Republican majority on redistricting board did big favor for Dunleavy's Senate loyalists

When the three-member Republican majority on the redistricting board decided on the schedule for future state Senate elections, it wasn’t clear why Bethany Marcum, John Binkley and Budd Simpson refused to flip a coin to determine the starting order.

They voted 3-2 to assign two-year terms and four-year terms to alternate seats, voting to start with Senate Seat A.

Starting the way they did and based on the letters they assigned to the Senate seats, they did a big favor to five of the six Dunleavy loyalists in the Senate.

And they penalized six Republican senators who are either Dunleavy critics or who sometimes don’t follow the governor’s orders, forcing them into an additional election.

This is all to set up a process under which half of the Senate would be up for election every two years.

A decision that so clearly favors Dunleavy’s fan club in the Senate did not come about by accident, though Binkley said there was nothing partisan in the process.

Blogger Steven Aufrecht, who writes the “What do I know?” blog, has the first good analysis that makes sense of why Marcum, Binkley and Simpson did what they did.

“The GOP group had a prearranged plan (with Randy Ruedrich's fingerprints on it) and they were not going to break ranks. I'm pretty sure there was a lot of behind the scenes pressure on them to vote ‘the right way,’” Aufrecht wrote.

The shorter terms go to Bert Stedman, Gary Stevens, Click Bishop, Josh Revak, Peter Micciche and David Wilson. (Sen. Natasha von Imhof’s Senate seat was cut up and now is part of three districts.)

The longer terms go to Dunleavy fan club members Mike Shower, Shelley Hughes, Rob Myers, Roger Holland and Lora Reinbold. Of the Dunleavy Republicans, only Sen. Mia Costello would be up in 2024. Reinbold is not in the circle of power, but she is a loyal vote for most of Dunleavy’s ideas.

Had the starting order for selecting seats been reversed, five of the six Dunleavy Republicans would have had shorter terms.

The Midnight Sun Memo by Matt Buxton also has good coverage of this situation.

“It just avoids the appearance of trying to protect any incumbents,” Melani Bahnke said, in arguing for a coin flip to start the process. “There’s no room for debate over partisan decision-making.”

“I would disagree with that,” said Binkley. “I don’t think it’s partisan.”

It was partisan.