Redistricting Board draws new senate district lines, including for the Susitna Valley

The Alaska Redistricting Board has approved its plan for re-drawing legislative districts across the state.  The map for House Districts had already been approved, but how those House districts would be paired up to form the districts for Senate seats was not resolved until this week.

The Northern Susitna Valley is to be part of District 30, which stretches from Point MacKenzie to the northern end of the Denali Borough, with the exception of Cantwell.  Meadow Lakes has been removed from the current district, with Settler’s Bay and Big Lake being added.

In discussions on Monday, it seemed likely that District 30 would get paired with what is now District 29 to form a Senate District.  District 29 stretches from Northeastern Wasilla to Lake Louise to the east and Valdez to the south.

The new Senate District, which will be District O, looks fairly similar to the current one, and Senator Mike Shower’s listed address with the Alaska Public Offices Commission is just within the boundary for the new area.  That differs from Representative David Eastman, whose listed addresses all fall outside of the new House district for the Northern Valley.

While the board has made its final decision, it doesn’t mean the map is absolutely final.  Court challenges, like those that occurred during the last round of redistricting, could delay the new map’s implementation.  In the case of the 2010 map, a court ruling resulted in some of the lines being moved before the map was approved three years later.