COMMERCE AUTHORITY: CAN IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

posted by Michael Chihak

Friday's Arizona Week will take a look at the state's attempts to reinvent the economy by growing businesses that provide high-quality jobs, to balance the housebuilding and development industries that for years have fed economic growth.

Arizona can't depend on population growth and the ensuing flurry of land development, construction and their boom-bust cycles any more.

The Arizona Commerce Authority, a public-private agency set up by legislation passed in February, is getting its work under way.

We will look at what Commerce Authority officials and others think is needed to make a difference in the state and to grow jobs and the overall economy.

Some key questions:

• Does the Commerce Authority have the funding and the right people in place?

• How much do the severe cuts to education -- both K-12 and higher education -- hamper the economic development effort?

• Can the Commerce Authority succeed by targeting certain industrial categories, or does it need to be more egalitarian?

• What role will local economic development organizations play in the grander scheme of things?

• What special ideas are there for rural economic growth?

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: REDISTRICTING

posted by Melanie Huonker

I first received word that I would research this week’s topic, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, a couple weeks ago. Little did I know how much I would gain out of the experience.

From the get-go, I poured over countless articles covering all aspects of the commission. Absorbing facts such as the Voting Rights Act, Attorney General Tom Horne’s investigation, the commission’s struggle with time.

One of the people I spoke with was Jennifer Steen, a political science professor at Arizona State University. Her last words to me left a lasting impression as my role as a journalist.

She said many media outlets are simply reporting “he said, she said” stories without providing substantial support about the commission, specifically involving the recent investigation. It’s important as a journalist to interpret the situation for the viewers and give them more.

That’s what I hoped to do during my on-air discussion with Michael Chihak.

Watch Friday’s program of “Arizona Week” to hear about the IRC’s influence and the arithmetic it takes to redraw Arizona’s nine congressional and 30 legislative districts.

DE TOCQUEVILLE WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE THIS

posted by Michael Chihak

The work of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is worth watching closely, not only for what it will do to political boundaries in the next decade, but for what it says about the dystopian state of our political system.

The commission’s work, beyond its constitutionally mandated goals, serves as both a commentary on and a reflection of our state and nation’s attitudes about majority rule in a democracy.

An outside observer, perhaps a 21st century De Tocqueville, might look at America now and say that we no longer possess the sense of equality that De Tocqueville saw in the 19th century, but that we have retained our sense of religious conviction along with its almost constant companion – hypocrisy.

That religion, by the way, is from the i’m-right-and-you’re-wrong house of worship.

All this has the potential to leave people disenfranchised.

Just do the math: in Arizona, 35 percent of registered voters are Republican, 31 percent are Democratic and 33 percent are registered with neither party, most calling themselves independent. Those are the voters dissatisfied with the two major parties, although disgusted might be a better description of how many feel.

So how does the attention given to the redistricting commission reflect this? By the way the two major parties are striving to influence its independence.

Politicians on both sides are regularly making pronouncements to the media and the public decrying the process.

The attorney general, a Republican, is investigating how the commission has conducted business and has challenged the one requirement of the commission, that its work meet the dictates of the U.S. Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters.

The American religion of partisan politics is hampering, if not obfuscating, the independence, and our democracy is the worse off for it.

AZ REDISTRICTING? DO THE MATH

posted by Michael Chihak

Doing the math is most important when it comes to congressional and legislative redistricting in Arizona.

It depends on who is doing the math and for what purpose. Richard Gilman, journalist and chief contributor to thinkingarizona.com, demonstrared so in an opinion piece he wrote that appeared in Sunday's [Arizona Daily Star(http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/article_6055df29-0b0d-52d3-9eb4-2cd63cb477fb.html).

Besides population equity, the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission must draw boundaries that comply with the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act. Additionally, the boundaries should:

-- Be geographically compact and contiguous.

-- Respect communities of interest.

-- Use geographic features, city, town and county boundaries.

-- Allow for politically competitive districts "where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals."

Those requirements make the math much more complicated, and as is being demonstrated in some early numbers crunching, mean that most maps would have trouble fulfilling even four of the six goals.

For Friday's Arizona Week, we will look at the numbers and talk to those who would influence the process.

MAD SCRAMBLE, AND THE CREW COMES THROUGH

posted by Michael Chihak

Interviews at a law office on East Camelback Road ended about 2:20 p.m. Thursday, cutting into our travel and setup time for another recording planned for 3 p.m. on the ASU campus in Tempe.

Generally, the video crew that shoots Arizona Week likes a minimum of one hour to set up for a shoot. That time is needed to position cameras, set and adjust lighting, build attractive background, all designed to enhance the interview.

Once it's all in place, the rest is up to me and my guest.

In the case of the East Camelback interviews -- two, back to back -- all was well. Nice lighting and backgrounds, and the interviews themselves went well. We did run a little long, and that made the transition to Tempe a scramble.

Crew videographers Bob Lindberg and Steve Riggs and student grips Ricardo Johnson and Freddy Duarte got us packed and on the road in a two-van caravan by 2:35. We hit the ASU College of Law building at 2:58 and scrambled upstairs to set up in the dean's office.

Interim Dean Douglas Sylvester was most accommodating, allowing his snug office to be turned quickly into a mini TV studio. The crew used minimal lighting and stuck with the backgrounds that already were in place.

The was no time for perfection, but it worked beautifully, with a good interview, well lighted and good audio. The dean was most affable about the whole production, and all ended with smiles and handshakes.

Watch the results tonight at 8:30 MST on PBS-HD-6, or at azweek.com.

FRIDAY'S LINEUP: LAWYERS DISCUSS SECURITY VS. FREEDOM

posted by Michael Chihak

The lineup for Friday's Arizona Week should present a richness of opinion and experience on the fundamentals of the American democratic way of life.

We will look at the issue of security vs. freedom and ask if one has to be sacrificed for the other in a post 9/11 world. Ten years after the tragic terrorist attacks, are we more secure? Are we freer?

Discussing the issues will be:

-- Paul K. Charlton, a Phoenix lawyer who was U.S. attorney for Arizona on 9/11. His role changed in the aftermath to one of investigation into the background and connections of a 9/11 hijacker, Hani Hanjour, who had Arizona connections.

-- Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the Arizona ACLU in Phoenix. In that position for the last five years, she has led the ACLU's efforts in Arizona at defending individual rights, including those of immigrants, women and anyone whose rights are abridged.

-- Douglas J. Sylvester, interim dean of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. His legal expertise includes experience in emerging technologies and high technology and their use in the law.

Also on the program to discuss the ramifications of the Patriot Act on freedom and security will be Arizona Republic editorial writer Doug MacEachern and National Public Radio Arizona correspondent Ted Robbins.