The future of Arizona’s legislative map is in the hands of three federal judges, who wrapped up four days of trial testimony March 28 and heard pointblank denials from Democrats that they gerrymandered the districts.

Before this morning’s (March 25) federal court trial, the Republican story has been that Dem commissioners and the IRC’s independent chairwoman worked together to thwart the desires of GOP commissioners, all the while advancing map proposals pushed by Dems. But Miranda’s name was not connected to that theory.

As 2012 comes to a close, some Arizona politicos have reached new heights of prominence and power. Others saw once-promising careers hit the wall.

Jeff Flake and Kyrsten Sinema gained influence and stature in the nation’s capital, while Andy Biggs reached the pinnacle of power in the Arizona Senate.

Meanwhile, former Senate President Russell Pearce and his successor, Sen. Steve Pierce, fell from grace, while a slew of Republican candidates once again failed in their bids to reach the halls of Congress.

Not since the AzScam scandal in 1991 have so many Arizona lawmakers left office amid criminal allegations in a single year.

The current scandals could cast a cloud over the state’s general election. Lawmakers who leave in disgrace tend to discourage cynical voters from going to the polls, pollsters and players from the AzScam bribery scandal said.

Disgraced former lawmaker Richard Miranda will go to prison for 27 months for stealing from a charity he ran.

Congressman Ed Pastor is among current and former politicians, a mayor, a community college president and a host of life-long friends of Richard Miranda asking a federal judge for leniency when the ex-lawmaker is sentenced June 5.

Nearly two years after Republicans took advantage of an insurgent mood that swept the nation and secured supermajority control of the Legislature, the GOP in Arizona can boast of enacting state budgets that eschewed accounting gimmicks, assumed cautious revenue estimates and earmarked money for anticipated rainy days ahead.

A federal grand jury today charged Rep. Ben Arredondo with bribery, fraud, attempted extortion and false statements for allegedly taking thousands of dollars in game tickets and other perks in exchange for brokering property deals in Tempe.

Lawmakers wrapped up their work at 8:25 p.m. on May 3 after nearly four months in session, having stashed away money for anticipated rainy days ahead, approved a sweeping measure that allows state workers to be more easily fired and fought on the unending battlefronts of abortion, taxation and border security.

And like the year before, lawmakers with conservative leanings shaped the agenda at the Capitol.

Yesterday, Miranda pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of wire fraud and attempted tax evasion for what federal prosecutors say was a three-year plot to rip off the nonprofit Centro Adelante Campesino.