PHOENIX (AP) - Gov. Doug Ducey has appointed six new members to a state commission that nominates applicants for appointment to fill appellate court vacancies and that this year will also help fill the ranks of a politically important panel that redraws congressional and legislative districts once a decade.
Ducey, a Republican, had drawn criticism from Democrats because the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments had vacancies but no Democrats among its members, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.
But that landscape changed Friday when Ducey’s office announced the appointments of six new members, including three Democrats as well as two Republicans and an independent.
The nominating commission evaluates applicants for Arizona Supreme Court and Court of Appeals appointments before nominating some to the governor, who decides whom to appoint from among the nominees.
The nominating commission this summer also will screen applicants for appointment to the Independent Redistricting Commission, a five-member panel created as a result of a voter-approved ballot measure to take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature.
The redistricting process is politically charged because how districts are drawn can influence which party’s candidates can be elected.
Four Republican and Democratic legislative leaders each appoint one redistricting commission member from a list chosen by the nominating commission. Those appointees then pick the fifth member, an independent who will chair the panel.
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