Former lawmakers won't ask voters to revamp districts

PHOENIX - Two former lawmakers scrapped plans Tuesday to ask voters to revamp how the state's congressional and legislative districts are crafted.

Ken Clark and Roberta Voss stopped gathering signatures for their initiative drive which would have forced the creation of more politically "competitive'' districts. These are districts where there are a relatively equal number of registered Democrats and Republicans.

But Voss, a Republican, said they haven't given up on the underlying goal. Instead, she said, they hope to reach a deal with others who now oppose their measure in hopes of coming up with something that all sides can find more acceptable.

And that, she said, could be placed before voters in 2010.

The decision by the two former legislators already has had one effect: Current state Rep. Jonathan Paton, R-Tucson, said he will scrap his plan to put a competing measure on the ballot this November - a measure that would, in one key way, do exactly the opposite of what Clark and Voss are proposing.

"There's probably some middle ground,'' said Clark, a Democrat.

Central to the question is what factors should be considered when drawing district lines.

A 2000 ballot measure created a five-member commission to create the 30 legislative districts and eight congressional districts.

That voter-approved measure required consideration of several factors, ranging from complying with federal voting rights laws to protecting "communities of interest.''

It also said that, if possible, the commission should create politically competitive districts.

Based on that, the commission created only a handful of competitive legislative districts. Legal efforts to overturn those districts have so far failed.

The initiative would have made creation of competitive districts the top priority, something Clark said could have created 11 competitive legislative districts.

That plan annoyed Paton who said meeting that goal could result in district lines that split communities. And he feared voters would approve that initiative if it were the only choice on the November ballot.

His measure sought to cement in the current priorities - leaving competitiveness last - along with changes on how members of the Independent Redistricting Commission are elected. He got the House to vote to put his alternate on the ballot; the Senate has yet to act on the plan.

Voss said she believes a compromise might be reached, making creation of politically competitive districts more important than it is now but not doing it at the expense of splitting com- munities.

And Paton said he would like to have more support for his plan to have redistricting commission members elected by congressional district rather than hand picked by politicians. If nothing else, he said that will ensure that all parts of the state are represented - and that rural interests are not ignored.