The current system is too easily ‘gamed” by one party,’ says leader
GOP bill to increase members on the Independent Redistricting Commission has dubious future, critics say.
Critics warn that a plan to alter the membership of a commission responsible for drawing Arizona’s congressional and legislative district maps is designed to fail, Arizona Capitol Times reports.
Senate President Steve Yarbrough conceded that by increasing the number of members on the Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) from five to eight, it’s likely that the commission would face gridlock.
Requiring a supermajority to approve maps during redistricting, a highly contentious process that creates district maps that will be used for the next decade, would require commissioners to find true bipartisan consensus, Yarbrough told Arizona Capitol Times.
Under the bill, those four commissioners must then select a fifth candidate, typically an independent or anyone who’s neither a Republican or Democrat, to serve as chair of the IRC.
SCR 1034, co-sponsored by nearly all Republican legislative leaders, eliminates the Commission on Appellate Court’s role in vetting candidates and would let legislative leaders directly select three Republicans and three Democrats. The final two independent commissioners would also be chosen by legislative leaders, one each by the Republican and Democratic caucuses.
The current system is too easily “gamed” by one party, as Republicans and Democrats seek to install an IRC chair that will vote in their favor, Yarbrough said.
“That person effectively becomes the redistricting czar,” he told the Times. “They control the process.”
