PHOENIX — Despite concerns of Democrats on the panel, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission gave preliminary approval Thursday to a map that would give Republicans an edge in electing members of the Legislature for the balance of the decade.
As part of that, the five-member commission voted to create a legislative district in Pima County designed to help ensure the election of Republicans to the state House and Senate.
There was less controversy over a decision to give final approval to a draft map that also would give Republicans an edge in congressional races for the balance of the decade.
Republicans would dominate in three congressional districts and Democrats in two. The margins are close enough in the other four districts to, at least theoretically, allow a candidate from either party to win a general election.
Thursday’s vote is not the final word. Commissioners said they anticipate changes in early December after that map goes out for public comment for the next 30 days.
One issue left hanging is how that map splits Tucson between two congressional districts following a complaint from Mayor Regina Romero, a Democrat. She said it makes no sense to have the University of Arizona and the nearby Fourth Avenue shopping and restaurant area separated from downtown.
“She makes a compelling argument,’’ said Chairwoman Erika Neuberg.
But rather than wrestle with the issue Thursday, the commission chose to keep that line in place, at least for now, with the option of making future changes before final adoption.
The real debate Thursday came over how to draw the lines for the state’s 30 legislative districts, with the Republican and Democratic commissioners on opposite sides of the key battle of how to divide Southern Arizona.
Neuberg, an independent, sided with the two Republicans in saying she prefers a plan that allows what she called “right-of-center’’ residents in the Tucson area to have a chance to elect someone who shares their political philosophy.
But in doing so, the commission rejected a proposal by Shereen Lerner, one of the two Democrats, to create a district with a population split nearly even between the two major parties.
Lerner argued that would be fair and would still provide Republicans “with a good opportunity to have their voices heard.”
The maps, which now go out for public comment, tentatively create two legislative districts that would be an effective tossup between the two parities, based on a study of how residents of the area voted in prior elections. Another four districts are considered within the possible competitive range, with two leaning Republican and two leaning Democratic.
There would have been three tossup districts, along with 12 where the margins favored Republicans and 11 with decidedly Democratic edges.
But that was before the panel crafted Legislative District 17 — the one in the suburban Tucson area — to give an edge to the GOP. Hence, the draft maps appear to create 13 Republican-leaning districts against 11 with a Democratic edge.
The commission crafted an LD17 that starts at Marana, runs through Oro Valley and around Tucson’s northern and eastern edge to take in Tanque Verde and Vail.
That drew objections from Lerner. She proposed instead to include Casas Adobes in the district, saying that makes more sense.
“They share a lot of services in that area,’’ Lerner said. That also would have kept most of the Amphi and Catalina Foothills school districts in the same political area.
That did not sit well with Commissioner David Mehl, a Tucson Republican.
He agreed to back off — just a bit — from the plan he had previously advanced on behalf of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, of which he is a founding member.
His earlier plan included Oracle, Mammoth and San Manuel in LD17. They now are in LD7, which stretches north through Florence into the eastern edge of Apache Junction and up to Payson and Snowflake.
And Tucson’s Flowing Wells area was moved from LD17 into LD20, which runs through downtown Tucson.
But Mehl insisted that with four strongly Democratic districts in Pima County, there needs to be at least one with a Republican edge.
“Having a district that leans Republican I don’t think is a bad thing,’’ he said.
Voter registrations in Pima County are about 40% Democrats, 28.5% Republicans and 30.4% independents, plus a handful of Libertarians.
Anyway, Mehl argued, this plan creates a “suburban ring around Tucson.’’
He said it also reflects that Tanque Verde residents are in many ways like those living in the city’s northern suburbs. Mehl said they have no interest in being aligned with people living in Tucson, saying they have repeatedly rejected annexation.
He got the support of Douglas York, the other Republican on the panel, who said it makes sense to have Vail and Tanque Verde linked to the northwest section of the county.
“The east side of Pima County is a lot like the Marana area,’’ he said.
Lerner said her GOP colleagues were ignoring one requirement they have for drawing lines: creating compact districts.
“Casas Adobes, it’s right there,’’ she said. “We’re going around it for political reasons.’’
What tilted the debate in Mehl’s favor was the support of Neuberg, the independent on the commission.
“I am focused on ensuring some accountability in the Tucson area for right-of-center folks, a community of interest, to not be neglected,’’ she said.
The result is that LD17 has a Republican edge, versus what would have been a nearly even political split under Lerner’s plan.
The question of what the area around Tucson should look like legislatively spilled over into a separate debate over the political future of southern Cochise County, specifically Bisbee and Douglas.
“These are border communities that have high Latino populations,’’ said Lerner.
But the map given preliminary approval Thursday puts them into heavily Republican LD19, which includes not just the rest of Cochise County but goes as far west as Green Valley and stretches to Safford, Clifton and Morenci.
Lerner wants those areas linked to LD21, a heavily Democratic district that runs from Nogales up into southeast Tucson.
The problem is that the law requires each of the 30 legislative districts to have a roughly equal number of residents. And removing the populations of Bisbee and Douglas would leave LD19 short.
Lerner said there’s a simple way to solve that: Add Vail and Tanque to LD19. But that drew objections from Mehl, who said he doesn’t want to give up those Republican voters from LD17.
Strictly speaking, what Lerner wants is not dead, as the maps can still be changed before formal adoption next month. She promised to bring the issue back before a final vote.
