The state’s redistricting commission will run out of money before legal fees accrued in multiple lawsuits can be paid, the commission’s staff said Thursday. The commission’s director has begun negotiating with the Legislature over another supplemental appropriation.

The state’s redistricting commission is set to discuss the lawsuits it is embroiled in today, and weigh an appeal of a recent ruling that forced commissioners to answer questions from attorneys who want to prove a conspiracy led to a legislative map that critics say favors Democrats.

With less than two weeks before the start of the trial over whether a Democratic conspiracy rigged Arizona’s legislative map, attorneys representing each side are engaged in an 11th-hour fight over what testimony will be included and what evidence each side will get to introduce.

Attorneys hoping to prove that three of Arizona’s five redistricting commissioners intentionally designed legislative districts to favor Democrats made progress March 7 in their fight to get the commission’s attorneys to release more of the commissioners’ internal documents and communications.

Federal judges are sticking by a March 25 start date for a trial on a Republican-backed challenge to Arizona’s map of legislative districts.

A series of court rulings issued late last week in two lawsuits against the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission further pave the path for Republican litigants who hope to prove the commission illegally created maps to favor Democrats.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill to give the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission an additional $500,000 to continue its ongoing legal battles.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed an emergency appropriations bill today that provides $4.4 million for Child Protective Services to hire new staff, and lawmakers sent another bill to her desk to continue funding the Independent Redistricting Commission as it heads to trial in federal court.

The Arizona Legislature has approved $500,000 in extra funding for the Independent Redistricting Commission to allow the commission to pay lawyers defending it from lawsuits.

An Arizona Senate committee has approved $500,000 in extra funding for the Independent Redistricting Commission that will allow the commission to pay for lawyers defending it from lawsuits.