Arizona Republicans make sneaky moves to rig redistricting commission before any lines are drawn – By David Daley (Salon) / January 14 2021
There are national implications if Republicans take this crucial advantage for the next decade in a swing state
Last August, more than one hundred Donald Trump supporters gathered in front of a Flagstaff, Ariz., gun store for a rally. The “Team Trump On Tour” bus dominated the shopping mall parking lot. U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, spoke to the crowd.
Then, in September, Trump backers gathered again at Timberline Firearms and Training, this time for a “shooting day” to support the president.
Now, the owner of that gun store, Robert Wilson, has been selected one of the five finalists to become the powerful chair of Arizona’s redistricting commission — the supposedly independent, and almost certainly decisive voice on a five-person board (along with two Democrats and two Republicans) who will determine this swing state’s legislative and congressional districts for the next decade.
Wilson might be a registered political independent. But “hosted Trump rallies at his gun store, with a speech by the Freedom Caucus chair” doesn’t inspire confidence in his actual independence or his ability to be the fair-minded, scrupulous arbiter that this position requires.
