As the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) continues a flawed process toward finalizing congressional and legislative maps, Kelly Burton, National Democratic Redistricting Committee President, released the following statement:

“Yesterday’s AIRC meeting further demonstrated a pattern of Republican bias by Chair Erika Neuberg, and the congressional map produced through her failed process does not adequately reflect Arizona’s growing and diverse electorate. The chair’s failure to lead the 2021 AIRC to fair and balanced maps falls far short of the expectations enshrined into the Arizona constitution. Two decades ago, voters demanded that independent commissioners—not politicians—have an opportunity to create maps that properly represent the state’s population and communities of interest. So far, Neuberg has been derelict in her duties to the voters of Arizona.

“Arizonans expect and deserve a fair process conducted impartially without undue favor toward any political party. Neuberg should be an unbiased arbiter in redistricting matters, but her actions expose her as an independent in name only who is instead serving as an additional Republican commissioner. She has consistently sided with GOP commissioners on tie-breaking votes and helped usher along their partisan priorities. Neuberg also paved the way for a proposed congressional map that would regularly elect two Democrats and seven Republicans to Congress, which does not reflect the state she purports to serve. The Chair has never supported a single Democratic map proposal and has repeatedly ignored the requests of Latinos and the Navajo Nation. 

“The political imbalance and the disregard for communities in the draft maps to date violate the spirit of the AIRC and must be addressed immediately.”

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