Alaska Supreme Court finds gerrymandering by GOP-controlled redistricting board

The Supreme Court rejected the Republican gerrymandering plan to try to give Eagle River more power in the State Senate.

On Friday the court upheld a Superior Court ruling and ordered the Alaska Redistricting Board to try again on the pairings for Senate seats in the Anchorage area.

The Supreme Court said the Eagle River decision was "an unconstitutional political gerrymander violating equal protection under the Alaska Constitution,” and called for a new approach.

The Anchorage Daily News and the Midnight Sun blog have details on the full court ruling.

The handling of the Eagle River matter last November both in public and private featured key mistakes by the board majority, the main one being the public admission that the scheme was an attempt to get more representation for Eagle River.

Here is what I wrote Nov. 10:

The Republican gerrymandering plan to give a second state senator to Eagle River couldn’t be more obvious.

The right thing to do would have been to link the two Eagle River House districts for a single Senate seat and the two Muldoon districts for a single Senate seat.

But the board, led by Republican John Binkley of Fairbanks, approved a plan that connects Eagle River to a portion of downtown Anchorage.

It’s clearly an attempt to create another Republican senate seat, a move that invites court challenges.

The redistricting board approved the plan 3-2 with right-wingers Bethany Marcum and Budd Simpson joining Binkley. It was Marcum who put the plan to expand representation for Eagle River into play.

Minority board members Melanie Bahnke and Nicole Borromeo both said it was unconstitutional.

Marcum and Simpson were named to the board by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, while Binkley is a close ally of Dunleavy, appointed by former Sen. Cathy Giessel.

Borromeo was appointed by Bryce Edgmon, House speaker at the time, while then-Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger named Bahnke to the board charged with redrawing election districts following the 2020 Census.

Matt Buxton of the Midnight Sun has the best coverage.

“This actually gives Eagle River the opportunity for more representation. They’re certainly not going to be disenfranchised by this process,” Marcum said Nov. 8 of her plan, words that she probably regrets saying in a public forum.

Marcum’s words about helping Eagle River will be a key piece of evidence about the flaws in the plan. Borromeo played a recording at the Nov. 10 meeting.

“I played that for you and you’re going to hear it for the next several months because everybody that sues us is going to play it over and over again, too,” Borromeo said.

Marcum, the executive director of the right-wing Alaska Policy Forum, claimed her goal was not to connect neighborhoods for political gain, though that was clearly the goal. To suggest otherwise is to insult Alaskans.

“I was focused on the important socio-economic connections between our military neighbors, Eagle River and Muldoon. In my own lived experience there are significant connections between Eagle River and Muldoon which I know from my experience,” said Marcum.

Borromeo replied: “While I do appreciate Bethany’s lived experience and her great travels between South Muldoon and Eagle River, this area of Muldoon is a residential area of Muldoon.”

She said the idea that the board expects the courts to conclude that people in South Muldoon are traveling to Eagle River or vice versa is absurd. “It’s honestly naked partisan gerrymandering,” she said.

“That’s the reason we’re doing what we’re doing today,” she said, “and that’s the reason why I’m not voting for this proclamation.”

She said she looked forward to being deposed by opposing counsel when lawsuits are filed and “I pray litigation is swift and just.”

“The publicly stated goal of expanding Eagle River’s influence in the Legislature is not only an example of partisan gerrymandering, it is a direct path for future litigants to take in suing us,” Borromeo said.

She said that Binkley told her earlier that week that she had “won” too much with decisions by the board and that other members should be allowed to win. She said this is not about winning, but about creating fair election districts for Alaska.

On Friday, after the Supreme Court ruling, Bahnke wrote on Twitter, “Oh Happy day! Just Say No to Gerrymandering” and thanked Borromeo for “standing strong and calling a spade a spade.”