A divided Alaska Redistricting Board voted last week on a final map that could give one of the more conservative areas of the state, Eagle River, a second seat in the state Senate.
All three board members appointed by Republican elected officials supported the map. The two who were not appointed by Republicans opposed the map.
In addition to redrawing the boundaries for the state’s 40 House seats, the board had to decide the pairings of two House districts each to create 20 Senate seats. It was those Senate district boundaries that prompted last week’s accusation of partisanship.
The Senate districts open the board to “an unfortunate and very easily winnable argument of partisan gerrymandering,” said member Nicole Borromeo.
Rather than pair Eagle River’s two House district into the same Senate district, as they are now, the board voted 3-2 to adopt a map that pairs each Eagle River House seat with an Anchorage House district, creating the potential for Eagle River to gain a second senator.
Eagle River currently has one senator, Republican Lora Reinbold.
The board is charged with rewriting Alaska’s political boundaries following the U.S. Census every 10 years.
The redistricting maps have been challenged in court every time since statehood.
The board’s actions followed pointed exchanges on proposed Senate maps and extended executive sessions.
Board member Melanie Bahnke had proposed pairing the two Eagle River-area House districts to make a Senate seat and pairing two House districts that include the east side of Anchorage for a Senate seat.
But then member Bethany Marcum proposed pairing each of the Republican-dominated Eagle River House districts with a non-Republican dominated one from Anchorage.
Voting with Marcum were members Budd Simpson and John Binkley. Marcum and Simpson were appointed to the board last year by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy; Binkley was appointed by then-Senate President Cathy Giessel, a Republican.
Borromeo was appointed by then-House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent, and Bahnke by then-Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger.
“It defies logic that we would do a minority reach-in to south Muldoon (Anchorage) and pair it with a very white district (Eagle River) eight miles away on a highway that crosses one mountain range and expect the court to believe with any satisfaction that we have satisfied the public trust in the process,” Borromeo said.
“Be careful, please,” board chair Binkley told Borromeo during a tense exchange Nov. 10.
“I am being careful, and you know what? She (Marcum) should have been careful when she exposed this board to liability yesterday,” Borromeo said.
The board met in Anchorage.
In addition to alleging partisanship in the Eagle River districts, the board is being criticized for putting 12 incumbent legislators in the same district as another incumbent — 10 in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate — forcing them to run against each other, move to another district, or leave the Legislature.
The senators in the same district are Anchorage Republicans Mia Costello and Natasha von Imhof.
The House members who would be lumped in the same district are Eagle River Republicans Ken McCarty and Kelly Merrick; Anchorage Democrats Harriet Drummond and Zack Fields; Anchorage Democrats Andy Josephson and Chris Tuck; Anchorage Democrat Matt Claman and Republican Sara Rasmussen; and Wasilla Republicans David Eastman and Christopher Kurka.
All 40 House seats will be on the 2022 election ballot. Of the 20 Senate seats, 19 will be on the ballot next year under the new map. Golovin Democrat Donny Olson is the only senator who won’t have to run again.
Normally, only 10 of the 20 Senate districts are on the ballot every other general election. But several districts changed so much that their senators must run again. However, two independently minded Republican senators who were reelected last year and whose districts did not see many changes — Bert Stedman of Sitka and Gary Stevens of Kodiak — will have to run again in 2022, the redistricting board decided.
Stedman represents Wrangell in the Senate.
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