House Speaker Andy Tobin is planning to ask lawmakers to sue the state’s redistricting commission over the constitutionality of the legislative map the panel crafted.

“We’d spend taxpayer money (on the lawsuit). You bet I would. In a minute,” he told the Arizona Capitol Times today.

Moments earlier, while voting on legislation that gives the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission an additional $700,000 this fiscal year to pay legal bills incurred fighting off an attorney general’s investigation and overturning the removal of its chairwoman, Tobin pleaded with his colleagues to support him when he asks them to authorize the lawsuit.

“If I have to spend money on lawyers to fight back, I will. I hope you will join me and help me uphold the Constitution,” he said during his vote in favor of HB2862.

Ray Bladine, executive director of the redistricting commission, said he finds it ironic that Republican legislators complained about the money the IRC spent defending itself from lawsuits initiated by GOP elected officials and wouldn’t give the commission the $1.1 million it asked for.

“Recently, we were told (by Republican legislative leaders) we didn’t need as much money as we asked for because no one was going to sue us,” Bladine said.

“It seems like suing and redistricting go together.”

Tobin said the map, which last month was sent to the U.S. Department of Justice for preclearance, unconstitutionally distributes population. He said commissioners crafted Republican districts to have higher populations than Democratic districts in an effort to circumvent federal laws requiring the state not dilute minority voting power.

Because most Hispanics are Democrats, putting fewer people into heavily Hispanic districts allows Democratic voters to be spread throughout more districts. Conversely, packing more people into heavily Republican districts means Republican voters have say in fewer districts.

The constitutional language Arizona voters approved in 2000 to create the Independent Redistricting Commission requires districts to have equal population “to the extent practicable.”

An analysis of the legislative map that was sent to the Department of Justice shows that 15 of the 16 safe Republican districts have more than the 213,068 people that would make up an ideal district. In 11 of those districts, the deviation is greater than 1 percent. All 10 of the safe Democratic districts have fewer people than an ideal district, including nine in which the deviation is greater than 1 percent.

Mary O’Grady, an attorney for the redistricting commission, called Tobin’s legal theory “interesting,” but said there is no constitutional violation.

“We’re within the constitutional range for deviation,” she said. “I think the record will show that (harming Republican interests) was not the intention when the maps were created.”

A legal overview that O’Grady and Joe Kanefield, another IRC attorney, gave to the commission in July 2011 noted that “deviations of less than 10 percent … are presumptively valid” for legislative districts.

The largest deviation in any of the legislative districts drawn by the IRC is 4.7 percent.

As for the supplemental funding for the IRC, Republicans were divided on whether the commission should be given additional money to pay its legal bills stemming from the two lawsuits. During today’s vote on HB2862 in the House of Representatives, several GOP legislators voiced their outrage that the commission was being given more money – and that there were no conditions on how they could spend it.

“This is a poor message to the taxpayers of the state,” said Rep. David Burnell Smith, R-Carefree. “I think it’s wrong.”

Rep. Chester Crandell, R-Heber, said he didn’t like being forced to approve an appropriation by “vague language” in the Arizona Constitution that requires the commission be funded. The IRC had threatened legal action to force lawmakers to give them additional funding, and Republican leaders said they expected to lose the lawsuit if they did not approve the funding.

“This legislative body is held hostage. We don’t have a whole lot of choice,” Crandell said. “I call it extortion by law.”

The IRC was initially given $2.5 million for the current fiscal year. However, the commission incurred roughly $630,000 in legal bills in its fight against the open meeting law investigation and to challenge the subsequent removal of Mathis and is set to run out of money this month.

The House approved the funding by a 36-20 vote. The Senate is expected to approve an identical measure on Wednesday and send the legislation to Gov. Jan Brewer for her signature.