Arizona's tea bagging legislature and GOP leadership didn't like it when citizens approved Prop. 203 in 2010, the medical marijuana law, and Gov. Brewer, AG Tom Horne and their toadies in the legislature tried like hell to reverse that decision, ultimately losing. Now, the GOP stooges are upset with another citizen referendum — a 2000 vote establishing an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) that draws legislative and congressional boundaries, rather than giving the job to the legislature itself.
It's not hard to find fault with the old system: once elected, legislators draw boundaries to ensure they and their pals will continue to be elected. Few districts are deemed competitive, and what we saw in Arizona was that the parties sometimes didn't even run candidates because the gerrymandered districts were so lopsidedly uncompetitive.
So in 2000 voters decided to create the IRC, a 5-person panel consisting of 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats and 1 Independent. To do its job, which took years, the IRC consulted census data and held public meetings around the state. In other words, they listened to the people, tried to remove politics from the process and made decisions transparently — not one party scheming in the basement of the Capitol, which had been the previous method.
Republicans were nervous and shoulda been, because beginning with the 2010 election, three congressional districts that were previously "safe" were now competitive and Dems won all of them. Well, we can't be having that! So in 2011 Gov. Brewer removed the Chairwoman of the IRC, but the Arizona Supreme Court reinstated her. Having failed at that, Senate President Andy Biggs and House Speaker Andy Tobin, who's currently running for Congress in AZ-1, filed a lawsuit claiming that the IRC is unconstitutional because only the legislature has the power to draw boundaries. A district court did not agree.
A three-judge panel sided with the redistricting commission. The judges ruled that the U.S. Constitution refers not to a specific legislative body when it talks about the authority over federal elections but to the state's general authority to legislate as it sees fit.
Next stop: The U.S. Supreme Court, which yesterday
agreed to hear the Arizona GOP's challenge to congressional districts.
Republican leaders are not happy with the voters' decree that voters should determine who will represent them – not the other way around. Now, they're hoping the Supreme Court will return the power to, well, them.
Another case, focusing on legislative boundaries, is also working its way to the Supremes. I'd like to be optimistic but this
is the Supreme Court. Sure, the IRC, Clean Elections and other voter initiatives approved by citizens could stand some tinkering, but that's no reason to return the ballot box to the corporate fundies that control Arizona's legislature.