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The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission could stumble into another partisan divide, but this time it involves whether members will cooperate with Attorney General Tom Horne’s investigation into whether the commission violated open meeting and procurement laws when it hired a mapping consultant in June.

Tell me that the upcoming recall election of Russell Pearce isn’t going to be as uneventful as I expect it will be. So far, all the signs are pointing to a disappointing blowout, with Pearce clobbering political newbie Jerry Lewis.

It was announced this week that the National Institute on Civil Discourse awarded its first grants to several UofA departments: one to watch how politicians handle confrontational questions from constituents and another to read comments left by readers of the ...

Several years ago I attended a government commission meeting where an appointed chairman openly rejected an assistant attorney general’s recommendation to convene an executive session.

“No, I don’t think we need an executive session to talk about this,” the chairman said, to the best of my recollection.

It’s not that every — or even most — public bodies are eager to shut their doors to the public. It’s that confidence is inspired in government when the doors remain open when the real decision-making process begins.

Arizona’s system of public campaign financing has been dealt a major, although expected, blow by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled June 27 that the matching funds provision of the Clean Elections Act is unconstitutional.

The big news this week is the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Arizona’s matching funds provision from Clean Elections. The ruling could be a game-changer for some who will seek legislative and statewide elected positions. But it also begs the question: What will we really be missing?

Yellow Sheet Report associate editor Christian Palmer talks about the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on matching funds and what it will mean for politics in Arizona.

Arizona’s system of public campaign financing has been dealt a major, although expected, blow by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled today that the matching funds provision of the Clean Elections Act is unconstitutional.

You wouldn’t naturally expect people to become angry before a state commission redraws Arizona’s legislative and congressional districts, but thanks to the trending wave of dysfunction, that’s exactly what has happened.