From AZ Central:

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission adopted drafts of new congressional and legislative district maps Thursday with only a few partisan disputes.

The five-member Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission adopted the maps following a full-day meeting at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel in Phoenix. It’s all part of the once-a-decade, voter-mandated redistricting to remake political districts based on the 2020 census data.

The commission’s goal is to have final maps for the state by Dec. 22, but by law they must have them done by Jan. 2.

“I think it’s a great compromise map,” commission chair Erika Neuberg said. “I feel very proud.”…

The commission consists of two Republicans (Douglas York and David Mehl), two Democrats (Shereen Lerner and Derrick Watchman) and an independent chair (Neuberg), as mandated by the 2000 voter initiative that created it and took the redistricting decisions out of the hands of the Legislature….

Tensions rose Thursday as the panel neared the key step of adopting the draft maps, but never approached the sort of bitter infighting seen in the 2011 redistricting process. Mehl and Lerner squabbled over which draft legislative map should be adopted, arguing over the competitiveness of certain districts in the Tucson and Phoenix areas….

An analysis by the IRC’s mapping team of the nine congressional districts shows four districts that are competitive or highly competitive.

The draft map’s congressional districts 1 and 6 were considered “highly competitive,” while 4 and 8 were in the competitive range. District 2 fell just outside the range at 7.6. The other four districts were solidly Republican or Democrat.