Thread by @jeremyduda

Today's meeting of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission will begin in a few minutes. You can tune in here:

This is a business meeting for the AIRC, not a map-drawing meeting. But they'll be taking some input from Dem commissioners Lerner and Watchman on changes they'd like to see to the proposed legislative districts in southern Arizona.

Last week's meetings ended with some acrimony as Lerner objected to the AIRC's decision to use six legislative districts drawn and submitted by the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, a Tucson business group that Commissioner Mehl is a member of. azmirror.com/2021/10/22/red…

Chair Neuberg doesn't cite specific concerns, but addresses public comments about the maps. "Nothing has been locked in, and even after Thursday, when the commission will hopefully approve a draft map, it will be just that. A draft.”

Neuberg says the draft maps are tentative, and emphasizes that there will be a statewide tour to get public input. “Every decision will remain on the table.”

Neuberg sends the same messages to the other commissioners, says this is a chance to give final thoughts to mapping consultants, “again, with the understanding that these are tentative ideas that we are presenting to the community, and that we are not perfecting a map.”

Given that Mehl and York were ready to vote on draft maps on Thursday, that message was likely intended for Lerner and Watchman, both of whom raised objections about the legislative map.

Neuberg still wants this Thursday to be the final vote on draft maps. “I want to be honest. I am really hoping and my goal is at the end of Thursday that we have a map that really all commissioners can support as a template, as a draft to get out to the community.”

They're starting with the legislative map, which is where most of the disagreement is

Lerner starts with LD17 and LD18, which is her biggest concern

Lerner wants to keep Marana and Oro Valley together, as Mehl wants, but says LD17 should include the Catalina Foothills, Casas Adobes with those cities, as well as SaddleBrooke if there's room for the population.

Lerner says it's a problem that the northern and eastern parts of the district are completely separated by the Santa Catalinas, says it's an hour drive with no traffic between the two areas.

To balance out the population, Lerner wants LD17 to lose Tanque Verde, join it with eastern Tucson

Lerner proposes taking the Flowing Wells area of Tucson out of predominantly rural LD16 and putting it into LD20

Lerner says move Rincon Valley and Vail from LD17 to LD19, which is Cochise County and Davis-Monthan AFB area, and move D-M into LD21, which runs from southern Tucson down to Nogales.

The last thing the IRC did on Thursday was move part of Pinal County (Mammoth, Oracle, San Manuel) from LD7, which is largely rural, northern Arizona, into LD17. Lerner wants to move that area back into LD7 so district ends at the Pinal County line.

Lerner proposes moving Coolidge from LD7 into LD16, which would join it with Casa Grande and Eloy. The mapping consultants say that would likely balance out the population for LD16.

That's it for southern, central AZ. Lerner says she has one proposed change for Phoenix area. Neuberg warns not to make too many changes. “The one concern I have is I hope we’re not going to arrive on Thursday morning with two dramatically different maps."

Lerner's proposal for the Phoenix area is just for LD4 and LD8, to keep Paradise Valley whole in LD4.

York disagrees with Lerner's ideas for LD4/LD8. Neuberg also has some ideas on how to move the lines in that area.

Lerner says they should save this debate on the Phoenix area for Thursday. “We might be able to find a compromise with all of us.”

York only has until 9am today, so they don't have much time to debate these issues

York says he likes Maricopa as is, and he's receptive to Lerner's concerns about LD17

Mehl likes 8.0 as is, but has some ideas about what can be changed in southern Arizona, says some is similar to Lerner's ideas, but doesn't go as far.

Mehl proposes moving all of Flowing Wells east of I-10 from LD16 to LD20, and move Tucson Estates and the neighborhood to the west from LD20 to LD16

Mehl is okay with putting Mammoth, Oracle and San Manuel back into LD7 from LD17

Mehl also proposes giving LD21 the Davis-Monthan area, giving eastern Santa Cruz, Quail Creek, Tubac and Amado to LD19 in exchange.

Watchman supports Lerner's proposal, says they need to get Latino Coalition's input on how the changes would affect the Hispanic population

That's it for proposed changes to the legislative districts. The consultants will have 3 LD test maps for the commission to consider on Thursday.

Now they're moving to the congressional map, where there was a lot less disagreement in the latter part of last week

The last congressional map they approved was CD test map 6.0

Mehl says he's comfortable moving forward with the CD draft map as is, thinks his four colleagues are too, but if others have changes, so does he.

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero sent a letter to the IRC this morning proposing changes to congressional districts in southern AZ. The commissioners want to look at @TucsonRomero's proposed changes on Thursday.

On the congressional map, Lerner says she wants to look at moving Sunnyslope and the North Mountain Preserve into CD1, moving Cave Creek, Carefree and New River out of the district into CD8.

Neuberg setting some expectations for Thursday. If the commission is 5-0 in favor of one of the three LD map plans, things will go quickly. If not, “we’re going to be deliberating for a while.”

In other words, expect them to be deliberating on the LD maps for a while

The only potential change they're making on the congressional maps for Thursday is that the mapping consultants will look for ways to improve Voting Rights Act compliance in CD3 (Grijalva)

They're done discussing the maps, and York has left the meeting