The Alaska Redistricting Board hopes to have new Southeast election districts drawn by Monday, and Petersburg is hoping its lot in the new plan won’t be the same as it was in the old.
The Alaska Supreme Court, in overturning the last plan, focused its criticism on Southeast, where the maps the board drew were challenged in court by Petersburg.
Petersburg Mayor Al Dwyer said the city now hopes a new rewrite of the election boundaries will link his city with Sitka or Wrangell, as they are now and with which they have more in common.
“We’re nothing like Juneau. Juneau is a government and tourist town,” he said. “We’re fishing, and that’s it.”
The people are different too, with the downtown-based House district being among the state’s most liberal.
“It’s a Republican stronghold here, and it’s tied in with downtown Juneau,” he said.
The board may have drawn the maps the way it did in order to concentrate Native votes in a district where they’d be an important constituency, said Dwyer and other observers, but there may be other ways to accomplish that.
Sen. Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, said the delay in setting the boundaries has been “really frustrating.”
He and other potential candidates don’t know where their boundaries will be, or whether they’ll be changed again one or more times. That may happen even after an election, if the state goes forward with an interim plan that’s later changed.
Kookesh said he knows he’s going to have to run against an incumbent, with the current plan putting him up against Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, in a district Stedman already represents much of.
That’ll be a challenge, Kookesh said, but not as much as if they put Angoon in with Juneau and he has to face Sen. Dennis Egan.
“That doesn’t work for me,” he said, especially since both are Democrats, and he’d prefer the current arrangement.
Elections officials have said they need to know the districts by Monday, and the candidate-filing deadline is on June 1.
Given the tight timelines, and the requirement for Department of Justice approval of the plan for compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act, Kookesh said if a decision can’t be made soon the best thing to do would be to use the current districts for one more election cycle.
“If I had a preference it would be to run on the old lines, and take the next two years to draft a new plan” that would hold up under legal review, he said.
Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho said the city doesn’t have any strong preference, but earlier submitted to the board two possible maps.
Southeast’s population decline relative to the rest of the state means some new population must be added to the Juneau-based districts.
Botelho said the city had proposed adding Petersburg and other neighboring communities as did the board, and also presented an alternative that instead added Haines and Skagway.
The board will meet in Anchorage on Monday and hopes to adopt new Southeast maps then, said Taylor Bickford, the board’s executive director.
The court has ordered new plans submitted by Tuesday at noon.
• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.
Comments (5)
Add commentLikely outcome
I foresee a strong possibility that the board will not and cannot satisfy the court as the court is clearly playing politics. I believe the court is overplaying its hand and violating the constitution by delving into the business of the other branches of government. When this happens the other branches eventually get even in one way or another. It will be fun to watch but it erodes confidence in our system of government.
I see it differently
The committees that are formed to redistrict areas after elections are often members of a political party and politically motivated to align the boundaries to try and benefit their party. It is nothing new, it is not just in Alaska, but around our nation that this happens. Over the decades there has been, and probably will be "gerrymandering" of election districts.
If it appears to objective observers that the new districts have not been truly designed as representative by the federal and state constitutions, then some outside, independent authority has to call for a better plan.
I don't think the courts are "overplaying their hand". They are doing what they were appointed to do.
I may or may not agree with the final decisions they make, but in contrast to your opinion, it strengthens my confidence in our system of government.
I
Glacier dogs
I find your comment to be excessive.
"The court is clearly playing politics. " What basis do you have to say this and the following ??
The court is "violating the constitution" ??? Which section or article of the Constitution of the State of Alaska or or national Constitution is the court "violating." Please give specifics.
These are statement you have made. Please defend them with facts, figures, verifiable information. If you are unable to do so, then others of us will just have to evaluate your comment as a personal opinion with no basis in fact.
si vis pacem para bellum
Not Rocket Science anymore with no influence district needed.
It is pretty obvious there is Northern SE and Southern SE and you just decide on where to meander the line, Peril Strait to Frederick Sound and below is the "Southern" district or if you need to pick up more population run it up to Icy Strait and down to Chatham to Frederick Sound.
Keeps Petersburg, Wrangell, and Sitka and Ketchikan Boroughs in the same senate district, and that is where they realistically belong. Keeps the Northern end intact rather than going for the fishhook effect.
The board needs to keep the partisan politics out of this one.
ms grace thank you
As someone who has lived here in S.E. for a long time, who doesn't have friends or relatives as candidates for possible election or re-election I agree with you.
There is a pretty clear economic ( that is how communities make a way of living) and a fairly unclear boundary as far as ethnic representation because the Tlingit people live in both areas and should be represented equally.
It is clear, as it has been for a long time, that "redistricting committees" around the nation and in Alaska have members who are also members of political parties.
If an independent group, such as a court composed of members who were selected to be judges in a fair and equitable manner, have to evaluate election boundary decisions, that is exactly what they are supposed to do.
Let's hope that tomorrow the redistricting people come up with a proposal based on the state and federal constitutions and regulations. If that puts a potential Democrat incumbent against another Democrat or Republican candidate against another Republican candidate, let it be if that seems to be a fair way to draw election district lines.
Then let candidates for election or re-election campaign on their record and see who their constituents choose to support and vote for.