Working On A Truncation Post, But In The Meantime A Visual Break

 When I sat in at the Redistricting Board meeting when they were doing truncation and then assigning Senate seats to the required staggered terms, I kept scratching my head and wondering, what is happening?  Lots of things didn't make sense.  So I've been listening to the video of the meeting and trying to write down exactly what was said so I'm certain about what I'm writing about it.  It's taking forever.  Especially with an eight year old granddaughter who hasn't seen her grandparents in almost two yers.  So here are some pictures - mostly ones she took yesterday.  I won't say which are which.  Today we baked a bread, played war, and were very silly, and I didn't get much done on the Board.  But priorities.

Downtown Seattle off in the distance

This one we played with together in Photoshop

Redistricting Board Has Posted The Video From Their Final Meeting Where Bahnke and Borromeo Refused To Back Down - See Below

 

The last Redistricting Board meeting was contentious, even explosive. I commend the Board for quicly posting the video of that meeting for all to see and judge for themselves.

Joint Redistricting Board, 11/10/21, 9am from AlaskaLegislature.tv on Vimeo.

Here's the link to the page with the video and many more.   Watch the Nov 8 video and see if you can find where John Binkley called for a vote on the Senate pairings. I missed it and I was there.

There's lots more to talk about this event.  I think it will be seen as the day that two Alaskan Native women stood up and refused to be polite and obedient partners of the three white Board members who pushed through a 3-2 vote to approve what seems to many to be a blatant partisan gerrymandering of the Eagle River senate pairings.  John Binkley, who throughout this process has been friendly and open and conciliatory, seemed like a different person was he pushed this through.  No attempt to find a way to resolve this other than the 3-2 vote.  He wanted to erase their names from the Proclamation because they wouldn't sign it. It took the Board's attorney to resolve the issue by proposing that people sign the document as approving or opposing.  This was a big day for Alaskan Natives all over the state and for everyone who believes in fair, non-partisan redistricting.  

[UPDATE Nov 13, 2021:  After watching this again, I think there are a number of important issues.  One is the point, made by Melanie Bahnke, that this shines a light on how things get done by elected and appointed officials, not just in this case, but in all situations.  Also important to me was that neither Bethany Marcum nor Budd Simpson, when asked, chose to counter anything that Borromeo and Bahnke said. 1.  Because they can't offer any legitimate rebuttal, and 2) because they know they have three votes to two votes. ]

How Do Supreme Court Justices Determine Someone's Sincerity?

The Supreme Court justices were asking questions in a  case where a condemned man wants to have his pastor pray for him and touch him while he's dying.  The lower court sided with Texas, so if the Supreme Court had done nothing, he wouldn't have been allowed to have these last contacts with his pastor. 

 The AP story reported by Jessica Gresko said they're asking questions like:

“What’s going to happen when the next prisoner says that I have a religious belief that he should touch my knee. He should hold my hand. He should put his hand over my heart. He should be able to put his hand on my head. We’re going to have to go through the whole human anatomy with a series of cases,” Justice Samuel Alito said.

Yeah, this claiming religious privilege could get out of hand. This claiming religious privilege could get out of hand.  Why, a baker might refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple because it goes against his strongly held religious beliefs.  What's the difference between a religious belief and a personal prejudice?  After all, Southerners claimed the Bible supported slavery.  What if people believe that Jews killed Jesus (something I've been told on more than one occasion), do they have the right to impose the death penalty?

"Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh also expressed concerns about what a ruling for the inmate would mean for requests in the future, with Kavanaugh asking whether all states would have to offer equivalent accommodations.

What if, he asked, one state “allows bread and wine in the execution room right before the execution” or allows the minister to “hug the inmate.” Do other states have to do the same?"

I get that this question deals with setting precedents. Why are they so worried about some decency for a dying man? But maybe they should look at all claims to do or not do something based on a religious right. 

"Arguing for Texas, state Solicitor General Judd Stone II also told the justices that Ramirez’s request is just an attempt to delay his execution. Justice Clarence Thomas seemed to agree, asking what the justices should do if they believe Ramirez has “changed his requests a number of times” and “filed last minute complaints” and “if we assume that’s some indication of gaming the system.'”

'He [the prosecutor] also said it’s hard to know how a spiritual adviser might react during that time. That person could faint or stumble and jostle the IV lines, he said. “Anything going wrong here would be catastrophic,” he said.'

Really?  More catastrophic to whom?  Certainly not the person being put to death. 

Think about this.  Five of the Supreme Court Justices are Catholics and one more was raised Catholic.  All but one is strongly anti-abortion, but they have much less problem with the death penalty. It's good they are not bound to the Pope's position on everything.  The AP article says they've been less interested lately in staying executions, except when there's a religious aspect. 

The Court has already defined 'religion' pretty broadly.  From the Free Dictionary Legal Dictionary

"To determine whether an action of the federal or state government infringes upon a person's right to freedom of religion, the court must decide what qualifies as religion or religious activities for purposes of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has interpreted religion to mean a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of its possessor a place parallel to the place held by God in the lives of other persons. The religion or religious concept need not include belief in the existence of God or a supreme being to be within the scope of the First Amendment."

This puts a burden on the Justices to determine if a belief is sincere.  That's hard to do in any event, but the Justices never see or hear the actual person whose case is before them.  This is, in fact, moving from interpreting the law to discerning a person's sincerity.   How do you interpret someone's deeply held beliefs in the first place.

? And  for those who belong to established religions how do you determine if someone actually believes the institution's doctrines or not?  Surely we have seen examples of, say, anti-abortion voting politicians who arranged abortions for their pregnant mistresses.  For a dying man, I say, risk being wrong and let him have his last request.  So what if he turns out to be gaming the system?  He's going to die.  

Most Western,  actually most,  countries have abolished the death penalty.  But our conservative Supreme Court justices seem to have no heart.  They're hung up on the myth of all people can be rich if they just put their minds and backs into working hard.  And punishment takes precedence over empathy and kindness.  So, they have to ascertain the difference between a legitimate religious belief or being gamed by a condemned man.  

Leap Of Faith - Flying To Seattle After Deicing

 March 4, 2020, we returned from a long trip with our daughter and granddaughter and assorted family members.  We'd also been to San Francisco to visit our son and his two kids.  Early US COVID deaths were happening at Seattle area nursing homes.  Our daughter was concerned enough to give us each an N-95 mask and drove us all the way out to the airport. (We usually just caught a train out after the ferry to downtown Seattle.)  After a few days I had mild COVID symptoms, but even though I could check off three symptoms and being the right age group and coming from a COVID outbreak area and testing negative for the flu, I couldn't get tested.  

I was near the end of  Michael Lewis'  The Premonition  on the plane today, a story of 'outlaw' doctors

who on their own came up with a plan for what to do when there's a pandemic.  About that time there just weren't enough tests available.  I wasn't sick enough to get tested.  They were saving tests for people in the hospital.  Premontion  tells of a UCSF lab that created, with lots of volunteer help (Post-Phd grad volunteers) a way to provide free tests, but Kaiser said no because they were afraid they'd lose their contract with their regular supplier (according to the book) and a non-profit said no because they couldn't put $0 for cost in their accounting system.

In any case. there was over a foot of snow in some places in my driveway when I shoveled at 8am.  We watched the cab drive by looking for an address.  We couldn't catch his attention, but he stopped down the block and asked someone who was out.  We caught that guy's attention.  

There was a lot of snow.  Wednesday afternoon there hadn't been any.  

Getting through security at 8:45am wasn't bad.  It felt both odd and familiar as we walked through the airport to our gate.  Soon we were on the plane.  We had an empty middle seat, though the pilot kept saying it was full.  Finally at the very end, someone showed up and I moved to the middle seat as a barrier for J.  (Usually I'm at the window with my camera, but it's COVID.  But my neighbor had a good mask on and I saw a Providence screen, then a UAA screen on her computer, so I'm assuming she has a good understanding of the virus.  But still being that close to so many strangers can be uncomfortable.  But I just dismissed the anxiety - I was on the plane and I could either enjoy the ride or have a miserable trip.  I chose option A.

But we weren't leaving that fast.  We had snow on the wings and had to be deiced first.  But another plane was ahead of us.  

Here's our snowy wing.  And it was really a low cloud cover. 

Finally our deicer is on the way.  Our window wasn't very clear. 

Our turn.

We got to the 10,000 foot level still shrouded in flat opaque gray clouds.  It was a full ten minutes before we emerged above it and saw blue again.  

It turned out that our seat mate had missed her 6:30 flight to Portland because the security line was so long.  So she'd had to wait around for our 10:30 flight which was delayed over an hour and still had to get to Portland.  Which I guess explains why she showed up at the last minute - they had to see how many empty seats there were.  

I'd semi decided that we'd skip the train - we'd been cooped up in a plane full of masked, but potential COVID spreaders, and I didn't need more of that.  And we were an hour late.  And it was raining pretty hard, so we took a cab which we'd never done before.  The cab driver asked what time our ferry left.  It was 4:18 at that point.  "We won't make it - it's at 4:45."  The cab driver assured us we'd make it, and we did.  After eating another of the sandwiches we'd brought along (the food service on the ferry was shut down), I needed to get outside.  But it was raining hard and the wind was blowing.  But I found a protected spot in the back.  (As I typed that I thought do ferries have a front and back - since cars come in one end in Seattle and they leave out the other end on Bainbridge Island?  So, I checked with you know who and got this answer to the same question someone asked at sailnet in 2013:

"Washington State Ferries have a pilothouse at each end, so when the boat is ready to leave the dock, the crew moves to the new front of the boat. Sometimes they do turn around or back in, but that is because they loaded cars at the end of the load that need to be offloaded first. That mostly happens on Lopez, Shaw, and Orcas islands and sometimes on Vashon island. Most of the routes are point A to point B though."

Well, here's the view from the back (for that trip anyway) of the ferry looking towards downtown Seattle.  

What a pleasure to be met by our daughter and granddaughter after all this time.  My son-in-law is off on a business trip in Nairobi, 

Today begins two days of discussions amongst the Africa Eats investees on how to speed up the growth of their solutions, how to fill in the gaps African businesses face, and to make Africa Eats more than the sum of its portfolio companies.#hunger #poverty #Africa pic.twitter.com/WxisPMmsd6

— Africa Eats (@AfricaEats) November 12, 2021

but he's due back before Thanksgiving. 

Today's Final Board Meeting.- A Board Divided Signs A Divided Proclamation

The Board's divisions between those members appointed by Republicans (Marcum and Simpson were appointed by Gov. Dunleavy and Binkley was appointed by then Senate President Giessel) and those appointed by non-party affiliated (Borromeo by then House Speaker Bryce Edgmon  and Bahnke by Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger).  

Nicole Borromeo (l) and Melanie Bahnke

Bahnke and Borromeo tried once again to make changes to the Senate pairings, particularly splitting the two ER districts and pairing one ER district with JBER and Government Hill and the other with a south Muldoon district.  Chair Binkley listened to them and then asked for the vote to finally approve the Board's proclamation.  It was 3-2 to approve the proclamation.  When Board members Borromeo and Bahnke refused to sign their names on the proclamation, Chair Binkley wanted their names taken off the proclamation.  They said they did not want to be erased from the Board and wanted their names on the proclamation. There was a brief stalemate.  Then they took the proclamation and apparently signed but wrote something about it being a partisan, illegal gerrymandering on the proclamation.  Chair Binkley refused to use that page.  The Board's attorney Matt Singer suggested a signature page which differentiated between those in favor and those opposed.  That was accepted.  Then Borromeo and Bahnke made statements.  The other Board members declined to make statements.  [Borromeo's statement was written and I was able to get a copy and it's included below. 

My notes of the meeting below.  [Remember these are very rough, things missing, etc.  but gives you an idea of what happened and when the transcripts/audio comes out, you have an idea of what to look for.]

About 10:03  Motion to adopt.  

Bahnke:  I 'd like to talk about the process

Borromeo: No reason to split ER and in fact there are legal reasons to NOT split the Muldoon districts.  I look forward to being able to speak on these issues.  On the last day, takes downtown Anchorage all the way out to Chugiak.

Bahnke:  Also speak against the motion.  Evidence of partisan gerrymandering which raises questions of the whole plan.  Alaskans deserve better.  Maybe 80% of the plan is fair and non-partisan.  We could have had a 100% non-partisan plan.  

Bethany Marcum

Marcum:  I respect your opinion my experience of military 

Bahnke:  Also point out the cracking of the Muldoon.

Borromeo:  This area of Muldoon is a residential area, and expectation that we have 20,000 Alaskans traveling from this residential area into ER and vice versa is beyond belief.  [Played some audio???]  That's the reason.

All those in favor:

Yes - Marcum, Simpson, Binkley

No - Bahnke, Borromeo

Binkley:  That takes us to signing

Binkley: Take names off the page for the no votes

Borromeo:  Do not take me off the Board by taking my name off the page.  

John Binkley (l) Budd Simpson, Matt Singer,
Board attorney, across the table

Binkley: It makes sense to leave your names off.

Bahnke:  I want it on the record that I am on the Board

Binkley:  You should sign and you can write a minority report.

Bahnke:  You are erasing me from the Board because I vote no.

[Bahnke took the paper back - not sure what she is writing.  Bizarre that Binkley wants to take their names off the signature page.  There has been no attempt in the last two days to forge a compromise.  It's just plowing through using the 3-2 majority.]

[UPDATE Nov 13:  Here's what she was writing -  Image from DermotCole tweet- bottom of this thread - today]

10:13 Binkley:  Lets stand at ease

Matt Singer - You could have those in favor - signatures and those opposed signed there.  

Binkley:  Have signature page with those in opposition and those in favor separate.

AT ease: [Went off the record, but the discussion continued]

Borromeo:  I'm opposed to pairing of 21K/22K [ER and S. Muldoon] 20J/19J [N. Muldoon and U-Med}   23L/24L ( [ER & JBER/Govt Hill)  Other than that I'm fine with the plan.  I don't like all the shuffling of Anchorage. 

Juli [Board Administrator] offering refused statement for signing.  

Borromeo:  I just want to leave our names on.

Bahnke:  For the record not opposed to the whole plan, but integrity breached with Senate pairings.  That raises questions of the rest of the plan.  Can't approve if 20% is [very bad.]  I'm not living in districts where problem takes place, but I can step back and see it disenfranchises a part of Alaska.  I don't mind how that is indicated.  Wasn't opposed to all of them.  Only where I saw cracking and illegal gerrymandering  [Cracking is where you combine a low income diverse district with a higher income white district which tends to diminish the representation of the low income neighborhood.]

Simpson:  I agree with attorney, 

Bahnke:  I would have called this out if Democrats were doing this.

10:20  Binkley:  Let's get back on the record.  Compromise proposed by counsel.  Signature blocks of all five members but indicates which ones support and those who oppose it.

Bahnke:  I think that's better than not signing it.  

Borromeo: [This was my attempt to get down her words.  Below is a copy of her written text] True, fair representation was required by founders.  We failed.  I had to go to DC to deal with VRA, when I came back to Alaska. We used testimony of Alaskans to develop fair map of House districts.  We abandoned that.     22 [ER Valley]&24[N.ER] - same streets, neighborhoods, schools, watersheds, utility, and ER has been trying to annex from Anchorage.  No connection between ER and these Government Hill - only way to access is blocked by Base.  Besides objective - we failed to connect these.   We opposed it.  Worth noting South Muldoon does not have a single road connecting - 4 miles down Muldoon through district 20, then another 12 mies to get to ER.  ER not a hot bed of commerce, basically residential.  To argue S Muldoon goes there to shop etc. is ridiculous.  I was told I won too much.  I didn't win anything.  It's not personal.  Alaska lost.  

Even if it's true I had already whined too much, it's no reason to oppose my maps.  Marcum said that her map would extend ER's political power.  You will hear this.  One of the most diverse neighborhoods is the loser.

I want to thank Alaskans for their attention to all this.  And rural Alaskans.  The hospitality you have shown us can only be found in Alaska.  I remain dedicated to fair maps in the next round.  The violations that occurred inlets two days, prevented me from signing.

Bahnke:  15 months of this process.  What we saw.  The way that Board took action tend  [muffle?] discussion and debate yesterday was contrary to Roberts Rules.  Not an expert.  As a former legislator I think you know those rules well.  The outcome has resulted in muffling of particular segment of Alaskan voters.  One point, legitimacy of my authority to speak for Alaska Natives in my own district was questioned.  I've put up with a lot.  That's micro level.  Macro level it silences  part of our population.  More encouraged today.  The greater victory is shining a light to expect  and deserve better not only from elected and appointed level.  Alaskans are seeing what happens.  Whether Republicans, Dems, white, brown, rural urban - we are all Alaskans.  Shed a bigger light on statewide level.  

Binkley asks Marcum and Simpson if they want to say anything.

Marcum  no

Budd?  no

Binkley:  We took great effort to get testimony, all around the state.  Very informative to get the sense from Alaskans and how they felt.  Guided by constitution, our first priority.  Letter and by rulings that have come out to give us sense of direction.  Adhered to that tightly.  Make certain we have legal and defensible process.  Difficult and unfortunate everyone can't be happy.  Tried to put fair plan together.  Some people can look and say fair and others see it differently.  It would be great to be unanimous.  Public has opportunity to look at it and be engaged  Judicial system will reviewed and that's a wonderful part of this.  

I thank all of my fellow Board members, a lot of time, wonderful. As Melanie and Nicole pointed out Alaskans have been very hospital.  Unfortunate we couldn't reach unanimity.  Tremendous experience for me personally.  

Finally thank staff, did an incredible job under Peter Torkelson's leadership.  Tremendous amount time and fair.  And our legal counsel as well. 

Motion to adjourn, seconded. Opposition?  Adjourned.  

I'd note that after the meeting I introduced myself as a blogger to Budd Simpson and asked if I could ask a couple of questions.  He responded, "I don't talk to bloggers."  I was a little taken aback, but expanded my introduction to say I was a professor emeritus of public administration and that I blogged all of the previous redistricting ten years ago and this time.  He still had nothing to say.  So I asked anyway, "You said you were persuaded by the testimony to accept the house map of Anchorage that kept Eagle River districts separate from the east anchorage and JBER/Govt Hill districts.  There was also overwhelming testimony to keep the ER districts in one Senate seat.  What changed that you weren't persuaded this time?"  He said something like I could ask all I wanted but he wasn't answering.  

This part of the process is over.  Now it's up to the public to legally challenge the Board's proclamation in court.  I expect that will happen given how divided the board was.  

I still have observations to make about a lot that's happened with the Board and will try to do that soon.  Meanwhile I do want to say that this whole process was much more open and transparent than the last Board.  Partly that was due to changes in technology that made accessing interactive maps much easier for the public.  But it also took a Board that was willing to make them accessible and a staff that was incredibly responsive and fast in getting things up.  So I want to thank the Board and staff for doing that.  

I'm scheduled to get on an airplane tomorrow for the first time in almost two years.  I'm looking forward to seeing family and having Thanksgiving with them there.  So I've got lots of things to do to prepare for the house sitter and so I'm going to stop for now.  

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

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. 

AK Redistricting Board - Fixing Technical Glitches And Senate Pairings Parts #1, #2, #3, and #4

 I'll add to this post as the meeting progresses.  

Summary

[At this point they agreed on  1&2 and 3&4 in SE  39&40  37&38 Voting Rights Act districts and 33&34  in Fairbanks.  These are more or less certain, but eventually they will approve the whole state together.  Now they are in work session (still online) to individually and in pairs work on the other districts that are not such obvious pairings.]

Added Fairbanks:  33&34 downtown (noted already above)   32&36  and 31&25  

Kenai:  5&6 and 7&8  

Matsu:   25&30   37&28 and by default 29&36

More summary at the bottom.  They went into Executive Session at 5pm and never reconvened, apparently, and will open in Executive Session tomorrow morning.  It seems everything is settled except Anchorage.

Rough Notes of meeting Part 1:

ARB pm Nov. 8, 2021

1:02pm

Torkelson: Going over changes board staff had to make to based on checking details of the map. First one lowered the deviation of D39/38   by 2 people.  Move to change technical correction passed. 

Next is  more complicated.  In Wasilla.  The map got Zoom bombed and so he took down the map.  

Torkelson Explainging Matsu glitches

See the red circle- had 10 people and so the ended up changing three parts.  716 to 748.  Changed 4 blocks.  Contacted everyone by email - couldn’t wait. 

Next Cantwell - 2 or 3 people change - voted to change

Next a strip of Glen Highway - no population - voted to change

Glenn Highway Glitch

   That’s it.  Done

Binkley - appreciation for the staff all along, and particularly this weekend, and Eric, and the contractor who went over the Metes and Bounds.

Now Board set the Senate pairings.  In a work session.  On the record.  Work individually or separately, based on testimony we’ve had

Borromeo - South East suggestions?  

Simpson - Only district contiguous to D1 is D2, so suggest that and regional connections.

Binkley:  Need to go off line briefly in order to share screen.  

Simpson:  Then 3 and 4 have to be paired.  Mostly served by same Senators.  With that, motion, consensus?

recommend 1&2 and 3&4 for SE districts 

Binkley - use the #s on our final map, but that may change as we look at the pairings.

Borromeo - 

Bahnke - to the 4 VRA districts.  Matter of contiguity 39&40  37&38  seems the obvious and right thing to do.  

That was accepted by all.

1:32   Borromeo - one more - FBNS  not other options there  33&34. 

.......................................

Meeting Part 2  During the work session, Added some photos above and below the Board members working on pairings.

Melanie Bahnke

Nicole Borromeo & John Binkley

Bethany Marcum and Budd Simpson

2:24 pm

Part #3

[Here we have a battle over whether the two ER districts should be paired together, or one with JBER and the Other with north Muldoon.  As we go on break it looks like the Board is 3-2 for splitting ER house districts. That also means splitting Muldoon districts.]

3:11 Back in session

Bahnke - 6&7 5&8 reflected in testimony -  This Kenai

Binkley - 

Simpson - Hard for me to hear his low voice.  

Binkley - not seeing on this map - Cordova, etc.

Bahnke - testimony Cordova lower Kenai Peninsula, testimony about shared fishing industry, 

Borrome:  7&8 share oil and gas, 

Binkley - also Marine Highway connection between 5&6

Marcum:  Overwhelming testimony - we have nothing in common with Kodiak, that being said, I've been involved with fishing world and understand the connections between 7&8 and 5&6  - I could be comfortable either way 

Consensus:  5&6 and 7&8  Kenai

Matsu next.

Bahnke:  Little testimony here, so not bound with this

Marcum:  Let someone else

Borromeo:  

Bahnke:  Written testimony not consistent.  What are current pairings?  

Marcum:  Changed significantly.

Binkley:  29&30?  

Bahnke AFFR 26&29, 28&27 25&30 Glenn and Parks Highway

Marcum:  Testimony about fastest growing part of state and over populated plus we have Valdez:  Propose 27&28, Palmer 

Binkley:  AFFR, AFFER, and you Bethany all agree.  

Marcum:  Palmer big city and Wasilla 29&30  all places west and south of Wasilla come to Wasilla. You go through Palmer to get to Wasilla.  District with Wasilla as city center.  Other city is Valdez in 25.  Logic giving 26&25 allowing Valdez a center of the district.  

Borromeo:  Houston is also there so 29& 26  ????? Pairing Palmer and that population

Marcum:  Counter that - Houston half the population of Valdez.  Valdez hasn't had much weight in this project.  Give them some voice in the Senate.  Wasilla and Big Lake logical reasons.  

Borromeo:  AFFR 26&29  greater Wasilla in same area as Wasilla.  27&28  Fairview and Palmer - lots of testimony that Fairview is part of greater Palmer area.  25&36   Only break Borough once.  

Binkley - I like rationale that your in Big Lake you have to go to D29, where people shop.  West side of Wasilla.  Don't know what Valdez folks would think.  

Simpson:  A tough one.  Find compelling that two orgs clashed from beginning are in agreement on the pairings here.  27&28 29&30 25&36

Bahnke:  Peter what are the current pairings?  Currently 30 & 25  

Borromeo:  Quite telling that AFFR and AFFER agree.  I'm comfortable with it.

Bahnke:  I am too.  

25&30   all agree 37 and 28 and by default 29&36

Muldoon 23 and 18      21 with 20  13 and     12 and 11    17&19  ER -22&24

Borromeo - consistently heard that ER should be together and that Muldoon not be paired with Hillside.  Mt View and U-Med.  Base comes down to downtown and Govt Hill.  

Banke - 12 & 13 share school district.  People from Turnagain       20&21 Base people shop downtown

Simpson:  9&16  10&11   12&13 14&17  18&23  20&21  22&24  

Binkley:  Further questions for Nicole or Melanie   Other pairings?  

Marcum:  Most important premise we ignored the natural physical and SEI between JBER and ER.  Repeatedly throughout the process.  ER is bedroom community for many people on JBER.  I made the natural connection to allow the physical neighbors.  That's the one thing that is common.  21&22.  

Borromeo:  What about the connection between ER and Eagle River?

Marcum:  Two separate house districts.  Gives ER change to have two Senate Districts.  ER has most direct ties with military base.  

Historic parts of Anchorage - Downtown, parts of area have different lifestyles and housing 

[No one has given us actual data.]  Pairs downtown with Mt View - historic areas.  Two ways downtown could go.  Mt. View or Spenard.  

Bahnke:  Every one of your maps splits ER?  

Borromeo:  Help me understand splitting ER.  ER has more tie with base than other parts of ER?   We disagree strongly.  I don't think ER has a special claim to the base.  Including Fairview where I spent time.  Troubled by the premise that ER has superior claim to the base.  

Marcum:  I've lived in ER, on Base and East Anchorage.  This is a way.  Something I feel very strongly about.  

Bud:  Possibility of Anchorage downtown district.  20&19 MtView  20&13 Spenard

Marcum:  Sandlake divided so important thing we can do is pair 11 and 12 - I think the case on all four versions.    

Bahnke  ?? what pairings 21&22, 20&13, (ok with 20&19),  if we go with 20&13, then 14&10.  very few with N/S orientation.  Glenn Highway boundaries almost perfectly between 10 and 14.  

Another commonality of all my maps - restore that part of 15 to Hillside.  What's left 3 contiguous to 24,  16, 18, 23.  

Bahnke - any concern about combining one of the most diverse parts of Anchorage 23 with ER.  I think strong ties with ER.  I don't see people by race, but as people closely tied.  ER people come to town go through Muldoon.  

[I'm sorry, this argument is all a cover to politically benefit GOP candidates by splitting up Muldoon  and matching them with more affluent and much more Republican and much whiter ER.  This form of gerrymandering is called cracking if I'm remember right.  You take lower income diverse neighborhood that tends to vote more Democratically with wealthier White neighborhoods that are more Republican and tend to have a higher percent of people voting.  This is also the tactic they used last time to get rid of the only black state Senator Bettye Davis.  

Much of this is based on her opinion and personal patterns.  She doesn't see race.  does she recognize that Bahnke and Borromeo are Alaska Natives or does she just see them as two more white folks?  If that's the case, she dismisses their cultural heritage.]

Binkley:  All justifiable in my opinion.  

Borromeo:  The word reasonable.  Hard time with 'reasonableness'.  One comment Bethany said was ???   ER has potentially two Senate seats.  Asked to share house seats in ER with ER.  This is not any lack of ignoring data analysis of ER.  We've heard loud and clear from ER and east Anchorage that they didn't want to be mixed.  And we gave them separate House districts.  Highly populated part of diverse Anchorage in East Anchorage.  They are on top of each other.  Majority of Muldoon together.  95% of public testimony supported this.  Open to entertain other things around Anchorage.  Very opposed to splitting ER and Muldoon.  

Marcum:  Idea that ER is so different from North East Anchorage.  In fact they have a long relationship.  Question of whether ER is part of Anchorage  resolved 40 years ago.  

Skipping back to Fairbanks.  

Binkley:  I think we have a majority for Bethany's map.  We don't have all five members, I have heard from three members agree with Bethany's map. 

Borromeo:  I'd like to hear legal advice.  We can get advice on both maps.  

Simpson:  We went over this - hard for me to hear.  

Five minute Break  4:24,  back at 4:30.

Part 4   4:49pm

Back too Fairbanks.

Binkley:  five FB seats plus one connected with .  Testimony people from Ft Greely and Gulkana talked about military bases that pair 31 and 36 for military connection.  However, equally compelling reasons to combine 32 with 36.  Left side of FB together near the University.  Difficult for people of Goldstream not being in same house district.  But puts them in the same Senate district.  I propose 33&34 downtown   32&36  and 31&25  would keep NP integrated with Eilson AFB.  

Borromeo:  very happy to support your recommendations. Goldtream people very unhappy and while they got put in a separate house district from University, they can no be reunited in a Senate district .  [But doesn't address the majority of people in the very large district 36 district.)  

Part 4:  7:28 pm

So basically they agreed to all the pairings except Anchorage.  Marcum was making a specious argument about the SEI of having military from ER,JBER, and East Anchorage kept together in a Senate seat.  But the obvious underlying objective was to go for two ER Senate seats and get rid of an East Anchorage senate seat.  

I got home and onto Zoom but they were still in Executive Session.  And when I looked again, it had shut down.  

Just read an email from the Board:

Hello Subscribers,

 

The Alaska Redistricting Board has recessed for the night and will come back in to Executive Session tomorrow am at 9am.

 

Public session will begin at 10:30am to continue the discussion of agenda item #6: Assignment of House District Senate Pairs.

 

The public is welcome to attend in person at our office (3901 Old Seward Highway Ste. 141) or via zoom: 
Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/9074062894?pwd=VWxjem42YUloTnBFcTlpVWZVS0wwZz09
Meeting ID: 907 406 2894/Passcode: MoreMaps

One tap mobile: +16699006833,,9074062894#,,,,*56615375# US (San Jose); +12532158782,,9074062894#,,,,*56615375# US (Tacoma)

The rest of the agenda:

6. Assignment of House District Senate Pairs
7. Recess - Pending Dept. of Labor production of Senate Constituency Crosstabs 
8. Adoption of Senate Truncation Cutoff
9. Adoption Senate Election Cycle Table
10. Recess – Pending Final Proclamation Drafting, Proofing & Metes and Bounds Error Checking
11. Adopt Final Proclamation of Redistricting
12. Signing of Final Proclamation 
13. Adjournment

Redistricting Board - Public Testimony on Senate Pairings

Basically, the Board heard from people around the state with their preferences for how the house districts should be paired into Senate seats.  I'd note that Randy Ruedrich pushed hard on a talking point that came up Friday for the first time I remember, that JBER, Eagle River, and NE Anchorage should be paired because of the socio-economic integration of all the military and retired military in those areas.  Right now the Board is in Executive Session with their attorney and the Voting Rights Act  consultant.  It appeared Friday that the VRA consultants might have suggested that house districts that combined ER and Muldoon and Muldoon and Hillside might run into VRA problems because of the diverse population in the Muldoon area.  Why do I guess that?  Because after that Bethany Marcum redrew her v3 map to separate Muldoon from those areas.  This raises an issue I've been watching - coming up with rationales that are really excuses that cover attempts to gerrymander.  I'm guessing again that the Board is asking theVRA consultants if there would be a problem in pairing ER with Muldoon in Senate seats.  Remember the last Board did that and successfully ended the Senate career of Alaska's then only African American state senator.  

Here are my notes.  I'm headed out to the Board meeting soon.  They get back at 1pm.  There were lots of people on the zoom call today - in the 80s I think.  

 9:48am

I just got online.  I had an unexpected electrician visit so was late.  

When I got on, David Dunsmore of AFFR was finishing.  Not sure what he talked about.

The Yarrow Silver was on and asked that the two Muldoon districts be paired. 

Then someone from Chugiak wanted the two Eagle River districts paired.

Former Rep. David Guttenberg called in, but I'm not sure what he requested - I got distracted.

Now Randy Ruedrich of AFFER is giving a list of districts to pair.  I haven't kept track.

There was a break where John Binkley, chair, asked that people not tell Board members about incumbents and that testimony with incumbent info should be redacted.  Member Bahnke also made a similar request.  I have mixed feelings about this attempt to have Board ignorance of the political consequences of the maps.  

• If they learned that the maps had paired all the Republican incumbents or all the Democratic incumbents, wouldn't they want to know that?
• How do we know that Board members haven't learned about the impacts from other people?  
• If the Board is going to plea ignorance of impact on incumbents, then all the Board members should testify that they have not seen the pairings or been told about the pairings to be sure that ALL the Board members are equally ignorant.

9:57  Ruedrich has been going through the state and suggesting pairings.  

Back to online testimony while getting map to understand Ruedrich testimony

Tanny??  Turnagain area - Thanks for compact fair looking map.  Went to school here and when came back from college, did coaching in all the schools around Anchorage, so I have a good sense of the neighborhoods.  All distinct.  So go through districts to pair.

ER - o 22 and 24 - should have own Senate seat

East Anchorage 18 & 23  17&19

Downtown - JBER - 20 and 21

Turnagain and Spenard  12 and 13 together

Midtown 14 & 16 

South Anchorage ???

10 & 11

John Davis - FB - worked at University.  Was in legislature.  I live in your D32  most logical would be 36 because of Goldstream.  Main concern.  33 and 34 makes sense.  Then 31 and 35.  Having lived here a long time.  

10:05 Back to Ruedrich  D5 and D8   Then 6 and 7.  

Borromeo - testified about Kenai more oil and gas, why put them together

Ruedrich - You switched Seward.  At Testimony people wouldn't have expected.

Borromeo - Seward, Kodiak folks testified they liked that.  Least opposed to Soldotna borough

Ruedrich - Matsu - 26&29   27&28 restores Palmer area,  

Western Houston, Big Lake 25 & 30

9 and 15 - 15 looks like severed from 9.

Sand Lake almost as many people out of SandLake as in.  They are in 12  

SandLake, Campbell Lake and Airport - 11 &12

Downtown with Mt View or with University  - 13 & 20

16& 18   

ER dependent on military - 21 & 22  23&24  South ER is Muldoon. 18&23/24

[The Republican testimony last week suddenly brought up the 'very important military links between ER, JBER, East Anchorage.  This seems to me to be a ploy to take Democratic districts in East Anchorage paired up with Rep ER districts, rather than with each other that are right next to each other. ]

Brian Kendall??? - Palmer - problem with districts in valley need to be paired up with outlying districts 25&26  missed the other two pairings 

Kenai - Tim Navarre - Not in office, can't look at maps.  Keeping Kenai-Soldotna the same Homer-Seward-Kodiak 

Borromeo 5&6   and 7&8?  Yes

Back to Anchorage  Mark Kreidenberg -Executor of  estate of Ralph Lohman, once 

talking about history.  Hasn't been occupied since 1924 - Soviet ship kidnapped people in 1924??  May 17, 1884 added six islands to Alaska based on recommendation of Sen???  Harrison wanted law enforcement of Natives - I recommend that we get people out there.  Islands farther west.  Forrester Island dispute between US and Russian in 1886.  Pres. Harrison. My concern island farther west but not reflected.  

Binkley - We have to take the census data.  Don't have discretion to add other areas. 

Kendall - island in Hawaii in 4500 south of Honolulu and it's in Census district. 

Charles  - Keep Homer,Seward, and Kodiak together - 5&6  Kenai and Soldotna = oil and Gas

James Squyres from Gulkana.  Want to counter organized Goldstream testimony.  Natural to combine31 and 36.    The abominable.  Convey incidents this weekend Railroad proposals.  

Rachel Lord??  Homer Alaska.  Support current pairing Homer paired with Kodiak.

Donna Mears Anchorage - East Anchorage.  CC met over the weekend.  Speaking for self but informed by NE CC.  Currently represented by 4 districts.  Single senator 23&18. Best pairing.  

Fairbanks - 36&32 logical

Bahnke:  On behalf of Board or self- coalition

Steve??   - Wasilla -  25-40   25-27   26 28  as fix for overpopulation.  What is the cumulative over/under population.  FB very clear in testimony.  Everyone of this has been disregarded.  I've been consuming with the B on this.  Strange way maps drawn interesting and somewhat problematic - over population by 2500 people in fastest growing area of the state.  Also Kenai overpopulated by 1000.  At least do the Senate pairings.

Binkley - I appreciate that.  On Senate pairings - have B talked to you? 

Steve - No my personal testimony.  Everyone of these districts is over 2% over populated

Anchorage Chris Constant - testifying as self, not Assembly member.  Senate pairings - Thank you for a hard effort solving a lot of issues.  Anchorage has come out good 20&21, previous respected speaker.  Suggested long connected history between JBER and Govt Hill and East Anchorage neighborhoods.  There are 4 gates - Govt Hill - 20;  Boniface to D23;  Tikatnu -       Other one 3 miles from Muldoon .  Col spoke before the Board.  Felisa Wilson.  Draw the boundaries based on where i kids good to school  and contact to neighborhoods.  20&21.  Thank you. 

Felisa Wilson is here:  Pairing 20 and 21.  When I lived in ER.  For me pairing ER districts together makes perfect sense.  

Kelly Cooper - Homer, KPBAssembly - support our existing pairings Fishermen should have strong voice  Kenai freshwater/oil

Mayor of Kodiak Branson - speaking on behalf of myself.  Repeat what Kelly just said, keep Kodiak&Homer

David ???man  -Seward.  Representing myself.  House districts splits Seward in half.  Main part of Seward similarities with Homer and Kodiak and little with Nikiski  I think 5&6.  

Dawn Fraser - Fort Greely  31 & 36

??? Hope Alaska - happy with current pairings now 

Binkley - that's all we have online and in person, so close and move on with agenda.  We have VRA consultant and going into Exec Session - 

Borromeo - ES for legal counsel.  

11:00am Binkley - About an hour and roll into lunch come back at 1pm.  No decisions made.  

Tracks

 A little palate cleanser after all the redistricting posts.  From a Sunday morning walk.

And untracked.