The battle for fair representation
Proposed Arizona redistricting of legislative, congressional districts would consolidate Native vote
By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau
CHINLE, Dec. 15, 2011
(Source: Arizona Redistricting Commission)
TOP: This map shows the proposed new congressional voting districts in Arizona, overlain with tribal lands.
This map shows the proposed new legislative voting districts in Arizona, overlain with tribal lands.
And much of the credit, Jackson said, is due the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.
New Legislative District 7, which incorporates parts of present districts 1, 2, 3 and 5, would incorporate all the state's northern tribes - Hualapai, Havasupai, Kaibab Paiute, Navajo and Hopi - as well as Zuni Pueblo and both the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache reservations.
And new Congressional District 1 would place Hopi, Havasupai and Hualapai in the same district as their Navajo and Apache neighbors, making the season look bright for Democratic candidate Wenona Benally Baldenegro, a Navajo.
In the past, Jackson said, Hopi has objected to being in the same district as Navajo, but with the resolution of the Navajo-Hopi land dispute and warming of relations between the mutually wary tribes, the present oddly cut District 2 can be split between newly drawn districts 1 and 4.
Because of the number of minority voters in the new districts, Jackson doesn't think the Republicans on the state's Redistricting Committee will dare play with them too much, other than perchance to lop off a chunk of the northeast along the Nevada border. (It may be the far left on the map, but the isolationist enclave of Colorado City and surroundings votes in the other direction.)
Under the U.S. Voting Rights Act - which is applied in specific ways in Arizona because it is a previous violator - the percentage of minority people of voting age in a certain district cannot be allowed to decrease once the new lines are drawn.
Leonard Gorman, director of the Navajo Human Rights Commission said the Navajo Nation's new legislative district - 7 - not only does not retrogress in the percentage of Native potential voters, but actually increases by 5 percent to 63 percent over its old District 2.
"I'm very happy that the (Navajo Nation) Human Rights Commission has been so active in the redistricting process, and that they were able to draw the other tribes into the discussion," Jackson said in a telephone interview.
"The Navajo Nation attorney actually carried the Hopis' position letter to the redistricting commission," Gorman said. "You wouldn't have seen that 10 years ago."
Far from the turmoil of the 1970s, when the courts reprimanded Arizona for gerrymandering its Native people out of the political process, "the Native voice was heard throughout" the redistricting debate, Jackson said.
Role for Navajos
Gorman said having the commission, which was formed in 2008, allowed the Navajo Nation to be a major player in redistricting discussions.
In previous redistrictings, the Navajo Nation Council has been too wrapped up in its own issues to devote much time to state and federal election maps, he said.
Now they can delegate that task to the Human Rights Commission, although the commission's proposals must still be approved by the Navajo Nation Council.
"When it came to drawing up LD 6 and LD 7, the Navajo Nation was a principal," Gorman said. "In fact, I would say we were a 90 percent broker of those two districts."
Jackson's only beef with his new district, 7, is that it does not include Flagstaff, where he had a lot of support in the last election.
But, as a Democrat, he thinks new Legislative District 6, which carves out a big chunk of Arizona's mountainous, rural heart, will be an interesting one to watch.
With the Mormon ranching enclaves of Snowflake and Show Low literally and figuratively on the right, and enough left-wingers in Flagstaff and Sedona to balance them out, LD 6 "could be a very competitive district where a strong Democratic candidate would have a good chance," Jackson ventured.
Gorman said the final lines of proposed LD 6 weren't drawn until Dec. 8. The new district was originally about 55 percent Republican. As a concession to the Democrats, the Navajos gave up 15,000 people in proposed District 7, which made the balance more equal.
"Navajo was happy, I believe the Democrats and Republicans were happy, and Coconino County was happy," he said.
While new Legislative District 7, as it stands now, would be the only district spanning the state from west to east, new Congressional District 1 would be the only district reaching all the way from the north to the south. This draws in a lot of Latinos, who generally vote Democratic and may feel a kinship to Native candidates, Jackson pointed out - especially Baldenegro with her Mexican-American husband and Spanish last name.
The redistricting process hit a bump last month when Republican Gov. Jan Brewer dismissed Redistricting Committee Chairwoman Colleen Coyle Mathis, accusing her of too many secret meetings. But the Supreme Court ruled that the committee needed some privacy to do its job effectively, and reinstated the chair.
"I think things are going pretty smoothly now," Jackson said, "although I'm hearing about some factionalization within the committee.
"I think that, because of the interruption, they'll try to move the process along now and have something final for us soon."
The next public meeting, originally scheduled for this Saturday, Dec. 17, in Tempe, has been canceled, but interested voters can subscribe to e-mail notification of upcoming meetings at www.azredistricting.org.
Meanwhile, the NNHRC has also taken a position on both the Apache County and Navajo County proposals for redrawing the boundaries of their county supervisor districts. Because of previous Voting Rights Act violations in the 1970s, both counties' new lines must be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, with input from the tribe.
N.M., Utah still in play
State and federal voting districts are redrawn every 10 years after the new census to account for shifts in population density. The NNHRC is also involved in the Utah and New Mexico redistricting process, since the reservation extends into those two states.
In Utah, the battle centers around San Juan County - the only county in the state that overlaps the Navajo Nation.
The Human Rights Commission's position is that, based on the number of Diné in the county, the districts should be drawn so that Navajos can elect two of their own people to the county commission if they choose (at present there is only one, Kenneth Maryboy).
The county, however, has dug in its heels and refused to redraw the lines.
"We have made a specific request to the Department of Justice in hopes of persuading the county to come up with a plan, but so far nothing," Gorman said. "It's getting to the point where we're going to have to take some sort of action, probably in the courts."
In New Mexico, where, Gorman says, the politics are "considerably different" from either Arizona or Utah, the NNHRC has taken a different tack. Rather than consolidate the Navajo vote into one congressional district, it wants to draw the lines so that Navajos will be have a fairly major presence in all three.
On the legislative side, the Navajo proposal has come under fire from State Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, who accused the commission of dragging some of his Navajo supporters into the neighboring district.
Gorman said Begaye has plenty to share.
"His district is something like 88 percent Navajo," Gorman said. "He could sacrifice 20 percent and still get elected."
Unlike most other Navajo-dominant areas, however, many Navajos in Begaye's area vote Republican, and that's what worries him, he says.
Updates on all three states' redistricting efforts and how they affect Navajo can be found at www.nnhrc.navajo-nsn.gov.
Now that the NNHRC has invested so much effort in redistricting, Gorman said, it's up to the Diné population to be more than just numbers in a census.
"It's absolutely important for Navajos not only to register to vote, but to get out and vote," Gorman said.