7/28/2011
Scott Orr
The Daily Courier
PRESCOTT – There was standing room only at the Yavapai County Supervisors’ meeting rooms in Prescott and Cottonwood as the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) held its first northern Arizona public forum to gather input on how new congressional and legislative district boundaries should be drawn.
The process of creating a new map for the 2012 election starts in a very regimented fashion: Every district must comply with existing law, and it must have essentially equal population. Districts should be “compact and contiguous,” keep together “communities of interest,” be drawn along geographic lines and city boundaries, and create competitive districts.
The redistricting is necessary because the state’s population has grown enough in the past decade to require a ninth congressional district.
Arizona, unlike some other states, starts from scratch when it redraws district maps. The state is divided into a grid and new boundaries are designed without regard to the old ones.
The AIRC is still a relatively new idea, having been introduced after the 2000 election, when voters passed Proposition 106. The commission includes two Democrats, two Republicans, and an independent chairperson. Colleen Mathis, the chair, and Scott Freeman, the vice-chair, were present at the Prescott supervisors’ meeting room for Thursday night’s forum.
Residents who found it more convenient to attend at the Cottonwood meeting site were tied by video link to the Prescott location so everyone could see and hear everyone else.
Also in attendance: three Yavapai County Sheriff’s Deputies, who Mathis said were there because they were told it was a wise precaution.
Dozens of people stepped up to the microphone to offer opinions on how the maps should be drawn.
Mike Siavelis of Prescott Valley said competitive districts were important. “I would like to see everybody have to compete to win their election,” he said.
“I don’t like seeing people with sweetheart deals, where they don’t even have to put a sign out to win,” he concluded, to a smattering of applause.
Joyce Staveley of Flagstaff traveled to Prescott to express her concern that rural counties have more in common with each other than with metropolitan areas and should be kept together.
“While competitive districts should be favored, this is not the only criteria,” she said, and emphasized that communities of interest should take priority.
Other speakers echoed their support for the “communities of interest” criteria. One idea floated was to keep counties within individual districts to keep their interests protected.
The AIRC will take the public input, create a draft map, and then solicit opinions on it.
The final map must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval.
You can learn more or submit your opinion at www.azredistricting.org.
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Hello
What is the position of the Tea Party members concerning ending this “Corporations are People”, nonsense? Ending the ruling that says Corporations are people and as such have the same first Amendment rights that you and I do. This gives every multinational corporations the Freedom of speech, and since $ has been determined to be speech, these corporations, many run by foreign nationals, can dump billions to benefit certain candidates that they KNOW will protect their interest – Not Ours!
Questions:
Do multi-national Corporations have “We the People’s” best interest at heart?
When a multi-national corporations are faced with a decision that pits what best for We the People against Higher Profits, which choice will win out?
If the 81% of us who want the money out of politics band together in a battle for our Country & our Democracy we can end this era of corporate rule. The easiest way to do this is by way of a Constitutional Convention. Already cities & states around the country are already passing resolutions, states that have the initiative process are getting ready to put this on the ballot.
If tea party members are against the corruptive influence of money in politics, then are they willing to either start a petition or signing one that says just that. This is an example of one of many petition text:
“We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, and direct that our representatives promptly call for a Constitutional Convention for the purpose of amending our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech; & that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”
Is this something that tea party members can get behind?
Let’s start the process of taking our Country & our Government back.
Regards,
Frank
Here are some facts about that.
1st the founding fathers were against monopolies (ie multi-national or super corporations or whatever name you want to attach). This decision probably shows why they were against them.
2nd, a corporation by definition is not a person. That is why persons hide behind corporations to protect their private assets if the corporation ever gets sued.
3rd when you say multi-national, that includes foreign-owned corporations can give while foreigners are forbidden by law to donate any amount. This is against the non-foreign influence which is a cornerstone of our government.
That whole business is nonsense. If they are “persons” and can give as much as they want to a candidate, why can’t I? I am a person, right?
However, petitions to representatives usually wind up in a trash can. They particularly do not pay attention to online generated petitions which are generally means of asking for some kind of funding. Most online petitions are a scam.
The best method of getting the attention of your representative, by their own admission, are personal phone calls, letters and emails basically in that order. Though my representative has responded to emails and many of their sites have a contact form.
I believe the TEA party should be behind monopolies since it is one thing our founders were against. That does NOT mean regulating small businesses or small, family owned corporations out of business with Obamacare and all of the other number of government crap they put into effect.
Marches are another means of garnering attention to the problem.