Politico has the story of Christmas in October for Arizona Democrats. It is an outrage.
Overwhelming Republican majority state + (so-called) bipartisan redistricting commission = Democratic majority map.
One would suppose it would not be such a radical belief to expect a fully red Arizona (two Republican senators, 2/3rds majority of Republicans in both legislative bodies, an Republican attorney general and Republican Governor) to actually have a Republican majority in the Congress. Despite not one Democrat able to be elected statewide (that I can find), Democrats are giving thanks to the deceitful bipartisan redistricting committee for balancing the scales unilaterally and feeding some scraps to the Democrats. The reality is that this is like giving alcohol to the homeless and will likely backfire. Here is the lead of the story:
A newly proposed Arizona redistricting plan has the potential to drastically alter the state’s congressional landscape, positioning Democrats to compete for the majority of the state’s nine seats and possibly instigating a primary between two GOP freshmen. The map, released by the state’s new bipartisan redistricting commission, crafts safe seats for two of Arizona’s Hispanic Democrats, Rep. Raul Grijalva and Ed Pastor. It also places freshman Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a January assassination attempt and has not indicated whether she will run for reelection, in a Democratic-oriented, Tucson-area seat.
So Arizona bipartisan line-drawing is protecting three Democratic seats but sending two popular Republican incumbents into primary battles and somehow precisely reducing the margins of the most vulnerable Republican seat. This is exactly how Democrats wish they could use the Voting Rights Act and so-called bipartisan commissions across America – as a weapon to carve Republicans out of work.
Gerrymandering against the will of the public by the political class results in such inequities.