“Moving the boundary east to at least Campbell Avenue would make sure that Downtown, the University of Arizona, and 4th Avenue — which are connected economically, demographically and culturally — are not divided,” Romero wrote.
But that comes with trade-offs. The eastern district, as it stands, gives Democrats a projected advantage of 1-2 percentage points, meaning it is highly competitive but slightly advantageous to Dems.
Alison Jones, the former chair of the Pima County Democratic Party, lives a few houses away from the current boundary, she said. She’s worried about putting too many Democrats in the new Congressional District 7.
“The western district is very safely Democratic,” she said. “By pushing the boundary farther east, you’re really taking a risk with the eastern one.”
In other words, the more Democrats you pour into the Grijalva district, the fewer you have for the Kirkpatrick district. Also, the further east that the new Congressional District 7 pushes, the further north its eastern neighbor, Congressional District 6, must expand, taking in more Republican areas such as Greenlee County and Casa Grande.
LD10 candidates to be chosen
A new Arizona House representative will be chosen to fill a vacancy left in Legislative District 10 by former Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton, who was appointed to replace state Sen. Kirsten Engel in the Arizona Senate last month.
