Brewer says IRC decisions likely in next two days

Gov. Jan Brewer said she and legislative leaders will likely decide today or Tuesday on their course of action in the ongoing saga over Arizona’s redistricting process.

Brewer said she didn’t yet know whether she will draft another letter to Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission Chairwoman Colleen Mathis – the letter is the first step in the process for removing a commissioner – or refer Proposition 106, the 2000 ballot measure that created the IRC, back to the ballot. She said didn’t have a preference on which avenue they take.

“There have been a lot of suggestions,” said Brewer, who sounded downbeat during a brief interview with the press corps on Monday following the official canvass of the legislative District 18 recall election.

But the clock is ticking for Brewer and GOP legislators. Mathis, whom the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated on Nov. 17, announced that the IRC would resume meeting the week of Nov. 28, and hopes to finish its congressional and legislative maps before Christmas.

One difficulty in moving forward with another removal process is that the Supreme Court isn’t expected to issue its full opinion until early-to-mid-December. The court’s initial ruling only said that the letter informing Mathis of her removal did not properly detail the allegations against her.

Brewer said she spoke with legislative leaders about the court ruling after she returned to Arizona from Washington, D.C. on Friday.

“I, of course, was concerned it was so vague that there weren’t really many answers in it. It’s kind of hard to make comment on anything when you don’t know the reason why something happened,” she said.

Brewer also refuted accusations that she removed Mathis to benefit Republicans or at the behest of Arizona’s GOP congressional delegation, which urged her during a conference call to oust the chairwoman just days before she initiated the process.

“I think that anybody that knows me understands that I usually call them like I see them. And I feel that we had every right to move forward in the matter that which we did,” she said.