AK Redistricting Board: Fireworks in The Morning #1 #2

Big news was the firm stand member Nicole Borromeo made against the pairing of the two ER districts with JBER/Govt Hill and northeast Anchorage.  She said it hurt the large diverse community in NE Anchorage and quoted Marcum saying it could create two ER Senate districts and lead to certain lawsuits.  

Nevertheless, that's where we are.  Then the staff asked for time to calculate the change in percentage of new voters for the senate seats to determine truncation.  Board returned at 1pm.  

Below my rough running notes:  

ARB  10:35am

Marcum:  Pairings   9 is 10, 11 is 12, 13 is 14, 15 is 15, 19 is 20, 23 is 17, 18 is 24, 21 is 26

Pairings 

Roll all vote :  

Marcum yes, Binkley, yes, Borroemeo No, Bahnke no (I missed Simpson, but it must be yes)

Passes 3-2

Singer:  Consensus on all the other pairings.

Torkelson - need to calculate truncation - % of change that requires senator to have to run again.  Need an hour and a half.  

Simpson:  Only applies to Senators, not reps, right?

Torkelson:  Yes,  ten already have to run in 2022. The other ten subject to truncation.  

Binkley:  

Borromeo:  Strongly opposed 18 and 23 pairing.  The advice we got from counsel in ES,  We have received mounds and mounds of testimony.  Natural pairing 

Binkley:  Shouldn’t attack other members.  Don’t make this personal.

Borromeo:  Opened us to litigation

Vote on call the question or not:  To vote on motion of reconsideration.  

Singer:  Question

Bahnke:  I request 

Motion upheld:  Binkley voted yes, Marcum and Simpson no  

Motion to reconsider action 

No, Yes, Yes, Motion fails.  

Bahnke:  Action that was taken was complete surprise.  Accept outcome for now I offered an alternative - ability to elect someone into office, paired Govt Hill with military base.  Time, when you have to say the emperor has no clothes, While not exactly silencing minority Muldoon voters, certainly muffles them.  

Voted 3-2 again to keep the Anchorage maps. 

Reconvene at 1pm.  

1:11

Attorney Matt Singer said between 10% and 30% voter change was “substantial” but up to the Board to decide.  Over 30% must.

Borromeo proposed 16.3% or above must be truncated.  (see list below, there seems to be nine districts that were not truncated then.  Though some of them may have terms that expire in 2022 anyway.)  It’s rather confusing.  

Here's the list without the seat letters (Senate seats are A- O).  

Simpson:  ???

Singer:  25.5%  ???

Binkley:  Those who fall below this - above that line   

Torkelson:  Every senator above this line would have to run in 2022.  

Binkley:  Giving more discretion to the voters.  And have new voting system in place.  That will be another element of change giving voters more choice.  

Motion adopted.  (Not sure of the exact number they picked.)

New maps being printed now and I will print out tables

1:20  Brief recess off the record while they make the new maps - about 20 minutes.  Back at 1:40

2:00pm  Part #2

Bahnke:  I suggest to avoid partisanship, that we flip a coin.

Binkley:  I think we should make decisions based on natural cycle - that we ??

Borromeo:  I support Bahnke that flipping a coin is better.

Seconded.  

Marcum:  Alternating numbers makes more sense.

Simpson:  

Bahnke:  I don't know other than my representative.  I think flipping coin.  Start at top then go to the bottom and flip a coin.  Avoid appearance of trying to protect any incumbents.  

Binkley:  I disagree.  

Marcum:  ???  

Borromeo:  If we don't know who is who, why not flip a coin.

Vote:  Motion defeated 3-2.

Bahnke:  I propose we start with A

Binkley:  Everyone understand the motion

Borromeo:  Start with A 

Hard to hear,  Photo copier going near me.

Marcum: Chronologially logical- oppose motion.  Some political or other reason.  Why start with four, not logical.

Bahnke: Seem to have info I don't have.  You have a different piece of paper than I.  If politically motivated by motion maker, wouldn't have originally 

Binkley: These are my notes.

Fails 3-2

Marcum:  Propose we go in numerical order starting with A 2 years/four years.  22 than 24.  

Second ?  long pause.

Simpson seconds.

Obection:  2   3-2  Motion passes.  

Torkelson.  We have to process the info.

Binkley:  We can meet at 9am tomorrow.  Changed to 10am tomorrow.  Recessed.

 

I'm not sure what all happened today.  It's harder for me to hear in person at the Redistricting office than at the LIO where there are mics and online.  I'll check now to see exactly what happened.

Sticking around post meeting trying to figure out exactly what happened.  There is a newly paired and numbered Anchorage map and I’m not sure where it came from.  It’s on the wall.  Apparently Bethany Marcum redid some/many of the Anchorage Bowl maps this morning after pairing the two Eagle River house districts with JBER/Govt Hill and NE Anchorage.  

Here's that map. 

 They've also passed out a list of truncated districts and the rotations, but after to talking with different folks in the audience after the meeting, it seems to be missing info that would be useful.

I'm posting it here in a very high resolution image so you can click it and enlarge it and focus better.

After much discussion and head scratching we figured out what is missing on this chart:  next to the old district letters, there should be the date that the incumbent was due to run again.  That way you'd know the political impact of how this process worked out.  I've asked Peter if they can add that info. Or someone else could look all that up.  

I'm done.  

Back on.  Peter said they'd email out the revised chart and one with all the numbers used to figure out the truncation to people who have subscribed to the Board's email.  So look for it soon.  

Later - 6:52pm

You can see all the new maps here - statewide and House districts.

• Updated maps showing final district lines with house district numbers and senate district letters have been uploaded to the website (note: some house district numbers have been modified): www.akredistrict.org/maps