Some Reasons Why The 2 Eagle River House Districts Should Be Paired And The East Anchorage/Muldoon Districts Should Be Paired

 The Alaska Redistricting Board is on the verge of NOT pairing the two Eagle River house districts into one senate districts, and not pair the Muldoon east Anchorage districts into a senate district.  Instead, when the got a sense of the Board, it was 3 (Marcum, Binkley, and Simpson) - 2 (Bahnke and Borromeo) to pair one ER district with JBER and the other with the northeast Muldoon district.  Here are a list of reasons why that's a bad idea.

1. The key argument made for pairing the two ER house districts with JBER and Muldoon was the common Socio-economic Integration (SEI is one of the state criteria for districts)  of having active and retired military in those areas.  There were no numbers provided - just “a lot”.  In fact, there are retired military and veterans all over Anchorage.  There are other SEI factors like income, ethnicity,  and lot and house size that shows these districts are not SEI.  

2. There is no shortage of support for the military in Alaska. They have discounts at most retail outlets.  They have discounts at the DMV, at the University of Alaska.   There's Veterans Preference for jobs,  tax credits for employers who hire vets, and discounts for fishing and hunting licenses.  Discounts at state parks and on the state ferries for disabled Vets,  and discounts for all vets on the Alaska Railroad.  They have a special lounge at the airport.  Everyone loves veterans.  

3.  20% of the Senate is made up of people who have served in the military, though veterans make up 11.9% of the adult population. There are  at least four more in the House.  And there are committees for Veterans Affairs in the House and  Senate.  Plus there is a State Department of Military and Veteran Affairs.  There is no shortage of support for veterans.

4.  There are no Hmong, Samoan, Latino,  Somali, Korean Senators or representatives in the Alaska Senate or House.  These are the people who suffer the most discrimination and are more likely to be in lower income levels.  Their voice is diminished by these pairings, while the military is already one of the most favored populations in Alaska.

5. Although the ER-East Anchorage pairing might seem contiguous, the vast majority of people in the ER district live eight or more miles from Muldoon, while the two Muldoon districts are small enough together to walk across in a couple of hours.  And the populated areas of the two ER districts are far more compact than the ER-Muldoon district.  It seems that some Board members emphasize compactness when that favors their interests, deviation when that does.  They tell us that all of Anchorage is SEI so it doesn’t matter within the Anchorage Borough.  But now their key argument for these Senate pairings is SEI of the military population.  And they even said out loud that this would create two ER Senate seats.  And we all know ER is far more Republican than East Anchorage.  Eagle River's two Assembly members are much more conservative than the East Anchorage Assembly members.  [SEI = Socio-Economic Integration, one of the State requirements for districts.]

6.  While the point was made that ER and JBER folks shop in Muldoon, Muldoon folks are far less likely to go to ER or the Base to shop. And if they aren’t connected to the military, getting on base is a hassle.  

7.  East Anchorage, along Muldoon has a bustling and diverse community that works together.  There are many people of color and immigrants in that area.  Splitting them up and pairing them with the predominantly white ER weakens their representation and violates the spirit if not the letter of the VRA.  

9.  Last redistricting round, the Board paired an East Anchorage district with an Eagle River district for the Senate pairing.  The result was that the only African-American state Senator lost her next election.  This was not an accident.  And it appears the same sort of gerrymandering is being attempted with these ER and East Anchorage districts again to the detriment of very underrepresented populations.   

Please pair the two ER districts together and the East Anchorage districts together.