The Alaska Redistricting Board will be holding public hearings in Haines and Skagway on May 4. Various plans and maps are available on the Redistricting Board’s website. (Google it.)
The redistricting board and others have proposed plans for Southeast that unconstitutionally split communities and boroughs. One of the board’s two plans for Southeast splits Haines and Skagway from each other and pairs Haines with Tok in a Senate district.
Because of population changes in Alaska, Southeast will now have four house districts, not five. Southeast should also, therefore, have two whole senators, not one senator split with Interior and another split with either Kodiak or Valdez, as the redistricting board is proposing. Alaska’s constitution requires that districts be compact and contiguous. Boroughs, communities, and regions with common interests should not be split unnecessarily.
The Rights’ Coalition has a fair and balanced plan that would keep Haines and Skagway together, includes some of North Juneau, and also includes our rural neighbors of Excursion Inlet, Gustavus, Tenakee Springs, Pelican, Klukwan, and Yakutat. This plan would put Haines and Skagway in Juneau’s Senate district. It would keep Southeast communities whole, including Sitka. And comply with the Voting Rights Act by including most Southeast Native villages with Sitka. HD2 (Sitka) would remain in Southeast and be joined with Ketchikan for a Senate district. It joins Haines with its closest neighbors.
Feel free to contact me if you want me to send maps and provide further information at 766-3517 or [email protected].
Kathleen Menke