[The court filings for all three challenges are at the bottom of this post.]
Yesterday - June [July] 13 - was the deadline for challenges to the Alaska Redistricting Board's Plan. We've known about the Fairbanks North Star Borough's impending challenge since the Borough Assembly voted to challenge the board's plan last month.
click to enlarge considerably
Along with that challenge comes one from George Riley, 'a qualified voter who resides in Ester" and Ron Dearborn, 'a qualified voter who resides in Goldstream.' These are the two, generally considered more liberal, communities just outside the Fairbanks city limits which have been put into the huge new District 38 which stretches out to Hooper Bay. (See the blue district on the map.)
I've only had time to glance at these two challenges. The focus seems to be
1. The board valued minimizing deviation (from the ideal district size of 17,755) too high, short changing other values such as "socially and economically integrated."
2. Thus they put what is essentially suburban Fairbanks neighborhoods into a district with predominantly Native villages with no running water or sewage systems whose socio-economic interests are vastly different.
There's a lot more listed, but on first glance, that seems to be the crux. I need to go back and review more. (So many posts like that unfortunately.) You can read the complete challenges below.
The third challenge comes from the City of Petersburg, and three Petersburg voters - Mark L. Jensen Nancy C. Strand, and Brenda L. Norheim. Their complaint seems to center on the fact that Petersburg is socio-economically integrated with Sitka and other smaller SE villages and has been linked with them in their previous district. Linking them with "with part of the City and Borough of Juneau (in District 32), a municipality with which Petersburg does not share such common socio-economic interests."
The complete Petersburg challenge is below.
My understanding is that all three challenges will be lumped together. While I watched the redistricting board at work and listened to some of the public testimony, it was clear that 'socio-economic integration' means different things to different people. If there's a district that links interior, road-system, basically non-Native towns to roadless, Native villages on the Coast, then complaints by Muldoon folks that they aren't 'socio-economically integrated' with Eagle River are unconvincing (though the board managed to unlink them.)
Petersburg's challenge, it would seem, doesn't have a chance if Fairbanks' challenge to District 38 doesn't prevail.
The Fairbanks News Miner reported on the Borough's challenge. [And they have a link to the Borough's court documents.] So did the Anchorage Daily News. They reported the Democrats and Alaskans for Fair Redistricting are NOT filing challenges because they thought they could better spend the money it would take on elections.
The Board itself will meet Monday, July 18, at 10 am in their headquarters. According to board Executive Director Taylor Bickford, there will be some public meeting to announce the challenges to the board's plan and the status of the preclearance* report to be sent to the Justice Department. Then the board will go into executive session to discuss litigation and preclearance strategies.
*Because Alaska has had Voting Rights Act violations in the past, it is one of 16 states that need Department of Justice 'preclearance' before implementing their plan.
The Court Documents
[Scribd has been having problems. The documents are below, but if they don't show up, be patient and try again soon.]
I got to the meeting a couple minutes late. (You can dock my pay.)
[Back to running meeting notes, so recognize that this captures a lot, but not all of what was said. You get the gist but not all the exact words. But you can listen to audio for a lot of the meetings as you'll see below and the transcripts will eventually be posted.]
2:10pm Director Report:
Web conferencing of Board meetings - I missed this part, but later they used GoTo Meeting so that a board member who was not in Anchorage could show his maps.
Transcripts - staff change adds a little time to get the transcripts done. they are being done by a several different contractors. Some we aren't sure where they are. They aren't up yet, but the audio is.
Four groups signed up to present new plans to the Board which will reflect the changes in the percentage required to meet the Voting Rights Act: Rights, AFFR, Calista, AFFER
Reading File Update - material added that were received since late Friday (I have pictures of the table of contents and I'm trying to figure out the easiest way to post these.)
Jim Ellis: May 6 on getting added, close to printing and putting them together. Most items added have been emailed to you.
Software requests - Chair asked staff to load all the private plans to computers, I assume that the rest of you want that too. Desktop, laptop? Other software plans, let us know end of day today, because we'll be here working tomorrow.
Torgeson: Questions?
Discussion of final plans. Taylor, you are ready for more, right? Eric, you want to walk us through
Eric Sandberg: I have almost ready.
Torgeson: Not going off line, take a recess, but the recorder is still going on so Taylor can talk to the remote folks.
Jim, two minutes to click the button and broadcast the screen.
Holm - I'm here!!!
Eric: Going over his new map of rural areas and going through the totals.
District 1 - Kodiak, Port Graham, and to boost Native % went up to Lower Kuskokwim
And combined with Aleutians (HD2) 33.9% Senate
3 and 4 - 3 is Bethel to Hooper Bay and Scammon Bay
Don't Panic Yet - this is just trying things out
4 - Yukon River up to Tanana River to McGrath and outskirts of Fairbanks - Salcha, Pleasant Valley, Fox... Possible Native influence district
Combined 50+% Native Senate District
5. East-west huge district plus 6 North Slope
Bickford - you could add 1000 Native folks to 2 from 3 and maybe get better numbers. [gets to 34.91]
Then you could take 1 into 4 a bit.
Eric: 4 is right at 35%, but certainly I think you could bump the pairings a bit.
Torg: What was your other major approach?
Eric: Tried to keep old 6 together, but it pushes up against the Coast line and gets non-contiguous Senate pairings.
Torg: It looks like that one could use a bit more work, but it's close isn't it?
4 -2 House - effective/influence
3- 0 Senate -
Tried to bump Natives in Kodiak by going east, but doesn't work without going to SE.
A few other plans, but nothing better than this.
Torgeson: Load up PeggyAnn's and Marie's?
PeggyAnn McConnochie - this is absolutely not ready to go. I came in early to try once more on SE. Try to put Skagway and Haines into District 2, doing that I leave more population in the Valley of Juneau, and at least one whole district in Juneau. D3 only in Juneau. Then where can I pick up White population for SE - Valley, Gustavus, then Elfin Cove and Pelican, and Tenakee Springs - but this makes it really ugly, with four crossings.
Torg: Have we talked about that - crossing districts?
White: No, depends on why - if to make voting rights act numbers, might be more defensible.
I think the board needs to hire some savants who can just see through all the numbers and population types and find the right patterns.
PeggyAnn McConnochie: Good news - PofWales almost in one district. But down here, I think unacceptable, population around this Bay, and I put with Ketchikan, but they consider themselves with Craig. Warning VAP is only 32.6%
Marie and I spent a lot of time working on Rural districts again. We spent, what? An hour, two? Tanana Chiefs spoke to us all in Fairbanks. We prioritized TC and tried to get those six different groupings and not split the groupings.
4 stayed the same - Our 39 - one TC grouping - Ft. Yukon, Venetie, Beaver, Wiseman. This in one area undivided. From hear all the way over to this area - at Bering Straits, Doyon, didn't want Fairbanks, took just a little because we needed to get the population up. Didn't want to take much of Fairbanks. Looked at 6 - another TC group that we wanted to leave whole. Dry Creek, Tanacross, Dot Lake Village.
The video gives you a sense of what this process is like. And I think you can sense that McConnochie is really trying to do this right. It's just hard.
Other side of Fairbanks, take a look - Calista. This is basically Calista - Eric copied us LOL - we needed to shed population out of this area. Large population - Wade Hampton - these two areas have the rest of TC chiefs. The groupings can be separated, but each group needs to be the same. Next down to 37. Deviation of 2.34%.
Take this whole thing as new 36. Down, 15,000 (did she mean 1500) people. Tried to keep Calista whole, tried our best. Kwethluk, Eek, Goodnews Bay, tried to keep together. But just way too many people. They are now in 37. We aren't done, not happy. Interesting to see what Eric has done - he doesn't really know the places the way Marie does. We're not done, by a mile. Helpful - protecting TC areas, Calista, and
Marie Greene - 39 goes back east.
PAM (PeggyAnn McConnochie)- We don't necessarily like it going from west to east. Trying to keep people out who don't belong - people in suburbs of Fairbanks don't belong in Native district and vice versa.
TB (Taylor Bickford)- Where did you want to go for the 15,000? Matsu
PAM - We can't with our deviations go into 38-40.
TB - Can either go to Matsu, Denali, or Fairbanks. One of those has to happen.
PAM - Trying our best to not add those areas. It isolates the problem.
White: Left over 36? 15,000 under. Impossible to make that an effective district.
TB: Helpful to start doing it this way - shows the tradeoffs down the road.
PAM: Trying to go from the optimum - what everyone tells us. I want to tell these people that we tried our best, but there are too many people in that district. Eric went the same way we did. It good know there is another possibility, we just need to get 36 filled out. But can't take them from
Torg: I'm seeing a theme - East-West - Big 37. Bob, do you have something to present?
TB: I think I just hand control over to you. See what happens.
Torg: Good experiment.
Using GoTo Meeting - Computer Conferencing Software
Brody: SE - got D2 to Got up to 38.9
TB: Go back to - Arc Map 10
Brody - [We all were given a blue spread sheet of all 40 districts, I can't find the numbers he's talking about] I took most of Marie and PeggyAnn's map - they were under in most districts.
I made D3 a little large, D4 here in the middle. But it put 2 way under. To get 2 up, I went around the corner and got these and tha put the Native count to 39 and the total VAP to 35. That's pretty much all what PeggyAnn and Marie have done.
PAM - Tanana Chiefs gave us a letter with villages they want together - Looks like you split up Tok out, Dot Lake in, No matter what we draw, there will be a couple on the edges. Able to get VAP to 35 which would make this a solid influence district.
Holm: What kind of Sen Pairing?
Brody: Just the four in SE. Resigned to having to find pairings elsewhere. I have Kodiak taking Cordova, but Tatitlik in SE.
TB - Bob, I think that's total minority VAge - I think we need just Total Native.
Total Native 39, total VAP 35.
PAM - OUt of curiousity, if you could take all the Tanana Chiefs villages out?
Brody: I don't know. I was trying to get close to your deviation. It will drop the VAP. They are smaller villages, but 80% native. Just a question how effective we want to make the SE districts.
PAM - Also trying to keep those TC villages together there.
Torg: Wrangell is with Ketch and Petersburg with Juneau? Split P of Wales?
Greene: Haines and Skagway in 2?
Brody: Same as you guys. That's it for me.
2:55pm
TB: Any more presentations? I'm going to cut them off then.
Torgeson: Brings us to adjournment. Meeting Monday at 10am. We'll have to have things to use a little earlier. When you show it on the web, you don't have to send it out? Right.
From now on meeting at 10am.
Adjourned. 2:57
I'm at the Business of Clean Energy in Alaska conference at the Denaina Center.
Lisa Murkowski just spoke following welcome comments from Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell and Renewable Energy Alaska Project executive director.
She began by saying the key is to both more energy production and reduction of energy use. There are more than 27,000 homes that need weatherization upgrades and sorry that this wasn't funded again. Better in helping homeowners affording jumps in energy prices. Live heat did relatively well in the budget. The debate going ahead in Congress will be with critical eye to the budget, it will be tough for us here in the state. Whether weatherization, live heat or federal money to advance our clean energy technologies. We need to be independent to futher build out our renewable energy technologies. It's not a shortage of resources. Was in Chevak and Hooper Bay to see the wind turbines beginning to offset those energy prices - not there yet, but will be. We have best hydro electric potential in the nation. Already 28 projects in state which provide about 24% of our energy. Ocean potential. These could potentially produce 3 times more than we currently consume. We have 33,000 miles of coastline. We need to learn to tie into it. No shortage of resources, but turning them into energy. We've seen CIRI's frustration with getting energy companies to sign on on Fire Island. Red tape by NEPA for Naknek projects.
Three hydro bills - last one calls all environmentally acceptable?? projects as renewable energy.
The Board members are headed out in pairs Tuesday, April 26 and altogether they'll visit 6 locations. They've completed two options for the draft plan. Now they have until June 14 to submit a final plan. So now is your chance to tell them what's good and bad about what they've done with your districts.
The board will have statewide maps to hand out at the meetings and lots of maps on the wall, but if you want the detailed maps of your own districts go to their website where you can download pdf files and print them out. Click for the option 1 maps and the option 2 maps.
You can get maps of the current districts here.
According to staff, board chair, John Torgerson, former legislator from Fairbanks, and board member Bob Brody, a Kodiak Realtor, will be in Delta Junction and Tok.
Delta Junction folks - Your meeting is 10 - 12 noon at the Delta Junction City Council Chambers. In Option 1 you are in District 2 and in Option 2 you are in District 12.
The proposed districts go from almost Fairbanks along the mainly on the east of the Richardson Highway to Valdez and most of Prince William Sound except for Whittier.
The only difference I can tell is that Option 2 includes a lot of land with few if any people - much of it around the Denali Highway almost to Cantwell. You can get a pdf of District 12 here.
Tok folks - Your meeting is from 3pm - 5pm at the Tok Legislative Information Office. Your district 6 is the super district. It goes from Southwest Alaska (Holy Cross, Anvik) up north (Wiseman, Venetie) over and around Fairbanks (Nenana, Manley Hot Springs, Ester) and then down along the Canadian Border (Eagle) south Chitina and McCarthy.)
Board members Marie Greene, CEO of Nana Regional Corporation from Kotzebue, and PeggyAnn McConnochie, a realtor from Juneau, will be visiting Nome and Kotzebue.
Nome Folks - 10am - 12 noon at the Nome City Council Chambers. Nome is in District 39 in both options and in both looks to be pretty much the same. The district is the far West including Shishmaref, Wales, Diomede, Nome, down to Hooper Bay and Russian Mission.
Kotzebue folks - You're scheduled for 3pm to 5pm at the NW Arctic Borough Assembly Chambers. You're in District 40 which looks pretty much like your old district. It includes the far North from Buckland and Kotzebue, Point Hope, to Kaktovik.
The last team consists of Board Member Jim Holms, former legislator from Fairbanks and Board executive direction Ron Miller. They're scheduled for Unalaska and Cold Bay.
Unalaska folks - You're on from 1pm to 3pm at the Unalaska City Council Chambers. You are in District 37 which looks the same in both options. You're gaining a chunk of the old District 38 which includes Quinhagak, Goodnews Bay, and Platinum from the 2001 Districts and part of the old 36 on the west which includes: Port Alsworth, Nondalton, Newhalen, Iliamna, Igiugig, and Pedro Bay.
Cold Bay folks - Your meeting is 7pm - 9pm at the City of Cold Bay Community Center. You are in the same district as Unalaska - 37 - so the map above applies to you too.
So, what should you do at these meetings? The Board hasn't given out a lot of information, but you can check out the criteria they are using on their website and see if the maps meet the redistricting guidelines. These are things like: socio-economic cohesion, compactness, and equal sizes for all districts with minimum deviation.
The Alaska Redistricting Board tab above lists all the other posts I've done on the board with short descriptions.
Now, if I had a degree in journalism I'd have gotten her name spelled out and a little more information about the program she's on. But I don't and I didn't. I'm not proud of this, but it's how it is and so I'm posting this as is. She does tell us her name in the video, but I'm sure I'll mangle the spelling. And I didn't see Rena Delbridge, the reporter she was shadowing when I met her, of the Alaska Dispatch today. And I'm trying to get my stuff up reasonably close to when I shot it. But isn't she great?
She'll tell you who she is and what she's doing in Juneau on the video.
[Thursday afternoon: I ran into her again today when I stopped by Gavel to Gavel to check out there place and some questions I had. She's shadowing their producer today. And we decided that she really didn't need to have her name up beyond what is in the video.]
[The video is taking forever to load, so I'm going to post this and add the video when it's done, probably within the hour. Consider this a preview. The video is ... well I describe it below.]
I've got a whole slew of posts to do, but I was too busy being there to get anything up until now, but there's more on the Iran divestment bill (HB 241) which did NOT pass out of committee today on a 3-3 vote, 4H'ers in town learning about the legislature, the Alaska Farm Bureau's lunch for legislators, Rep. Harris' mandatory winter tire bill (HB 322) and Rep. Doogan's ban on cell phones while driving, plus Hooper Bay student in town for the week shadowing different folks each day. Not sure how many of these I'll get up, but here's an interesting bit of tape.
Fairbanks News-Miner reporter Chris Eshleman invited me into the empty Ramona Barnes Conference room as he went in with Senator John Coghill who was explaining to him the intricacies of Senate Bill (SB) 168. So this video is essentially a behind the scenes recording of a news reporter working on his story with a Senator who wants to get his story out.
Basically the bill is to set up a fund which will help hospital with their I'd note that after I turned off the video, Sen. Coghill told us that a big motivation for him on this is the fact that his two year old grandson died of a head trauma in part because it took four hours to get the appropriate doctor to the emergency room in Anchorage. He assured us that this is not out of bitterness or anger, he understands that they did all they possibly could, but he doesn't want it to happen to others.
Update Friday: Here's the article Chris wrote from these sessions. It begins this way:
Alaska bill to aid trauma care moves ahead
by Chris Eshleman / ceshleman@newsminer.com
JUNEAU — A House committee Tuesday advanced plans to create a public account to aid trauma care and, supporters hope, steer major emergency rooms toward better funding for trauma services. . . (click on link above for the rest.)
