You can completely shatter the 12th if you want. VRA doesn’t apply to 45% districts, I don’t think.
I just don’t see any gain in doing it.
AZ - Republicans control the process here. USCB estimates have Maricopa County (Phoenix) gaining 0.70 seats, Pinal (SE of Phoenix) 0.19 seats, and Pima (Tucson) 0.08 seats.
The highest vote totals were in the 8th, narrowly won by Giffords (D). Strangely enough, none of this district is Maricopa County; it has only a small piece of Pinal, and a large chunk of Pima.
Has inner city Phoenix experienced a lot of urban decay? The vote totals seem unusually low in the 4th (<76K to 200K average for the rest of the state). This could be illegal aliens or something though.
The next largest vote totals were in the 2nd, which stretches from northwest Maricopa around the state, through the Grand Canyon to what looks like the Hopi Indian Reservation. The vote totals in this part of the district seem so low it doesn’t seem worth the trouble of drawing the district this way.