Borough officials speak about redistricting lawsuit

As of this week, there are five lawsuits facing the state redistricting board after it re-drew legislative boundaries last month.  One of those lawsuits comes from the Mat-Su Borough and Borough Manager Mike Brown.  KTNA’s Phillip Manning spoke with Manager Brown and has this story.

In November, the Alaska Redistricting Board approved a map that lays out new legislative districts based on the 2020 census.  Now, multiple lawsuits claim that the new map does not meet constitutional requirements.

One of those lawsuits was filed on behalf of the Mat-Su Borough and Borough Manager Mike Brown.  Brown says the Mat-Su has a few concerns about the way the districts were divided.  One of those concerns has to do with the way the City of Valdez was included within a district composed primarily of Mat-Su communities.

“Pairing with Valdez we don’t believe aligns and really meets with the intent of having socio-economic integration.”

The City of Valdez has also filed a lawsuit on similar grounds.  While Valdez shares part of its current House District with areas of the Mat-Su, the new map for what would be District 29 excludes communities along the Richardson and Glenn Highways that are currently in the same district as Valdez. 

One of the other concerns about the new map is district population.  Ideally, each district would contain the same number of voters.  While some variation is to be expected, Brown says districts in the Mat-Su are disproportionately over-populated.  He believes that would lead to borough residents being under-represented in Juneau.

“I think, generally speaking, we’re saying that our residents would be underrepresented faster as we grow….When your starting point is already over-populated and you’re growing, you’re just going to lead to being mal-portioned faster.

The new district that includes the Northern Susitna Valley also looks significantly different from the current one.  It includes communities all the way to the north end of the Denali Borough.  Brown says the Mat-Su does not object to that move.

“When we looked at the northern boundaries with the Denali Borough, we absolutely agree with the pairing with the Denali Borough. And they’ve also gone on record with the redistricting board that they also support that…alignment with the Mat-Su Borough.”

The exception is that the community of Cantwell is excluded from the joint Mat-Su and Denali Borough district.  Instead, Cantwell is in a large Interior district that stretches from Anvik in the west to the Candian border in the east.

The five lawsuits have been consolidated.  According to a scheduling document provided by Mat-Su Borough Attorney Nicholas Spiropoulos, the case is set to move quickly.  According to the current schedule, a decision from the Superior Court is expected by the beginning of February.  Spiropoulos says that schedule could change as things move forward.