John Binkley plan for Fairbanks districts dilutes Democratic stronghold, aids GOP
The redistricting process, which happens every 10 years, has received little news coverage. It’s a difficult topic to cover and interpret, but there are few political issues that match its importance.
The results will shape the future of Alaska politics for the next decade. The egregious issue from Eagle River is not the only topic worthy of attention.
The best way to understand this political exercise is to look at the maps. That is the way in which neighborhoods are divided for political reasons. It is hard to convey the messages of the maps by the written or spoken word, which is a big reason why redistricting has always attracted inadequate news coverage.
In other words, it’s not as easy as the endless chatter about the Permanent Fund Dividend.
In the Fairbanks area, the Republican-controlled redistricting board has produced a partisan map aimed at diluting the Democratic vote in the Goldstream area and on the west side of the community.
Republican John Binkley, chairman of the board, will deny that there was any political motivation, but the choice he championed favors the Republican Party.
The rest of the five-member board largely deferred to Binkley on the Fairbanks maps, treating him as the expert. The board included three Republicans who are loyal party members and allies of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Partisan gerrymandering is visible in the treatment of the Fairbanks suburbs by Binkley.
The political landscape in Fairbanks is more liberal on the west side and more conservative on the east side. But if you treat the community as one in which political districts are created on a north/south basis, you reduce the power of the west side neighborhoods which are a Democratic stronghold.
The new district engineered by Binkley cuts the connections between the Goldstream Valley and Fairbanks, as well as the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Goldstream voters lean heavily to the Democratic side, which Binkley well understands.
Now they will be in a district that also includes Delta, Fort Yukon, McGrath, Gakona, Allakaket, Chicken and McCarthy. But not Fairbanks or Ester or Chena Ridge.
A more logical arrangement would have been to tie Eielson and Salcha into the district that includes Delta, Fort Greely, Paxson and beyond. But that would have not benefited Republicans as much as the Binkley plan to remove Goldstream from Fairbanks.
The purple area in the above map shows the neighborhoods included in the vast Interior district and separated from Fairbanks and the west side of the community under the Binkley plan.
The John Binkley plan, approved by the redistricting board, separates Goldstream Valley voters from Ester, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Fairbanks. Splitting up Fairbanks in this north/south fashion reduces the power of the Democratic strongholds on the west side of Fairbanks. Below is the full House District 36 that includes a large portion of Interior Alaska and the Goldstream Valley.
