Battle over political lines may be finished

PALMER — For now at least, it appears Alaska has reached an end to its years-long redistricting effort.

And when the music stopped, Mat-Su voters were divided among six House of Representatives districts and three Senate districts, with local politicians already throwing their hats into the ring for the 2014 election.

The latest redistricting map drawn following the 2010 Census had been tied up in court challenges. That ended Monday with when a ruling from Superior Court Judge Michael P. McConahy threw out those challenges.

The way the state Redistricting Board had decided to divide up Mat-Su was at issue in that case.

The population here was enough to make up 5.01 house districts. But instead of making five districts, the board split off the eastern edge of the Mat-Su Borough and combined it with a district encompassing the Richardson Highway, Valdez and Delta Junction.

The southern portion of the Valley was combined with the Chugiak area of the Municipality of Anchorage.

“The Mat-Su Borough population in House (District) 9 is 45 percent and then 27 percent is from the Delta Junction area, 4 percent from the Copper Basin area and 24 percent from the Valdez/Prince William Sound area,” McConahy wrote.

Challengers argued that the board had no good reason to split the Mat-Su Borough twice, which unfairly diluted Mat-Su votes.

McConahy writes, though, that an inference of discrimination against Mat-Su voters “may be negated by a demonstration that the challenged aspects of a plan resulted from legitimate non-discriminatory policies.”

And the board had non-discriminatory reasons, the judge found.

“The board states they chose to split the Mat-Su Borough twice for all the reasons stated on the record including but not limited to (1) Mat-Su Borough Mayor support; (2) Valdez did not support a Valdez-Anchorage house district; (3) the resulting house districts were more compact than if the board had created a Valdez-Anchorage house district; and (4) the resulting House districts were more socio-economically integrated than other proposed options,” McConahy wrote.

The board said that Anchorage had extra population that needed to go somewhere. If it went south, it would split the Kenai-Peninsula Borough at least twice. If it went north it would split the Mat-Su Borough, but the splits would create districts that were more integrated.

Challengers of the plan have the right to appeal McConahy’s decision to the Alaska Supreme Court. Mat-Su Borough Attorney Nick Spiropoulos, who has been tasked with updating the borough assembly on the process as it moves forward, said that generally the deadline for an appeal is 30 days after a ruling, but sometimes a party can get an extension on that time. But even that has its limits.

“If they wait six months and they’re already printing ballots based on precinct lines, then it’ll be too late,” he said.

At least two local politicians have filed to run in the 2014 election. Assemblyman Jim Colver announced in a press release Thursday his intent to run for the House seat on the east side of the borough, the one that includes Valdez and Delta Junction. The incumbent there is Eric Feige of Chickaloon.

Another assemblyman, Ron Arvin, has filed a letter of intent to run for the state Senate. The seat he’s running for is the one often described as the Valley’s “new” Senate seat. Senate districts are made by pairing up House seats. The old pairings matched two Valley House districts with districts outside the borough. The new pairings are between Valley districts. And since those old seats had senators who live outside the Valley, the new seat doesn’t have an incumbent.

The only sitting Valley legislator who has not yet filed to run again is Sen. Charlie Huggins.

Other Valley candidates include George Rauscher of Sutton, who has filed to run for the same House seat as Colver. A letter of intent for former Houston mayor Roger Purcell doesn’t specify an office. Purcell has previously run for the House.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.