Proposition 11 opponents get boost from Arizona redistricting experts

Redistricting reformers in Arizona said Wednesday that a redistricting measure in their state didn't achieve what it was supposed to and Proposition 11 in California has the potential to be even worse.

In a conference call hosted by anti-11 group Citizens for Accountability, Andi Minkoff, vice chair of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Committee, said political consultants hijacked the process in her state and, as a result, creating competitive districts became an afterthought.

"We have fewer competitive districts today than we did before, and I think that can be laid at the foot of the consultants," Minkoff said.

Minkoff and Ramon Valadez of Arizona Minority Coalition for Fair Redistricting said that creating competitive districts was one of the selling points of Arizona's Proposition 106 in 2000, the measure that reformed reapportionment.

But when districts were actually drawn by the five-member committee, they said, competitiveness wasn't a consideration until the new districts were largely finished.

"The way it was sold was false," said Valadez, who added that he was skeptical of the process when the five-member redistricting commission didn't include any minority representation.

Valadez, a state senator at the time the measure passed, said that the state Senate in Arizona has gone from being evenly split between Democrats and Republicans at 15-15 then to an 18-12 advantage for Republicans now.

That's even though Democrats and independents have increased their registration in Arizona since 2000, he said.

Both said Proposition 11 was worse because it makes no promises of competitive districts, though it would turn redistricting over to a 14-member commission of politically uninvolved state residents.

"If you're going to draw districts to be competitive, you can't have a political novice to draw the districts, because they just don't know," Valadez said.

The backers of Proposition 11 fired back with a press release that said comparing Arizona's measure to Proposition 11 is inaccurate, and accused outgoing state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) of misleading voters.

"They had to go out of state to find politicians and political appointees from Arizona to tell the people of California how we should vote," said Kathay Feng, president of 11-backing California Common Cause, in the release.

"Perata and his cronies are desperate to hold onto the status quo - where they can live it up on big salaries and lobbyist-paid junkets while cutting teachers' and nurses' salaries - without fear of voter retribution at the ballot box," she added.

The group said 11 has requirements that the commission reflect California's population, and that the measure would enact widely held principles for redistricting that would head off potential legislation, which has plagued Arizona's redistricting measure since 106 passed.

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