[Note: I thought this post was going to be about 'issues' raised at the Friday (Sept 17,2021) meeting. But the more I worked on it, the more it was clear that all the issues stem from attempts to and concerns about gerrymandering. With three Board members nominated by Republicans, one by and Independent, and one by the nominally apolitical Chief Justice, there is concern by non-Republicans.] [Note 2: This post kept me hostage most of the day and roughly does what it says above. And more.]
Friday after the meeting, I put up links to the seven 3rd party map proposals that were introduced at the meeting, but without much comment. In this post I'm going to focus on the public testimony and the issues that were raised. I won't get into the details of the 3rd party plans - I need a lot more time. But I can talk about the underlying issues that they represent which, in some cases, are related to the issues the public raised.
Let's start with a headline in today's Anchorage Daily News - and let me say that I'm glad that the ADN is actually covering redistricting at all this time around. Last time round it was a long time before they had any serious stories.
"May" in this headline should be "will." There is no question redistricting will determine Alaska's elections for the next ten years. The question is whether it will skew them hard to the right or let us have relatively fair elections meaning the districts will allow the state legislature to reflect the will of the voters. Why not skewed to the left? As I mentioned above three of the Board members were chosen by Republicans. The governor chose two: Budd Simpson of Juneau and Bethany Marcum of Anchorage. Simpson is a Juneau attorney and has been relatively quiet at Board meetings. Marcum is the executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum. APF is one of the many far right, libertarian, anti-government 'think tanks' with funding ties to the Kochs* who work hard to remove regulations and keep taxes lower among other things. Marcum's job at APF is to further the interests of the far right ideology. This is a perfect position for her to do that. Can she refrain from taking advantage of this opportunity and work for a fair map? Does she want to? Can the rest of the board counter that? Let me say, that I don't know Bethany Marcum other than having introduced myself at one of the meetings. She was warm and welcoming.
*[I think' Kochs' or 'Koch Brothers' is now the generic term, even though brother Charles is the only one left.. "Charles has always been the brains behind the brothers’ vast corporate and political operations."]
The third Republican, chair John Binkley, was appointed by then Senate President Cathy Giessel. Geisel was seen as a very conservative Republican until Governor Dunleavy started massive budget cuts. She joined a coalition with Democrats and was primaried out of her seat by the Republican Party. Binkley is a former state senator and Fairbanks businessman. His family owns the Anchorage Daily News. He's chaired the Board with an eye toward allowing public testimony at the beginning and end of each public meeting and has leaned toward openness. My interactions with the Board staff have all been met with openness.
House Speaker Bryce Edgmon (I) chose Nicole Borromeo, head counsel for the Alaska Federation of Natives. I'd note that Edgmon had been a Democrat.
Chief Justice Bolger appointed Melanie Bahnke, the president and CEO of Nome-based regional nonprofit Kawerak Inc.
Does this represent Alaskans? The largest single category of voters is "undeclared" which means they chose not to say what party they align with. Of the groups that do declare, 'non-partisan' has the second highest total. But they don't get a seat on the Board. The latest list of registered voters in Alaska (9/3/21) shows this breakdown:
| Registered Voters | Alaska | Sept 3, 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Political Parties | A - ALASKAN INDEPENDENCE PARTY D - ALASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY R - ALASKA REPUBLICAN PARTY |
18,947 78,946 144,249 |
| Political Groups | C - ALASKA CONSTITUTION PARTY E - MODERATE PARTY OF ALASKA F - FREEDOMREFORM PARTY G - GREEN PARTY OF ALASKA H - OWL PARTY K - ALLIANCE PARTY OF ALASKA L - ALASKA LIBERTARIAN PARTY O - PROGRESSIVE PARTY OF ALASKA P - PATRIOT’S PARTY OF ALASKA V - VETERANS PARTY OF ALASKA W - UCES' CLOWNS PARTY |
672 280 1 1,482 58 24 6,870 163 167 1,307 125 |
| Other | N - NONPARTISAN U - UNDECLARED |
81,258 259,603 |
- Gerrymandering.The maps are clearly gerrymandered and here are some specific examples - usually talking about the three Anchorage Democratic representatives who were all put in one district, the Juneau Democratic rep whose house was cut out and put into another Democrats district, and a few other spots here and there.
- Socio-Economic Integrity. People who are explicitly or implicitly talking about Socio-Economic Integrity, one of the Constitutional requirements for districts. These broke down into the following:
- Anchorage and Matsu are not socio-economically integrated
- More micro concerns about neighborhoods in Anchorage or Fairbanks. Testimony that the board should respect Anchorage community council boundaries.
- Rural concerns about which villages (Interior) or which communities (SE) should or shouldn't be together, North and South of Alaska range shouldn't be together, etc.
- Compactness. A couple mentioned compactness
- Not Partisan. The maps are NOT partisan and those calling in to say so have been coached by extreme partisan political groups.
- Senate Pairings missing - Without the Senate pairings we can't tell if this is fair.
- Procedural issues
- Expand Testimony Hours.There should be evening and weekend sessions for public testimony for people who can't participate during work hours
- Incumbents Policy. The board should add to it's current policy of "not protecting incumbents" the corollary to "not target incumbents"
- Board - Public Communication on Mapping. Board members should only work with the Board's software that has no partisan data and report any input on mapping from the public that is not given through public testimony.
- Gerrymandering - The Board's Executive Director made an opening comment about how the software the Board is using does not have partisan data and the maps had not been made in a partisan way. A number of folks testifying spoke about a difference between what the Board said and what the maps showed. My sense is that one or two Board members got partisan information from people they know and that made it into the proposed draft plans. It would be difficult to have so many examples of Democratic representatives lumped together and so few GOP legislators lumped together. (The one GOP example was Rep. Shaw being put in a district with another Republican incumbent, but people are also saying that Shaw is planning to retire. But I have no confirmation of that.)
- Socio-Economic Integrity - S-E Integrity is one of four key requirements for all districts. The requirements (from state and federal constitutions) have to be balanced off. S-E Integrity is in the eye of the beholder. The Alaska Supreme Court, in reviewing maps in previous redistricting cases that districts within a borough or city boundaries are by definition socio-economically integrated. The Board's attorney has also cited a case where the court said that Matsu borough and Anchorage borough are socio-economically integrated. He later backed off and said parts of Matsu (like the south that abuts Anchorage) and parts of Anchorage (like the northern parts that abut Matsu have been ruled socio-economically integrated. It would be nice if the Board could respect all community councils and other neighborhood connections, but doing that and meeting the other standards will be tough. The Board can fall back on the rulings that say everything within borough and city boundaries are socio-economically integrated. The three other criteria that have to be met are:
- contiguity (all parts of the district touch)
- compactness (they are as small or square like as possible
- one-person-one vote (roughly equal in population (the term deviation refers to how many people and percent the districts deviate from the ideal district size, which in this decade's process is 18,335 people per district (the state's population divided by 40 districts. The maximum statewide deviation between districts is 10% but the expectation is for much lower deviation, especially in urban areas with denser population)
- Compactness - the only specific example I recall is the 'Story bubble' in Juneau along a highway which has a loop that grabs Story's house and pulls it out of the old district. There are two intents here, one positive and one negative:
- The smaller and more compact a district, the easier it is for people to campaign and to represent the district. Because of Alaska's large spaces and sparse population, this is impossible and one current district is larger that many (most?) states.
- Politicians have learned to create districts that twist and turn to include and exclude voters to build districts that distort the political outcome to favor their party. Compact districts makes this a little harder.
- Non-Partisan - there were about four people who made this argument two or three of whom argued that extremely partisan political groups had coached people to testify that districts were gerrymandered. And that these groups themselves were trying to gerrymander. My sense is that these folks were disingenuous at best.
- There were a number of cases, already cited, where Democratic representatives were lumped together meaning several incumbents would have to lose their seats. And it almost all hurt Democrats. It would have been hard for this to have been accidental.
- While these folks said the districts were fine, they didn't counter the specific districts that were cited.
- They complained about people being coached to testify. I am aware that AFFR did attempt to educate people about the redistricting process and about the way the initial two maps were drawn. This is a normal part of political organizing. Here is a Link to Robin O'Donahue's webinar on redistricting. I think this group's major complaint is that AFFR and others did a good job of alerting people to the process and the problems they saw. This is why we have public participation in the process. The Board listened and all the testimony will be taken into consideration. If it is valid, let's hope the Board will incorporate it into the final maps. If not, that they disregard it.
- To charge these 3rd party groups with trying to gerrymander is ludicrous. It's the Board that has been charged with making the maps. Only the mapmakers themselves can actually gerrymander the state. Outside groups can attempt to prevent that from happening by testifying during the process and suing if they find the final product to have violated the law. The Board has three Republican appointed members. If anything, the power is on their side to come up with maps that tilt the political power to the right.
- Senate Pairings missing - I can understand the Board's point of view that since this is just the first draft, the Senate pairings wouldn't be final anyway. However, without the Senate pairings, public can't evaluate the legality of the districts. It does suggest that the Board get Senate pairings done early enough to get public reaction before submitting them. Last time, the Board paired and East Anchorage district with an Eagle River district and successfully got rid of a Democratic Senator who was the only African-American legislator at the time. The Senate pairings were done, as I recollect, at the very end and there were no public hearings after they were made and before the plan was finalized.
- Procedural Issues - I think the first one - non-work hours to testify - is self explanatory. I testified for the other part.
- While the Board did adopt a policy to not 'protect incumbents' the result of the first draft maps show they also need a policy 'to not target incumbents.'
- The Board has not put partisan data into the software on the members' computers. But it really appears that some of the mapmakers did have access to information about incumbents' home addresses. The reaction of the public at the meetings shows many do not trust the Board. So I proposed that the Board not consult privately with people not on the Board. The public testimony - written and oral - is the proper way for the public to share information. Thus Board members should report any contact with the public that attempts to given them specific information about map making. I think this would go a long way to help the Board's creditability. I'd note that at the meeting one of the people who worked on the Anchorage map - Nicole Borromeo - said she did not have any political information. She was basically reworking a map mainly done by Bethany Marcum.
Alaska Redistricting Board Sept 17, 2021 9am meeting
Members: Melanie Bahnke , Nicole Borromeo, John Binkley, Bethany Marcum, Budd Simpson
9:05 members here, Marcum still coming.
Exec Director presentation - where we are at so that public has understanding of project.
Adopt draft agenda - passed
Peter Torkelson (ED)
-dramatic increase in interest in our work after proposed maps. Chart on board of hits to websie.
-required to adopt one or more plans at least 30 days after receiving census data. We did that on Sept 9. Two maps. On Friday, back to work, more compactness, new maps that will be reflected on Monday’s meetings (we heard SE loud and clear. This is a public process. Adopting our draft proposals, just a beginning.
Now 6-7 week process of taking maps to the public - with COVID awareness.
Received about 160 Public testimony
Some groups have invested thousands of dollars into Software, hired staff.
Purpose of today’s meeting is to open the door to other groups to bring their maps.
John: Questions?
Peter: Board taking wide blank screen approach. We did not include political data, blind to data on the software.
John: Our intent to gather as much public input as we can Testimony at beginning and end of meetings. Try to be apolitical. Alaska different. Most states use legislature to draw own maps. Five of us here appointed by gov, leg. And Supreme Court. Tries to pull ???
Number of people online signed up.
Online first, keep it brief. Lots of people
Anchorage, Tahnee Seccareccia - In Anchorage 20 years, Spenard. Drummond is my rep. Calling to ask the Board that process is truly non-partisan. Two drafts concerning how Anchorage areas and greater Alaska split up or combined. My area joined with Turnagain and downtown. We are geographically distinct. Appears to be gerrymandering. The gentleman who said this is non-partisan - not true. Consider 3rd party maps non partisan.
Former rep David Guttenberg Fairbanks -16 years in legislature - I repped 3 different districts until they were ruled unconstitutional Had my district out of Goldstream to the coast, Hooper Bay. Experience repping district gerrymandered so I know how hard that is and wrong. In order to get from west side to east side, had to drive thru 3 other districts. A real problem here. Different schools, community centers, shop in different places, no commonality.
Urge you to pay attention to way line around Old Dog East trail in - I’ve repped that side. A few houses there. Isolated from one side of district to the other. Dis. 32 is clearly a problem that doesn’t rep either part of the district. Thank you.
John: Marcum has joined us.
Marcum: Apologies.
Kelvin Rogers, Fairbanks: Chopped up Fairbanks. Rather see other options for the maps. Great injustice.
Anchorage audience: Lois Epstein: Alaska Licensed engineer. Live downtown L and 15th since 2005. Responsibility compact and socio-economically consistent. Each criteria are p???
My home is Downtown to Spenard to airport. Does include 3 current house Democrats. Another problem Excess population numbers those residents have less representative . Also need to see what Senators you intend so we can comment on that.
Felisa Wilson - Ret Airforce, Live on JBER, since 2015. JBER is divided into specific areas around the gates. Most at Ft Rich side socio-economically Govt Hill is a different community
Rosa O’Hara-Jolley Fairbanks. Teacher Listened to board and like your words, but action doesn’t reflect your words. Created areas where voters underrepresented. Decision to go E-W from N-S does not represent how FB people see themselves. Which transfer sites you live - two named East and West. Transfer station 45 minutes away from community. Thank you.
Michele Anderson, Anchorage - Thank you. Original shareholder and president of Ahtna and naive village of Gulkana. Interior Coalition and Sealaska created maps to insure Alaska native representation. Ahtna appreciates being included and support the maps. We’d like the interior villages to stay together.
Online Karen Baker from Anchorage - Fairview former res of FB. Strong opposition to these maps - particularly Interior and SE. Current gerrymander form attempt to favor certain candidates. We have a right to fair and accurate representation.
Leon James from Anchorage online: Anchorage area, compared portions of Anchorage and Matsu Borough not a similar socio-economic Borough. District 18 over population target, by growing to NE and north and Boniface and NE community council area. Russian Jack community council area. Boniface different. North of Debarr as well. Splitting up University area.
Nicole: Looking at east side, east to west or north to south? Along Seward HW and along Boniface. Probably south of Tudor gets tricky.
Online, Emily Becker - in Airport Heights, currently D19 specific comments hard to hear her. Better. Close to Merrill Field. My neighborhood and sense of the maps. Ver 1 map puts elementary into D 18, while 70% of families in D20. Title 1 school many kids in poverty. Need a clear voice. Despite apolitical both seems nakedly political. Fairview and Mt. View low income neighborhoods sliced and diced.
Online Constance Quinley - I’m in my 60is grey haired woman. Live in Anchorage for 36 years. Parts of Ancho and Matsu combined. Neighbors but different communities. ER is part of Anchorage, different culturally, economically. ER and east Anchorage not compatible.
Casey Casort - online shocked and disappointed with clearly gerrymandered chart. Hard for me to understand.
Nicole: reference map and you’re breaking up. AFFR map should be looked at closely.
Melanie: mentioned maps around someone’s house, but you broke up. Andy Story in Juneau.
Will Muldoon, Juneau - Dis 33, The Story bubble, deputy director no partisan data in the software. Every one had problems. I can’t speak much to north, but SE. Yakutat Idea tough. When you deviate, east west or north south. Creating not very compact districts. Other side of coin on inside. Not too critical yet. ???
Nicole: Hear your criticism. Solutions? Appreciate questions. 2010 runaround and 2013 Proclamation plan. Had lower ceiling for deviation. Higher is great. Each dis and looked at their deviation as absolute and then as percentage. Currently from Board Ket-Kodiak in 2010, neither adopted.
Cathy Hosford, Skagway, Last ten years rep by downtown Juneau. More in common with north Juneau and auk Bay and N. Linn canal. Often wondered why. Better to be compacted, share concerns ferries, roads. Appreciate your hard work.
Nicole: One area of SE caused us to ponder. Understand you down’t want to be with downtown. Then your version of Juneau Split. Easy to draw us into what is now 34 and make Juneau and Douglas into a district. My current rep trying to do great job but they don’t know my issues.
James Squyres from Gulkana - current Dist 9 my Aug 24 testimony. Now included Holy Cross this strange district 36. Difference between North and South of Alaska range. Diff between rural Alaska and urban Alaska. Delta For Greely. Military presence
Melanie: Which map Under my name James Squires, meets goal of 18K per district.
Bethany: Thank you Mr Squires - did you make a statewide map. Yes, but focused on districts around me.
Beverly Churchill Anchorage online: Thank you. Thanks for hard work. Jumping in late and trying to catch up. Reiterate points already made. Anchorage MUNI combined with Matsu - these are very distinct community. Comments that they are socially economically integrated. Have own health care, school districts, etc. Also reiterate Anchorage folks - community councils divided by neighborhoods.. Finally ER, is becoming more and more distinctly their own community. People there want to exit for MOA. Shouldn’t lump with East Anchorage.
9:57am
Online: Jamie Rodriquez - Anchorage, address elephant in the room - gerrymandering. Looking at the map, lots of gerrymandering some examples. 1. Juneau, N map 1/4 of mile cut out that district’s rep. Reason for concern. 2. Ketchikan, similar since another double up representation 3. In Anchorage, in second versions takes away to little precincts replaces with one, totally throwing it out of balance. 4. 3 reps in one district. More examples. One group wants to subvert our voting process. You talk about preventing it. Please do that. We have to live with this for ten years. Thank you.
Online Lynette Pham - Anchorage - Lived moved from Unalaska???. Dis 21. East Anchor and ER are distinct communities. Takes away voices from both ER and East Anchorage. …..
Holy Cross and Valdez in same district makes no sense.
Gretchen Whemhoff from Chugiak - so many different maps. Looking at composite 2 Dis 22,23, 24. I’ve run for office. Had to go to Fairview, Valley. Going in right direction by separating MOA from Matsu. Redistricting Alaska from other states, but this map, keeping those two large populations, very distinct separate. Another on right track, in Dis 22, now more of similar Chugiak, Eklutna, more in common that downtown ER or the Valley. Heard another speaker say this - if we do have that corner in NE like Anchorage has NE corner. Should be able to separate NE Anchorage and ER. NE Anchorage would be better served. Former 12 had Valley and Chugiak - had to drive a long way. But appreciate trying to map all this. Two highly populated areas with separate govts should be kept separate. Everything you do, it’s a domino thing.
10:09
Kay Herold - Seward?
Anchorage Judith Conte - Anchorage - Spenard. Since 2003. Redistricting maps supposed to be non-partisan ways. I heard someone say apolitical and how maps were drawn that way. That has not been the case in these districts. Merged into one district spenard, downtown, all distinct and benefited by independent representation. In testimony should merge Anchorage and Matsu, it points to gerrymandering attempt. Differences between Matsu and Anchorage. It adversely attack House dems and protects minority GOP, Disregards community councils. Integrity.
Tara Lucas from ?
Lee Drake from FB - Lee Drake - respond to comments by Robin O’Donohugh - about norther districts and UA. All have offices in LIO in FB. Where you see your rep. People in NPole. No one cares about a daily commute, but now they complain about a drive once or twice a year. Families live on Chena ridge, but being in house district problematic. Eilson - talking very fast can’t keep up. UAF and Dept of Defense - economic integration. Goldstream and !! Have history of mining . I support the current map of FB as shown on the website.
Nicole: I apologize can you please email your testimony? We got some info.
Melanie: Reference comments by Robin O’Donohue.
John: He testified last time. [O’Donohue is part of AFFR and made video to educate people about redistricting.]
Anchorage online- Forrest McDonald Start - Board has impossible task, lots of places tied into 40 districts. I can see how you’re doing this so far and doing a good job. Maps won’t look like they used too. Do have problem with Downtown progressive district split into 3 parts from Muldoon to Kincaid - looks a little partisan, Smell test. Overall good job. I’m partisan political person, Recognize so many names that called. In. Board selected for board. Call in have been coached by extremely partisan - AFFR, AKPirg, Native Groups. Coaching people to say things in calls and then sue and refer. Outside our public policy. Take effort to prevent extreme public partisan groups.
Donna Marsh Petersburg
Juneau David Hanna - Thanks None of us envy you. Doing best you can. Boundary between district 3 and 4. Take to heart Kathy Ho// about Linn canal area. I asked downtown Juneau rep and asked about ferry and the downtown rep was silent. Still angst about where the lines were drawn. Should take heart she would win. Looks like followed basic population center.
FBKs Elizabeth Dalton - Lived here all my life. In complete support. Beautifully done. All incumbents in their district. We’ve lost population. Including rep in Matsu that has has big growth. Agree with fellow about coaching of the testimony from certain groups that want to gerrymander. You on the board have taken an oath and I appreciate hard work you do and believe you are following he rules.
Anchorage, David Nees - Rep myself. Wanted to testify. In favor of #2. 1990-2000, 2010 and overlaid them on what you have. Community Council model still based on 1970 to advise Assembly. Outdated. Map following rules, excellent jobs. Much less political than in 1990s. One outlier, since 1990 to 2010 and 2020. That should give you a range. If stay within that mean. A good test that you are meeting the anti-gerrymandering. Doesn’t look like any gerrymandering. Second one looks the best.
Rep. Garan Tarr, in Juneau? Not there
Robert Hoekema Anchorage - Gerrymandering - pairing incumbents together. Claman, Drummond, and Field. Tuck majority leader. First version pairs Snyder and Sponhollz. Don’t care too much, population. Makes the districts much less. U-Med district into Campbell area. Balance between hard job and partisan outcome. Hard to believe this was not partisan. Forcing House majority to run against each other.
10:33
Garan Tarr back on line: Good morning. Thank you. As sitting leg. Not appropriate on the map. First testimony since map came out. How can we do testimony outside of work hours. Can’t because meeting during work hours. Evening testimony would be beneficial. All I wanted to say. Thanks for your hard work.
John: Just beginning. Getting public testimony. Third party presentations.
Concludes online. Still have some in the room.
??? Silvers here. Dara Silvers?? My own. Process of mapping Anchorage. Two compact and socio-economic where people live shop, Anchorage maps done pretty blindly with little info of how made. Lack of compactness and was uniquely protecting republicans. Map 1 has east anchorage shaped like a pin-wheel and split into other districts. Everyone who knows East Anchorage distinct, older, seedy strip malls, and dive bars. Lifelong Alaskan whose live in many parts of Anchorage. East Anchorage is a close knit district. Was specifically designed for Lance Pruitt to make a comeback. May not be by design. Would like to point to Chantsu park with ice rink, and Saturday market - ripped out of East Anchorage and put into ER.
Back online Donna Marsh from Petersburg - urge board to consider how map figured most contiguous, Econ-integrated A large star has so many diverse populations. Respect your effort. But created redistricting that adversely affect ????? Especially SE.
Budd: Seek clarity. See Petersburg joined with Sitka, Ketchikan? Ketch and Juneau probably more aligned with Sitka. Hard to make everyone happy. Can go lots of ways. Why reinventing the wheel.
Robin Smith Anchorage - thank board for opportunity to speak. Tried to follow. I understand it’s very difficult considering the size of AK and. We don’t see the Senate districts. Woefully incomplete. Failed to respect Borough and city boundaries - Anchorage Matsu FB. Appears to be gerrymandering in the nao, New FB city center map not drawn historically now N-S districts. UA has Dem Senator and two Dem reps. Would result in total Republican in FB.
Nicole: If public info I have no idea where legislators live except my own representative.
Robin: It really looks like it . Hard to … May not be intentional but it appears to be. How it looks to the average person.
Nicole: Want to go on record, this is not something we did intentionally.
Bruce Farmwell: thanks for the hard work. Some of us have taken time to tell you what we perceive as problems. First I heard that coaching was available . Couldn’t get it. Thoughts on big picture. I’ve lived for 40 years in AK and my district 20 years. Changes probematic. Lots of 3rd party maps. Draft of Constitution tried to be fair. Lots of processes put in place for succession of leadership. Designed this process and did best they could. But four out of five of you appointed by leaders of a political party. And hard not to think of yourselves that way. Most Alaskans like me are not members of the two parties. If completely non-partisan board without party members involved. Think of that and try to map it that way.
Drew Had to leave
Brian Hoek?? - West Anchorage - Can dive into the weeds a bit at this point. Turnagain Area can be defined another of ways. Area west, both sides of NLights, particularly the south side. Much more connected to airport than down. Adding us to downtown. Lots of testimony. More than anticipated.
New caller Ellen James - In Anchorage in Hist district 17, in both maps several districts are split up. Encourage follow community council boundaries as much as possible. 2 point: version one map. Didn’t ????? East Anchorage. Didn’t make sense. I appreciate it’s hard.
Concludes Public testimony. Take ten minute break
10:59
Nicole: Maybe five minutes and get on track. Back at 11:05
11:05 Doyon Coalition presentation Tenana Chiefs Conference, Fairbanks Native Association, Sealaska, Ahtna. See presentation at: https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129694
Worked with constitutional guidelines - compact, contiguity Relative Socio-Economic integrity and Equal.
We added Local government boundaries. ANCSA Boundaries, Communities of interest
Population total 6.1 % 620 people fewer than ideal. District 37 completely off the road system and
600? Over
Tanner : Statewide map and further note on deviations. Some deviation is inevitable. Geography is enormous and census blocks odd. Doesn’t mean that deviation amount should be allowed in a different district. We want lowest deviation practicable. Munis and Burrooughs compacter. Big Deviations concentrated in rural area.
Tour through Alaska.
SE: Our plan keeps Ketchikan whole but Board plan split Ketchikan. Also kept islands whole
City and B or Ketchikan and
District 2 is Island District - prince of Wales and Burroughs of Yakitata
Juneau itself. Urban District - Auk Bay and Valley from Lemon Creek. Haines and Skagway - we heard same testimony you heard and will look at it.
Downtown - some people say easy to draw district - but either splits Mendenhall and or Auk Bay
Given members of coalition jump straight into interior but should stop in S Central - but we have concerns about whether Valdez does fit with the interior areas. Different boroughs,
Others have paired with Cordova.
How did we solve this. Put Valdez with Chenega and Cordova. But too much population to add Kodiak. Ours keeps Valdez along the highway, but ????
Kenai Pen has more population than number of districts. Allowed Kenai to be paired with Kodiak itself. Rest is traigh????
McHugh Creek natural break from S. Anchorage
Nicole: You have Kodiak with part of Kenai - just Seward? Rationale?
Maritime coastal community. Helps with issue of population of Kenai needing to go outside.
Nicole: Why not take in Home with that direct ferry connection
Tanner: To do that harder to create socio-economic because Homer has too much population
John: Seldovia not in same district as Homer? Correct.
Nicole: I don’t have the Valdez page. Can you go back to Valdez.
Tanner: district here that keeps all the Sound communities together. Not in Richardson Highway that goes to Delta. No longer that far north.
John: Are Valdez and Copper center in same districts?
Tanner: No.
Matt: On Valdez, your thinking about socio-economic between Cordova and Sutton. Also about Seward to Kodiak is continuous and skipping over Kachemak Bay.
Tanner: Contiguity. Simply artifact of software. Kodiak is an island, over water contiguity. Are limits. Probably couldn’t connect Kodiak and North Slope. Socio-E integration. There have to be tradeoffs as you go. Looking for the best places. Right now Valdez inBoard’s plan socio-economically integrated with Interior. Better in our map with water. In comparison to other alternatives.
John: You’d have to drive thru district 36 to get there? Thru the hub.
Presenter: Includes every district in Ahtna region. We recognize FB as our hub. Worked fromWest to east
Fairbanks- see map - House 33 Ft Wainright and off base housing tied to east side hopping and work downtown, go to HS.
34 Also Eilson and area around the base
35 - College, UAF
John: Chose to break up FBNS borough to put in interior district. Deviation more important than Borough boundaries. Make sure FB retains one person one vote. We heard from our council that deviation within those larger areas where deviations are important.
With respect. To have their one person with less than one vote, plus with Matsu having theirs less than one person one vote. People don’t necessarily feel tied to B. Feel closer to road . Communities that don’t elect to have fire service even though they are in the Borough.
HD 40 identical toBoard map
39 close to old 39
38 - hub Bethel
37 very similar without the Athabaskan interior villages.
Nicole: I know you’re a coalition, did you consult with others in this district?
?? : Multiple conversations with Calista. They are aware our goal was to pull the Athabaskan communities together.
Anchorage - board has 3.89 3.57 ours has deviation of about 1% - following 2010 court rulings. Deviations are artifacts of ?land? Or census block. Also considers the Base exits and connects with communities outside those gates.
ER are
Matsu has 5.84
27 Glen Highway and Richardson Hwy districts. Includes Denali Borough w/o Cantwell
We submit for consideration.
11:39
John: Denali Borough with Matsu w/o Cantwell. Part of Ahtna community of villages.
Marcum: Kept Palmer whole? Yes. Thank you
Matt: Port Graham and Seldovia with Aleutians. Another question, blocked off Girdwood and joined it with northern side of Penninsula.
Tanner: Seldovia: See deviation - under 3%. Issue board and everyone runs into in SW Alaska. If put the border here, under deviated and goes up the coast with other SE integration issues. These areas also strong maritime areas.
Tradeoff between S Anchorage - what was your thinking. A: Straight tradeoff? Pops don’t come out the same. Mathematical problem. Map Seward with Kodiak. Then too much pop in Kenai for borders of Borough. One has to crsss the Boarder. There’s a highway that connects these areas. Population realities.
?????: Rural communities have been using ?? To make Boroughs look good. Don’t want it to fly in face of common sense.
Nicole: Is Bethel in 37 or 38? A: 38
Bethany: Looking at Shake file - Palmer split into two districts.
Tanner: We had some issues about whether our shake files matched. We’ll get you updated version.
11:48 John: Next group? Lunch is here and we should take a break. 30 minutes? Melanie says 15 - back 12:05
12:09 Back on Board - “Alaska Democrat Party” (not Democratic though that’s what it says on their material)
Mike Wentrop - Alaska Democratic Party Director and ??? : Reading from materials. https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129695
Questions?
John: Respected boundaries of B and cities - sounded like you said ok to break them, but only do it once? Mike: yes.
Eilson AF Base and population will grow. Did you speculate on how it will grow?
No, but we considered it.
Bethany? Thank you: As far as 3rd party presenter. Only 3rd party with a political affiliation, did you use political data? Aware, but didn’t use.
Nicole: Can you elaborate on what you said about more population coming to Eilson.
???: Didn’t want an overpopulated district, but we also didn’t underpopulated that district. Unfair to inflate a population based on speculation
Attorney: US census is only population you can consider.
Budd: Downtown Juneau goes down to Petersburg. Are you going to walk thru the maps?
Erin: Making B and city lines were possible and natural geography.
Follows Yakutat B? Correct. Doesn’t include Cordova? Correct.
Combined Kodiak, but not all the way to Valdez. Kachemak Bay and Seldovia? Is that a borough all the way to Halibut Cove? That’s my recollection.
With eye to Senate pairings Kenai and respecting community lines. Town lines afford that
16 Anchorage districts. Contained ER as much as possible. Two NE Anchorage districts structured around ???. Two similar to 16 and 27. Westward trying to follow major streets and arteries, with understanding that population and census blocks vary. S Anchorage including Girdwood and Whittier.
Matsu Borough - Community, Town lines, other community lines as possible
Large Borough
John: District 6 - out Glenn Highway to Butte and Knik and Denali a into S Fairbanks. Into S area census district - outside of the Borough. Like Delta Junction.
John: Dot Lake and Tok, but not Tanacross? Correct.
Trying to respect community of North Pole as best we could. And district along the outside. Breaks Borough in two areas? Follows B boundaries except.
John: Between Delta and Eilson? I don’t see the numbers so hard to describe. Part in blue, part in green,
Mike: We break the borough only once. Population and pairing senate seats.
Bluish, goes around and to Valdez and villages. All villages in Inerior River district? Kaltag with Unalakleet? Population.
Bethel - 39 shaped around Bethel and - odd cutout based on census boundary and not much population.
Melanie - in this area looks like a couple of B breaks Dillingham, four different areas? Correct? Yes.
Erin: Goal was to provide as much possible without deviating more than we did.
John: What’s this appendage? Census block.
Quinihak, Good News, and Platinum with Aleutians? Yes.
Melanie: Share this with anyone from this part of the state? Mike: Yes mentioned names.
Nicole: I’m looking at Bethel region and this is splitting them into four different districts. Mike: Bethel growing so much.
Up the coast - currently 39 and 40. Can easily draw districts self contained. But because we started at Bethel and Hooper Bay.
John: So Buckling and Deering are in ? Instead of.
12:42 finished
AFFER:
????: Thank you for taking all this time to volunteer to do this.
I’m Steve Culligan. Lifelong Alaskan. Grew up in Fairbanks. Work for MOA now. This technology took up a whole room. Alaskans helped develop this technology. You can torture data enough. Data used to support different redistricting to deal with rural districts with 100s of miles isn’t easy. Today, we can improve our own maps. This is a process. Senate pairings.
Myself and Randy Ruedrich. AFFER Fair doesn’t always mean equitable. This map is 3.36 statewide deviation.
In packet we’ve got entire deviation. I will mention any public - also have online map and loaded all the others online. Some great ideas. https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129696
Courts have found that a Borough meets that socio-economic integration. There are no other needs to consider for SE integration.
Populations as near as possible to division of population by 40. Tested in 2000. Many approaching -5. The SC instructed the Board to redo 37 of 40 districts. If you have census block of similar size. Larger deviations in rural areas Courts should meet.
SE has a problem. Has pop deficit like FB. The rest of the state has pop surplus.. We added like other, Yakutat B. But can’t get that northern population size right. Need a long coastal district from north to the south. One was called an ice worm or maritime region. This creates a problem every time. Surplus distributed to rest of state. Three inside district one. District 1 and 2 . District 3 is Juneau to airport.
Matt: Looks like you ???
Randy: Very specific putting Saxman with strong ties to Sealaska, put it in with rest of marine area???
Budd: Related question - we tried to draw a similar map. To get numbers to work, we accidentally left out a road in Ketchikan. Does this map also do that? Yes. I was trimming off everything that isn’t a city street. ????? If we add it back, its a bigger deviation.
John: Saxman more associated with Ketchikan. The resources look to Sitka for SE integration for Native Groups. Agree with my Democrat colleagues you can break a boundary once only.
Nicole: Break 3 o4 4 times?
Randy: In western Alaska, using ANCSA boundaries is preferred?
Matt: I don’t recall what SC decided. Borughts are ok by definition.
12:59
Budd: Not sure people in the Saxman area would agree with you. We’re at 29 with districts within 1%.
Randy: We have a unique problem with FB. SC said in 2011 that FB deserved a Senate Seat.
One is Western FB pop. The middle has all the rest. To honor the integrity of the House seat in the city we add North Pole and Eilson.
It’s hard to keep up. Sorry. Doing the best I can. There will be tapes and transcripts eventually.
Capture all the Northside that have always been in North district. In 2013 had nearly 8000 more people than could be handled in five districts. Now it’s 3500. District 5 wrap around FB and has similar voting interests. Suggest put Ester and Goldstream. In District 5 we added Cordova. Didn’t fit in SE or Kodiak. Eyak, has Native link
Matt: Why taking Ester out of FBNS borough.
Randy: Have to take out something/
Matt: Why Ester.
Randy: You could take out Eilson because they didn’t vote. I find that offensive. They showed 11% voting. But that was only on election day. Many were out of state and voted absentee.
That we must have a closed west side of FB city. It’s a fortress. Need to heed SC decision that they deserve a Senate seat. I just mapped around. Can minimize that if overpopulate FB. It would minimize people going to District 5. Keep all together all those except in the 2013 map put in rural Alaska.
Matsu - has three small cities - Houston, Wasilla and Palmer. Six districts. Anchor those cities in their protected space. I concur with adding Denali Borough. But put Cantwell in District 5.
We should share it across the bridge because of excess population. Open the door on highway.
With bridge closed, we have a clear north ER district Chugiak to Meadow Creek. All civilian district 17. 18 downtown ER and JBER at Muldoon entrance.
Melanie: Putting ER? Splitting it only by taking norther neighborhoods. Precincts ping pong balled from census to census. Attach it to Muldoon. Since SC in 2002 said ER could be attached to South Anchorage.
Anchorage: CampbellCree between 30 and 28. Chester Creek between 22 and 25 and ??????
Wonderful road SH split along Huffman, Abbot, Tudor. Changes on west side of the highway incidental because all slightly underperform.
Airport left in tact. From Ship Creek Boundary to RR crossing. Moved Spenard east along Chester Creek and N to Tudor.
Mountain View is the other half of downtown. 21 goes into Boniface Community. 20 nearly perfect rectangle, we nibbled on the edge of Reflection Lake???? Nibbled on the edge to get enough population Abbot to OMalley. Shed some population on the south. The least map mess in my opinion.
Kenai - skimmed north precinct off Kenai. Kenai slightly over populated. Shared Kenai’s surplus population down to Tustemena. Closed surplus population problem by putting all of Kachemak Bay in one district. Associated with Homer district, not Kodiak. Without Yakutat problem was Kodiak. Combined PWS including Valdez with Kodiak that is a shipping districting Largest ports - Kodiak and Valdez and left port of Whittier in PWS district.
1:20
History: Boundary between Bering straits and Nana adjusted each time. 2001 one recall was Shismareff into 40 to get the population up. The solution we came up with was. We have surplus population.
Put resultant population into 37, not only Platinum and Goodness and Qy]uinahak and ???? Protects population of Calista to bring norther boundaries. Putting more Calista folks into 39. Haven’t cured the problem, but have more Calista votes in same district.
Melanie: Taking NANA region and , but 39 has four different ANCSA corp villages.
Randy: Trying to keep down deviation.
Steve: These are the impacts in rural entities of trying to keep down the deviation.
John: Pairing Bethel with Norton Sound rather than Arctic Region. Are you saying deviation more important than SE integration. Rather than the hub they associate with.
Ruedrich: If you allow more deviation, you just create more problems.
1:30
Melanie: Thank you for the presentation and the hard copy you gave us.
Next: We have the Matsu Borough Mike Brown - Matsu Borough Manager. We’re zoomed in on Matsu Borough. Highlight key points. See handout. https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129697
Matt Singer: Seen plans that pair Matsu with Cordova and Valdez
Mike: We concentrated on the Borough, but that seems reasonable.
John: OK Thank you very much.
1:37
Next up we have Alaskans for Fair Redistricting AFFR
Robin and David? Five minute break while you set up.
1:45PM
AFFR
John: Good Afternoon
Robin O’Donahue and David Dunsmuir, also our chair Joelle Hall would like us to read the statement . Online https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129719
Robin reading Joelle Hall’s statement.
We’ve structured this a little different. Presentation goes with larger report online at ARB site and on our site
Asked about our membership: Alaska Native Orgs, Labor Unions, Non-Profits - lists in link. Said does not mean that they all endorse the plan, but have worked with us.
I’m going to rest and you can read the links
David Dunsmuir - Areas where significant differences from Board, and also Senate pairings.
Deviations:
Board Option 1
9.01%
AFFR
4.88% for house and Senate 3.2
Our largest house district same as 40 and smallest district in SE.
Respecting local boundaries - list of broken boundaries comparing Board and AFFR only Borough we break twice is Kenai.
Melanie: Did you factor ANCSA boundaries. We tried Doyon and balance concerns as much as we could.
Do not include Haines, Skagway or Klukwan with Juneau
See the AFFR handouts
Melanie - What is guidance on Community councils?
Matt Singer - Not SC ruling. Can be considered.
Still talking 2:16pm
Bethany: Could you zoom in on Aleutians district? Where you jumped down. District 37. Alaska Peninsula in District 5?
2:19pm
Melanie - I will be leaving at 2:30 but will watch
Sen Begich online - I’m on the road, so I hope link is ok https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129699
https://aws.state.ak.us/OnlinePublicNotices/Notices/Attachment.aspx?id=129699
Greatest number of individual voter protection - Example of how this could be done. 3.14% deviation. Able to get to that, is by moving Deering into 39 to 40. If you leave NW Borough intact it would be 4.77. Senate and House seats identical . If removed, Senate 2.94. Meets or exceeds deviation standards set by courts.
Only going beyond boroughs to to deal with deviance.
Based on findings in Hickle, only 5 districts in FB would probably lead to litigation.
Even with odd census blocks and States size etc. this map shows with current technology, urban areas relatively compact and equal districts can be drawn. .35% with most of the districts.
Finally, Senate pairings numerically.
Can’t review Board maps because not sure about senate pairings.
Anticipates process will continue and you can incorporate in your future maps. Over time, court has tightened requirements and with improved technology we have, this is likely to continue. Should
2:29
John: Not endorsed by the caucus and request go forward with public process
Begich: We didn’t want to put finger on the scale and say you should do this, but we wanted to offer a map that would show that the various criteria could be met at the highest standard. Do I endorse it? Sure. But does it protect my district? Destroys it. (did I understand that right?)
Members of caucus have reviewed it and agree, but choice not to endorse because we don’t want political persons to -
TJ= proposed district 6 - Cordova is included in District 6 including it with Interior.
Begich: You have to consider map as a whole. In the past it has been with Intrior, reprinted by Rep Lincoln. Cordova part of unorganized Borough as it has and upheld by courts in the past. Way to make clean break with SE . We need additional pop for Interior. Best way to incorporate most of Doyon villages in District 6.
John: I see significant number of Doyon villages not in District 6.
If we do include it as 3rd Party map, do we call it Minority Caucus?
Begich: Yes
Next on agenda:
Begich wanted more time OK Map is up
By regions - my 1-5 FB deviation of .11 North Pole, Individual house districts from 1-6
Matsu B broken once 12 adds has two full senate seats dev. .25
Anchorage to Whittier -
borough has excess and is shared with Anchorage
Losing track here.
John asking about SE
Tom Begich still talking 2:52pm
John: In MOA 16 seats. Total MOA population divided by 16 in MOA. Within those boundaries you can get it much tighter.
John: One more if you could: Senate Pairings?
Begich: Sure I can. 1 and 2, 3 and 4 in sequence.
2:56
Public Testimony: Steve Aufrecht
Online- Karen Concern about representation for people in the unorganized boroughs,
Thanks for the opportunity . I’ll be praying for you.
Major Felisa Wilson - thanks for being conscientious and taking everyone seriously and trying to get to what the public wants.
Concludes public testimony 3:03
Public Hearings and Outreach
Then plan for Monday
Peter: We are entering public hearing tour. Monday Sept 20 at 9am. Board will discuss the 3rd party maps and changes to proposed maps. Then visit communities around the state, launch that Sept 27th, traveling the state. Still talking with Board members and COVID restrictions. Generally 2 board members and a staffer in smaller communities. Have them after working hours. In some places over noon because of flight schedules. We intend to visit 10-13 places.
Monday.
Bethany: For people who made public testimony, if you can provide written testimony
Peter: Every comment coming in I grab and add it to data base so it’s key word searchable.
John: A lot to digest in short period of time. Not sure I can absorb it all and make decisions by Monday. We may want to take more time. Should meet Monday, but I don’t want to be rushed.
Nicole: I second that. The public response has been much more than I expected. We need more time than Monday to go through the feedback.
Budd: I agree. I was impressed with the quality and itemizations and alternative maps from the public. Much of that information we will want to use and incorporate somehow. When we start tinkering with one district it causes issues.
Consensus, for expectations from public. We’ll work on Monday. May not have final maps for taking on the road yet. 3rd party folks, that would be helpful. See how it goes Monday and see if we need to meet again.
Nicole: We’ll work hard over the weekend with staff. May adoptMonday but we might need more time. Try, but not lock ourselves in.
Budd: How will we proceed Monday. Screens. Giant printer in the office.
John: Start with our maps and talk about changes from what others had.
Bethany: Another consideration for Monday. I do have questions from attorneys. Have clear understanding.
John: May need executive session about areas we need to be cautious about.
Budd: Important to get public testimony. Probably limit time for public testimony. Or we won’t get this done.
John: Delicate balance. Slows us down, but important. Public was good, kept testimony short, but voluminous. I thought good process today.
Peter: Marathon of outreach. Caution members to take time to deliberate. We do need some conclusions by Sept 27. If Board needs more time, we’ll adjust. But we have a five week window.
9am Monday morning.
Nicole: Not 9:30?
John: laugh 9:00
Ok motion to adjourn? 3:17pm adjourned
