IRC closing in on final draft
PHOENIX — The final division of the state's nine congressional districts could come down to who gets to represent residents of Tucson's northern suburbs and Cochise County.
At a meeting Thursday, members of the Independent Redistricting Commission were closing in on final plans for the nine districts. The two maps for discussion even shared common elements.
First, they keep together the communities of Marana, Saddlebrook, Catalina and Oro Valley. There had been some testimony from area residents that they have common interests.
Second, both maps eliminate any split of Cochise County.
But how those changes are accomplished could create some last-minute hurdles to the commission's goal of having final maps ready by Christmas.
A map prepared by Linda McNulty, one of the Democrats on the panel, encompasses all of Cochise County into a district that would be dominated by the east side of Tucson. That district also includes the Foothills area and Casas Adobes.
That pushes Marana and Oro Valley into a far-flung largely rural district that runs not only northwest all the way into Maricopa County but encompasses the entire eastern edge of the state, the Navajo and other reservations and all the way to the Grand Canyon.
There had been some testimony from area residents that the northern Pima and southern Pinal communities would have more in common with relatively nearby Tucson where many shop and work. But McNulty said they appear to be a better fit not only kept together with each other but paired with rural areas.
She cited testimony in September by Oro Valley resident Lynne St. Angelo who said that Casa Grande and points north, in Pinal County, were much more similar than Tucson to the south.
McNulty also said there is a political benefit to her plan: By having a district that dips into Pima County, It would give the Tucson metro area a third congressional representative.
Republican Richard Stertz also wants to keep those communities together, albeit in a different fashion.
His map, too, has Cochise County in a single district — but now part of the huge rural district stretching through the Navajo Reservation to Grand Canyon.
That shift, in turn, requires expanding the eastide Tucson district to include adding Oro Valley, Marana and Saddlebrook, stretching to Eloy.
Politics also is at play.
McNulty complained that Stertz's map reduces the percentage of Democrats in what would be left in that eastside Tucson district, the one currently represented by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. But Stertz said the change is minor, in the range of increasing the GOP edge by one percentage point from earlier proposals.
McNulty was unconvinced it did not matter.
