Alaska Republican Party Chair Randy Ruedrich said he’s been working on redistricting non-stop for months, trying to draft a map of state legislative districts which will protect Alaska Native influence in the Alaska Legislature.
“To be respectful of the wishes of the Alaska Native people, I believe, is mandatory,” he said.
Speaking to the Alaska Federation of Republican Women at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau, Ruedrich said Southeast’s failure to grow as fast as the rest of the state meant it would lose representation, and that made it more difficult to create a Native majority district.
He said he’s managed to draw a “Native-influenced” district he feels will comply with the demands of the federal Voting Rights Act for Southeast.
The old “iceworm” district made a Native-majority district by stringing together Southeast’s Native villages and stretching through Yakutat into the Interior to link together Native villages there.
The new district, Ruedrich said, stretches down though Southeast, avoiding Juneau and Sitka and wrapping south of Ketchikan but not including that hub city.
“This is no longer the iceworm, this is a fishhook,” he said.
Native influence would be about 35 percent, which he said would likely meet federal approval.
“I believe it is fully compliant with the Voting Rights Act,” he said.
The largest city in that district would be Petersburg, along with Wrangell, Hoonah, Kake, Angoon and Metlakatla.
That looks like it would make a district dominated by Petersburg’s mostly non-Native population, but that’s not the way Ruedrich sees it.
“Petersburg has a significant percentage of Natives,” he said.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Petersburg’s population of just under 3,000 has about 90 Alaska Native or American Indian residents, or about 3 percent. That’s the lowest of any of Southeast’s larger communities.
The plan Ruedrich is pushing, officially proposed by Alaskans for Fair and Equitable Redistricting, would also make changes to the Alaska Redistricting Board’s plan for Juneau.
Among the most significant is to move the boundary between Juneau’s downtown and valley seats south, so Switzer Creek would become part of the valley seat, he said.
The Alaska Redistricting Board must release its draft plan by mid-June and a final plan by October, but Ruedrich said he expects lawsuits to be filed during the summer, which will delay final adoption until next spring.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 586-4816 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (5)
Add commentYeah, right
As a long-time registered Republican, watching Randy Ruederich's political maneuvering is always amusing. Randy's basic goal in Alaska is to protect and preserve the large oil companies for whom he has worked from what the companies consider as "excessive" taxation. Randy has been notably unsuccessful in this assignment.
Mr. Ruederich's tenure as the Chairman of Alaska's GOP has been marked by controversy and a long string of failures. He backed Frank Murkowski (R), and lost miserably in 2006. He has feuded with former Republican Governor Sarah Palin on numerous occasions. On his watch, the incumbent Republican US Senator (Lisa Murkowski), was croaked by a goofball candidate in the 2010 primary. Then he backed the Tea Party goofball (Joe Miller), only to see Murkowski win the general. And yes, while he has been chair of the GOP in Alaska, the longest serving Republican US Senator in history, Ted Stevens, was beaten.
Mr. Ruederich has made much of gaining control of the Alaska Legislature for the GOP; the formation of a bi-partisan coalition in the Alaska Senate the last couple of Legislatures is evidence of his lack of success. His number one goal in terms of state house politics recently was to eliminate moderate Democrat Bill Wielechowski, a feat that has eluded Mr. Ruederich.
Mr. Ruederich's conduct as the Alaska GOP Chairman has shifted the party from an inclusive organization that previously included individuals like Jay Hammond and Walter J. Hickle and converted the party apparatus into an analog of the large, Outside interests doing business from London, Texas and Miami.
Whatever Mr. Ruederich professes to believe, the results of his conduct speak legions about his skills and abilities. Mr. Ruederich has run the Alaska GOP into the ditch. His ground time in Alaska is short. Any day now, Randy will be heading out to Texas to start his retirement. Listening to Mr. Ruederich talk about being "respectful" of Alaska Natives is preposterous. This is all about maneuvering and manipulating for the benefit of big Outside interests. With any luck, Alaskans will avoid receiving Randy's rough treatment when it comes to apportioning political representation.
The questions raised by Joe
The questions raised by Joe Geldhof are but small part of the plundering of Alaska by the oil companies
To plunder Alaska the oil companies needed to get control of Alaska Legislature and the office of governor. To get control of the legislature the oil companies needed to control the Republican Party. For the oil companies to obtain control of Republican Party was simple as getting the republicans to opt out Alaska’s open primary. Then the oil companies with campaign contribution ran off the moderate republicans.
Obtaining control of the press was as simple as buying off the press by placing large ads in the press when they had nothing to sell.
Thus the oil companies gained control of the Republican Party and press and thus what Alaskans were able to see and hear. Example oil company press censored and is censoring unfavorable news like last week’s Alberta Canadian oil pipeline corrosion blowout which dumped 1.2 million gallons oil. While 1.2 million gallon spill is the largest in Canadian or Alaska history, the oil companies able to it have it suppressed and not covered in Alaska.
Public knowledge of that corrosion spill would call in to question TAPS, the oil pipeline, and the fact that are no recent smart pigging of TAPS for pipeline corrosion and discontinuities, at least none that TAPS was willing to release to the legislature and the public. Why?
This oil company intimidation of the Alaska press also extends to what the public is able to learn of Governor Parnell’s Blackmail and Extortion of the Senate to vote for and pass Parnell’s $2 billion oil tax giveaway for which Alaska receives nothing in return or else lose their capital projects for their districts. The oil companies even testifed they would NOT explore for new oil even the $2 billion per year oil tax giveaway were passed by the legislature.
Parnell’s Blackmail and Extortion of the legislature is presented in the press like the Anchorage Daily News as little more some kind of intramural squabble over Parnell’s veto rights.
Alaskans are in the Second battle for Statehood , whether or not Alaska with remain an independent State in the Union or becomes another vassal of the oil companies remains to be seen.
Randy Ruedrich is chair of the CBC
Apparently nothing has changed with Randy Ruedrich, and his corrupt politics. One redistricting group calls itself AFFR, so Randy starts one called AFFER just to confuse things. Cute.
His "plan" for Southeast Alaska is illegal, and he knows it; the redistricting Board's attorney has already advised that Ruedrich's plan to cut one Southeast house district in half (rather than keeping it constitutionally contiguous) and maintaining a thin "water connection" won't past muster- plus it's absurd.
His comment that Petersburg has a large Native population- when the census says otherwise- is just another example of him saying anything despite the facts. Sort of reminds you of what's her name, you know, that woman who couldn't even take one term as governor.
Southeast Alaska doesn't need a fishhook, but obviously Ruedrich needs a hook to yank him off Alaska's political stage.
Until then we'll be subject to his attempts to "Randymander" Alaska.
The "fishhook" district is illegal and unconstitutional.
State law requires districts to be compact and contiguous. Gerrymandering a district to protect certain incumbents is illegal.
There are plans out there that are compact and contiguous. The RIGHTS Coalition Plan, for example, protects the rights of citizens to be fairly represented. The RIGHTS Coalition plan also fully complies with the federal Voting Rights Act to give Alaska Natives a fair voice.
Not a Democratic article, really...
Anybody notice that in the story on republican gerrymandering, 'Randymander' was not showing the Democratic women the plan? The guy looks creepy in the photo, doesn't he? He even looks like a republican - just look at him pointing at that blue spot on the map and salivating like he is looking at an appetizer.
It is so easy to use republicans as a dart board these days. They are the ones with the little circles all over them - the little marks left on them from everybody formerly touching them with 10 ft poles.
I wouldn't want to touch one with a 10 ft pole, but hey! they do make great dart boards!