What's My Line?

Reformers have a once-in-a-decade chance to take redistricting out of the hands of legislators. Can it pass? Will it work?

A A A Comments By Amy Silverman Thursday, Oct 5 2000

...continued from page 4

But finding sincere arguments against Proposition 106 may be difficult. Nathan Sproul, executive director of the Arizona Republican Party, attacks Pederson.

"It's not fair that a multimillionaire developer can spend $350,000 of his own money to buy his way on the ballot," Sproul says.

In 1990, the Arizona Legislature cut metropolitan Phoenix into some strange-looking shapes to accommodate the Voting Rights Act and satisfy incumbents' wishes.
  District 7 is cut into several pieces, partly to create a majority-minority a district with a majority of voters with minority ethnicity. And partly to keep "rednecks" out of Democratic Senator Pete Rios' district.
  District 15 stretches all the way from Gila Bend north to Wickenburg, partly so it could please Republicans by including Sun City voters.
  District 20 is in two small, separate pieces, nowhere near each other, in an attempt to create a majority-minority.
  District 28 has a small bump at the northwest tip, to include a future challenger others didn't want in their districts.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Sproul also charges that the commission could be hijacked by special interests, that it will have a steep learning curve, that incumbents know their districts best, that 90 heads are better than five -- and that the one non-Republican/non-Democrat on the commission could wind up with all the power as the swing vote.

Republican legislator Susan Gerard, who was around for the last redistricting process, says her party is just trying to preserve its status.

"I don't see what kind of argument you would make in opposition," she says, "that wouldn't be transparent or hollow or make you look like a damn fool."

Check out this week's featured ad for News