Lawmakers OK ouster of Ariz. redistricting chair

PHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer and Republican legislators on Tuesday ousted the head of the state's redistricting commission, throwing the high-stakes political process of drawing new congressional and legislative districts into disarray.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett, the acting governor while Brewer was out of state, called the Legislature into special session, with a brief agenda that included a required Senate vote on Brewer's removal of Colleen Mathis as the commission's chair.

The Senate vote was 21-6 and along party lines.

Brewer said in a statement she would "not sit idly by while Arizona's congressional and legislative boundaries are drawn in a fashion that is anything but constitutional and proper. Arizona voters must live with the new district maps for a decade."

Arizona voters in 2000 approved an initiative measure to create the commission and take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and governor. Supporters said that would remove incumbents' self-interest as a redistricting factor and lead to creation of additional districts competitive between Republicans and Democrats.

With Mathis' removal, a new chair for the commission will have to be appointed. Under the redistricting law, a state judicial appointment panel would nominate three people for other redistricting commission members to consider for appointment.

The commission had met Monday evening in executive session, later directing its attorneys to take action that was discussed during the closed meeting. Spokesman Stuart Robinson declined to elaborate Tuesday.

Another unanswered question is whether the commission's draft congressional and legislative maps move forward toward possible changes and final approval by the commission, or are cast aside in favor of drawing new ones from scratch.

Mathis, the sole independent on the commission, has provided the swing vote on several key votes by the commission, including her siding with the two Democrats to approve the draft congressional map and on several key staff choices that drew criticism from Republicans on and off the commission.

Those choices included the selection as mapping consultants of Strategic Telemetry, a Washington-based firm that has done campaign work for President Barack Obama and other Democrats.

Mathis attorney Paul Charlton said her removal was "anything but a fair hearing. In fact we think she was railroaded."