Final redistricting map could mean change in House rep
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TweetAfter several weeks of public hearings across Alaska, the state’s redistricting board settled on a state house map that would link Haines to northern Juneau, placing current representative Sara Hannan in a different district and Juneau representative Andi Story in Haines’ new one.
Haines would be partnered with Auke Bay and the Mendenhall Valley instead of Douglas and downtown Juneau. Skagway and Gustavus still would be part of Haines’ district. The new map wouldn’t affect Haines’ representation in the state senate, a seat currently held by Jesse Kiehl.
The board voted 4-1 in favor of the house map on Nov. 6. They advanced the senate map 3-2 on Nov. 10, split mostly due to questions about district borders in Anchorage. In opposition, board member Nicole Borromeo voiced concerns that the final senate map could be viewed as gerrymandering.
At an Oct. 12 Haines Borough Assembly meeting, former assembly member Carol Tuynman motioned to hold a committee-of-the-whole meeting to determine Haines’ stance on the redistricting maps. The assembly voted 3-2 against the motion, ultimately not taking a position on the issue.
“There are pluses and minuses to both (the map options),” said borough Mayor Douglas Olerud. “I don’t think it was strong enough one way or another to have a local preference.”
Three members of the redistricting board held a public input meeting in Haines at 2 p.m. on Sept. 28. “The only opportunity the Haines public has had in Haines to weigh in on this was at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday,” assembly member Caitie Kirby said at the Oct. 12 meeting.
Skagway Mayor Andrew Cremata told KHNS last week that he considers Skagway’s pairing with northern Juneau “a pretty crass display of cynicism and attempt at gerrymandering” because, he said, it violated the unanimous will of the Skagway assembly and the majority of community members—to stay linked with downtown Juneau.
Olerud said he talked to Cremata and understands Skagway’s concerns but that “Haines had a different view on it.”
States redraw their legislative maps every 10 years to align with U.S. Census data. In most states, the legislature makes the maps, but in Alaska an independent redistricting commission does it. Two board members are selected by the governor, one each by the state House speaker, Senate president and chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court.
The final maps could be subject to litigation, which can take years. During the last redistricting process, which started in 2011, the board proposed a Haines district similar to the one just proposed, but the Alaska Supreme Court rejected the map and ordered a redrawing of several districts, including Haines’. The current district—with Haines and Skagway connected to downtown Juneau—was adopted after the legal process culminated in 2013.
