Congressional and legislative redistricting is here and a critical game of Three Card Monty in your state and a state near you has begun.  The outcome of the redistricting will set the political landscape for the next ten years.  If the progressive left has their way, they will with great skill and in less than subtle ways and behind the scenes manipulate and maneuver the mapping to creating a myriad of progressive districts and then turn around and use the mapping data to achieve victory not only in the progressive districts, but also in the remaining balanced districts.

Let's use Arizona as an example.  In Arizona the legislature does not do congressional or state legislative districts, rather it is left to an independent redistricting commission, established under a state constitutional amendment.  Sounds great, an independent group drawing "let the chips fall where they may" districts.  Well, if you had put money on this, then you would have hit "snake eyes" and lost.

The way it works, is in the five person commission, two of each Democrats and Republicans, are appointed by the leadership in the legislature.  Then the four commissioners agree on one independent, whether it be a lower case or upper case "I".  They choose from a pool of independent applicants who have completed a twenty plus questionnaire.  The problem is the vetting of these independents leaves something on the table.

Arizona's independent, who also chairs the commission, with the power of a chair to set an agenda, may not be an independent political thinker after all.  Just because someone has an "I" after their name does not make them independent.  Arizona's chair has repeatedly voted with the Democrats and has made choices that only a dyed in the wool progressive would make.  This should make one wonder, "is this person an independent?"  Did I tell you that this chair did not indicate to anyone on her application that the chair's spouse was a treasurer of a state office democratic candidate in the last election.  To qualify as an independent, one must only be a registered independent for three years.

Well this chair was the deciding vote to choose a mapping company, that is not a primarily mapping company.  The company, Strategic Telemetry, is a Washington, D.C. based company that was the target mapping company for President Obama's campaign in 2008.  It is currently working for the democrats in the use of technology to aid in the Wisconsin recall of Republicans.  The president of this company Ken Strasma, was quoted as getting involved in the Bloomberg mayoral campaign in New York specifically because Bloomberg is a progressive.  For those who have been living in a cave without benefit of newspapers, radio, or TV; progressives are another name for very left wing liberals.  They are big central government and anti-free market types, and actually a minority ion this country.  When you review the website for this company be sure to click on the "press" tab - it is eye opening.

It appears that the chair of the commission is decidedly left and not independent, or she would not have voted for the most expensive and progressive of all the mapping company candidates, despite being told what Strategic Telemetry was all about.

It is also clear that the current, independent, chair may have misled the selection committee that reviewed the pool of independent candidates.  Her answers to two and maybe three questions on her application are very suspect.  Has the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission been silently hijacked by progressives in disguise? If this company is allowed to map the districts, it will also possess the "inside baseball" material that will allow them to target each precinct to help progressives win where they would not ordinarily have won, thus disenfranchising a host of Arizona voters.  All from what may be a progressive wolf in sheep's clothing.  But there is more to this "Broken Government".

What can be done to fix this, without going to court and wait years for a solution  or not?  Well the Arizona Constitution in article 4 calls for the following:

After having been served written notice and provided with an opportunity for a response, a member of the independent redistricting commission may be removed by the governor, with the concurrence of two-thirds of the senate, for substantial neglect of duty, gross misconduct in office, or inability to discharge the duties of office.

Right now it is clear that two thirds of the Senate will support the Governor.  However, I have heard from multiple sources that the Governor sees no upside for her own interests in getting involved.  It seems that Governor Brewer, would just let this matter be taken up by the courts and at great expense to the state; wait four years, and read the results in the paper, rather than acting to protect her state from a progressive hijacking of her state legislature and her congressional districts.

This is not leadership, but rather abdication and uncaring about the people of Arizona.  I have been told by callers to the governor's office that they were advised that this is not a matter for the Governor, but rather a matter for the courts; the Arizona Constitution states differently.  Well, if this is true, the people of Arizona have either one feckless governor or one not very bright governor.  Only time and public pressure will tell.