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New Map Tosses 4 Incumbent Senators Into 2 Districts

Arizona Capitol Reports Staff//March 5, 2004//[read_meter]

New Map Tosses 4 Incumbent Senators Into 2 Districts

Arizona Capitol Reports Staff//March 5, 2004//[read_meter]

The latest legislative districts map will pit at least two sets of incumbent senators against one another.

The Independent Redistricting Commission, working under court order, on March 1 approved a new map with additional changes from the one proposed a week earlier. Among the changes are new boundaries for Districts 6 and 7 and Districts 14 and 15. In the case of incumbent Senators Dean Martin, R-6, and Jim Waring, R-7, both would be moved into the new District 6. Incumbent Senators Bill Brotherton, R-14, and Ken Cheuvront, D-15, would be put into the new District 14.

“We’re both good friends,” Mr. Cheuvront said, “and I’m certainly not happy about the possibility of running against Senator Brotherton.

“The [new] district represents an area that is about 60 per cent of the district I have represented in the past,” Mr. Cheuvront said. “I moved last time [in 2002, following the adoption of an interim map], so I’m not moving again.”

Mr. Waring, acknowledging the map as it stood on March 2 would, indeed, pit him against Mr. Martin, said, “I don’t think there’s any reason to talk about pitting one person against another at this point. Dean’s a friend of mine; I don’t want to run against Dean, and I’m sure he doesn’t want to run against me. I can only hope that, over time, the maps will work themselves out.”

Maps To Undergo More Reviews

The prospect for any further changes isn’t clear. The Redistricting Commission submits the latest proposal to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields in an afternoon hearing on March 5. The U.S. Department of Justice also must review the map to consider whether, under the 1965 Civil Rights Act, the proposal diminishes the voting power of members of minority groups.

Lisa Hauser, lead counsel for the Redistricting Commission, said she doesn’t know whether Judge Fields will rule at the hearing or take the proposal under advisement. Either way, the judge could decide that the map needs further revision.

It was Judge Fields who, on Jan. 16, declared that the Redistricting Commission had failed to satisfy the state Constitution’s requirement for creating competitive districts. Voters in a ballot measure in 2000 adopted that provision, along with the commission itself. Proponents at the time said an independent commission would be less susceptible to creating legislative and congressional maps that would give advantage to one party over another.

Without any specific definition in the amendment of what constitutes a competitive district, Judge Fields decided it is a district in which the voter registrations of the two major parties have a difference of less than 7 per cent.

The judge also decided that there should be at least eight competitive districts of the 30 – instead of the four that fit that criterion in the original map – since that most closely resembled the 41-36 split in Republican and Democratic voter registrations in the state. The 2002 election saw 17 Republicans and 13 Democrats – a split of 57 per cent to 43 per cent – elected to the Senate; while the House races saw 39 Republicans and 21 Democrats (one of whom has since become an independent) elected, a split of 65 per cent to 35 per cent.

The Redistricting Commission is prohibited from giving any consideration to how changes in districts would affect incumbents.

More Competitive Or More Confusing

Despite his particular situation, Mr. Cheuvront said he still supports the independent redistricting process.

“Obviously, I’m not happy with the outcome of the redistricting in this particular district,” Mr. Cheuvront said. “But it makes the map more competitive as a whole, so that we’re not a one party-dominant Legislature.”

Mr. Waring sees it differently.

“I think it is troubling that judges would think so little of politicians that they would put us in a position of having to run against one another,” Mr. Waring said March 2. “I was out knocking on doors last night, and a woman asked me, ‘So, you’re my legislator?’ And I couldn’t really give her an answer, except to say, ‘maybe.’ It makes me look like a fool, but beyond that, it creates a lot of confusion. And confusion is something that government shouldn’t generate.” —

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