Begich and Ruedrich Talk About Redistricting

Sunday, the Alaska Redistricting Board met to approve its Proclamation Plan and Report.  If the plan is not challenged in court, this may have been the last Board meeting until the new Board is convened for the 2020 redistricting.

After the Board meeting I had a chance to video Tom Begich, who worked as a consultant to Calista Corporation on redistricting and helped them devise the plans they submitted to the Board, and Randy Ruedrich.  Randy was the Chair of the Alaska Republican Party for years and worked with AFFER (Alaskans For Fair and Equitable Redistricting) to develop the plans they submitted to the Board.

Both the Calista and AFFER plans in the end, looked a lot alike - with Fairbanks being the major difference.  Also Calista's plan kept Matsu borough intact while the AFFER plan broke the borough once.  The Board's final plan broke Matsu borough twice.

I asked Tom if this was the end.  Basically, I was asking if it was likely that anyone would be challenging the plan in court or whether the issues that were raised are now settled.







I asked Randy what he thought about the plan.  Then I asked him about an email he's sent out to Republicans listing all the new Senate districts and how they affected incumbents and the complaints I heard before the meeting from one Republican who felt that Republicans had been treated badly by the Board.




I don't know if I'm reading things into this, but it seems that seeing Randy talk gives a very different meaning than if you just read what he said.

I have two more videos from after Sunday's meeting to post - the Board's attorney Michael White and State Democratic Chair Mike Wentrup.