Redistricting Board Meets - One Board Member There In Person

 It was sort of odd.  Board member Nicole Borromeo was the only Board member physically present in the Legislative Information Office.  There was a giant Zoom screen behind her and people could also call in to listen and give testimony.  The only other Board member we saw was Melanie Bahnke on the Zoom screen.  We did hear from Bethany Marcum at the end who said she left her video and audio off because of Zoom bombing.  I learned at the end that someone had attacked but apparently they were able to control it.  [UPDATE Sunday April 3, 2022:  I realized this morning that the video of Mark Zuckerberg barbecuing or something like that, must have been the bombing.  I've fortunately been spared that so didn't recognize it for what it was.  I was just confused.]

Things started off with public testimony.  

About six people from Fairbanks called in to say that Goldstream had been plucked out of Fairbanks the same way Cantwell had been plucked out of the Denali Borough (unconstitutionally according to the Supreme Court) and so they should be returned to their West Fairbanks district.  

Twenty people, by my count, testified about Anchorage.  The basic message was that the Melanie Bahnke map was already known and commented on and should be adopted quickly.  There were a few comments about the pairing of other districts in the Anchorage area not directly connected to the Eagle River pairing.  Many also asked the Board to do this quickly, reminding the Board that there wasn't much time before candidates needed to know the districts they would be running in.  And there was one commenter - Susan Fischetti - who argued that Eagle River should have two Senate districts as it has had in the past.  

I'd also note that I missed Judge Thomas Matthews Order of March 30, 2022 which remanded the matter back to the Alaska Redistricting Board 

1. "To correct the Constitutional errors identified by this Court and the Supreme court in Senate District K;  
2. To redraw House District 37 to remove the 'Cantwell Appendage', and 
3. To make other revisions to the proclamation plan resulting or related to these changes"

It requires the Board 

"to make necessary corrections.  The Board shall submit a status update to the Court by April 15, 2022."

A key question that I haven't gotten a good answer for yet, is what is the deadline by which a new map must be approved that will replace the unconstitutional map promulgated in November.  That's a key question because in the last cycle, the map that was thrown out by the courts nevertheless was used in the 2012 election because a corrected map hadn't been promulgated in time.  The second map then was used in the 2014 election.  

My question is how does that situation get avoided this time?  How do we get one constitutional map that will actually be used for the next ten years? 

People have said that May 1 is the deadline that the Division of Elections has so they have time to get information out to potential candidates.  

So the question is whether the Board will expeditiously (a word a number of people testifying used) comply with the order.  Eagle River shouldn't be hard to do.  A couple of hours at the most.  The easy part is pairing the two Eagle River districts.  A bit harder is pairing the JBER/Government Hill district with another north Anchorage district and pairing the South Muldoon district with another Muldoon district.  

The East Anchorage plaintiffs have submitted testimony titled "Narrow Scope of Remand Authority to Correct Senate District K Pairings." It argues that the Board has only been instructed to fix Cantwell and Senate seat K.  The only other changes it can make to the maps are those necessary to fix those two problems.  That letter to the Board offers the following pairings for Anchorage:

From Board Member Bahnke's map:

Senate District I

• House District 17: Downtown Anchorage
• House District 23: Government Hill/JBER/Northeast Anchorage 

Senate District J

• House District 18:  Mountain View/Airport Heights
• House District 19:  U-Med

Senate District K

• House District 20:  North Muldoon
• House District 21:  South Muldoon

Senate District L

• House District 22:  Eagle River Valley
• House District 24:  North Eagle River/Chugiag

The rest of the Anchorage Senate pairings would duplicate the pairings in the Marcum map approved for the Proclamation.  Senate E (HD 9&10); Senate F (HD 11&12); Senate G (HD 13&14); Senate H (15&16).  

Again, they are arguing that is the only way to actually comply with the order.  Any other changes open the Board to new law suits that would definitely drag the process beyond the deadline for candidates to file.  

Also, Cantwell has to be put back in the Denali Borough, but that's only about 200 people and there doesn't need to be much other change.  

That would preclude any changes to Goldstream.  They really had to file their own law suit in the 30 day period after the original proclamation.  It's sad, but true.  

The next Board meeting is Monday, April 4 at 8am.  Followed by meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 am.  

From right to left:  Joelle Hall, David Dunsmore, Kay Brown, Rich Curtner, and I'm not 100% sure about the last one.  They all testified in favor of the Eagle River districts being paired and that the Board do it quickly.  (I just noticed there is a person with a flowered mask in there, but I'm not sure who that is.)

The Board has already posted public comments sent into the Board for today's meeting.  Here's part one - 19 letters,  mostly asking the Board to quickly adopt the Bahnke pairings.  There were a couple that talked about other districts not directly adjacent to those districts.

The second batch of testimony contains 22 documents, the vast majority of which ask for the Bahnke pairings to be used.  There are several that address the Goldstream issue.  And three that would like to continue to split the Eagle River seats, but connect them to different districts than the unconstitutional plan.  The very first one in this batch is from the East Anchorage plaintiffs' attorneys that I referenced above.  

If you want to add to the comments, go here.

One last comment.  Peter Torkelson is that last remaining staff member of the Board.  The others have found other jobs.  So there's a much larger load on Peter's shoulders now.  But he has gotten all that testimony posted on the redistricting board's website.