large minority populations and reduce competition for Hunt, who has represented Acacia on and off since 2003.
The council’s redistricting criteria dissuades dividing “communities of interest” and federal law prohibits drawing districts that discriminate on the basis of race, color or national origin or result in racially discriminatory outcomes.
