Suit alleges IRC’s Mathis offered quid pro quo

Republican officials and candidates filed lawsuits in Superior against the Independent Redistricting Commission and the Secretary of State. They are seeking an injunction on the grounds that the AIRC violated the redistricting process mandated by the Arizona Constitution.

The suit, filed on April 27, in Maricopa County Superior Court, by plaintiffs Lynne St. De Angelo, Vince Leach, Karen Glennon, Carolyn Cox, Donald Shooter, Karyn Cushing and Jayne Friedman, and Eleanor Clark, argue that “the validity of that Map depends on whether the AIRC followed the specific, mandatory constitutional procedures for its development.”

The suit alleges that the Commission engaged in “outcome-driven redistricting instead of the process–driven redistricting guaranteed by the Arizona Constitution.”

Plaintiffs claim fact that the Commission’s Chair acted with the Democratic members on every decision of any consequence.” As an example, they cite the hiring of the Commission’s attorneys.

Republican Commissioners’ legal representation

“Although a majority of the AIRC hired Republican and Democrat counsel to represent them, both lawyers were selected by the Democrat Commissioners, Defendants McNulty and Herrera, and the Chair Defendant Mathis. The Republican attorney was selected over the objections of the Republican Commissioners, Defendants Freeman and Stertz.”

The Republican counsel, Joseph Kanefield “was a newly minted Republican having changed his registration from democrat to republican on July 22, 2010, only nine months prior to responding to the RFP. He was a registered Democrat for at least the preceding 17 years (since August 1, 1994).”

Kanefield was employed in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office under Janet Napolitano and in the Secretary of State’s Office under Jan Brewer.

The hiring of Kanefield raised “concerns that the process was outcome-oriented in nature,” due to the “scoring of responses to the RFP.” At least one Democrat Commissioner “gave perfect scores to the Democrat Commissioner’s preferred candidates and an unjustifiably low score to the candidate preferred by the Republican Commissioners. One other Commissioner’s written comments during the procurement process reveal concerns about the possibility that the scoring had been rigged.”

The suit alleges that “one or more of the Defendant Commissioners engaged in a series of separate communications,” in violate of Open Meeting Law in the hiring of counsel.

Mathis allegedly offers quid pro quo

When the AIRC met in public session to select four candidates to interview for the position of mapping consultant, their choices were Strategic Telemetry, national Demographics, Research Advisory services, and Terra Systems Southwest.

Strategic Telemetry, who performed services for democrat interests, received perfect scores from Defendants Mathis, McNulty, and Herrera despite having no experience and submitting the highest bid. Strategic Telemetry was not at the time of their hiring a mapping firm.

In fact, during the meeting on July 8, 2011, Strategic Telemetry’s president “indicated that Strategic Telemetry had scheduled training to learn the Maptitude software that is commonly used in redistricting.”

However, Chair Mathis, according to the suit, “caused the destruction of these individual scoring sheets during the Commission’s marathon executive session on June 15, 2011.”

According to the plaintiffs, “Commissioner Mathis actively lobbied and negotiated with other Commissioners to select Strategic Telemetry.”

“Before the selection of the mapping consultant, Defendant Mathis contacted Defendant Freeman on at least one occasion to ask him to support the selection of Strategic Telemetry as the AIRC’s mapping consultant. Defendant Mathis presented a quid pro quo to Defendant Freeman, stating that “there might be times in the future where, you know, [you] need[] (sic) a third vote,” according to the Attorney General’s deposition of Freeman.

Defendant Freeman claims he turned down Mathis’s offer.

In a letter to Governor Brewer, Commissioner Rick Stertz wrote that a quid pro quo had been offered to him by Mathis, and “if I were to vote with her in regards to the selection of Strategic Telemetry, she would provide a favorable vote for me in the future.”

Defendant Stertz claims he turned down Mathis’s offer.

According to the suit both Herrera and McNulty communicated with other commissioners about the selection of Strategic Telemetry in violation of Open Meeting Law.

The State Procurement Office (SPO) then renounced any role in the procurement process “because the process clearly was diverging from long standing practices under Arizona procurement law,” according to the suit. The AIRC had previously used the SPO for the hiring of the lawyers, and had started to use them for the mapping consultant hiring, when the SPO abruptly quit.

The AIRC voted to hire Strategic Telemetry in a 3-2 vote.

Strategic Telementry was hired to map not micro-target

The President of Strategic Telemetry is Ken Strasma. Strasma served as the national target director of the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, as well as John Kerry’s presidential campaign. Strasma also worked on the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

“Mr. Strasma also has a long history of making substantial monetary contributions to Democrat candidates,” according to the suit. “According to the Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Strasma has contributed almost $15,000 to democrat candidates in recent years.”

As a Democratic campaign strategist, Strasma specializes in micro-targeting and “is considered a pioneer in the use of high-tech statistical modeling in Democratic campaigns.”

In terms of redistricting, Strategic Telemetry’s ability to go beyond voter registration to analyze voter behavior would allow it to carve out districts that might appear neutral but, in fact, would be solid pro-Democrat districts.

Check back later for the third article in this series: IRC maps adopted in violation of Arizona Constitution

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