In a wide-ranging critique, commissioner Scott Freeman called his service on the panel “largely a waste of time,” complaining the process was gamed from the beginning to favor Democrats.

He had suggested the commission bypass the Obama-run Justice Department: “Are they going to give Arizona a pass because Arizona has the Democratic dream map?”

Commissioner Linda McNulty, a Democrat, said the record will show the new maps were fairly drawn and called the accusations regrettable.

“I think those are wholly incorrect, wholly inappropriate,” McNulty said.  Fellow Democrat José Herrera and Chairwoman Colleen Mathis, a registered independent, joined McNulty in approving the maps.

GOP commissioner Richard Stertz joined Freeman in rejecting the plans.  Voters in 2000 created the independent commission.

Rancor has dogged the commission almost from the start. It culminated in November, when Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, removed Mathis, saying the chairwoman was guilty of substantial neglect of duty and gross misconduct. The Arizona Supreme Court overturned Brewer’s decision and reinstated Mathis.

Full story at the Arizona Republic.