Fairbanks would lose legislative representation under John Binkley's plan

A decade ago, the reapportionment board drew lines on the election district map to create the “Kawasaki Finger,” an odd and narrow piece of land included aimed at ending the political career of Rep. Scott Kawasaki.

The Republicans and former Rep. Jim Holm offered the finger in the mistaken belief that Kawasaki lived in the small neighborhood carved out of Fairbanks near the fairgrounds. This would have put Kawasaki in a different district and at a disadvantage, had he lived in the finger territory, but he didn’t. His sister lived there.

Holm and Kawasaki ran against each other in 2004 and 2006, with Holm winning the first time and Kawasaki winning the second.

The “offensive appendage,” as it was dubbed in court, was done away with, though the Republicans never admitted that they were wrong about Kawasaki’s residence or that this was an attempt to get Kawasaki.

“While the board argues that it was drawn this way in order to achieve equal population, the court does not find this argument persuasive,” Judge Michael McConahy wrote. “Rather the court finds this finger is more akin to the dread ‘Oosik district.’”

The Oosik District, an artifact of the Wally Hickel reapportionment plan, had a long narrow corridor into the outskirts of Palmer and Wasilla that didn’t really belong and was politically suspect.

“Because of this corridor, District 28 became known as and is referred to in briefing as the ‘Oosik District,’” the Supreme Court said in 1993 one of its more unusual footnotes.

Gerrymandering is never admitted by those responsible, but in every reapportionment plan, whichever party controls the process does this kind of thing, usually in a less blatant manner than that of the Kawasaki Finger episode.

This time around the reapportionment board has at least two areas in Southeast that are reminiscent of the finger and just as obviously flawed on its draft maps.

In Juneau, the five-member board has proposed carving out a territory to put Democrat Rep. Andi Story in the same district as Democrat Sarah Hannan. It’s not a finger, it’s an irregular pentagon.

Jacob Resneck of KTOO has the best coverage.

“It is really suspect that they chose to break up my current street this way,” said Story, who lives on Cross Street.

“It’s a funny little carve-out because the neighborhood that her house is in has two sides of the street, and they took only one side of the street,” Hannan told KTOO, which posted the map below.

In Ketchikan, the board’s proposed maps would put Rep. Dan Ortiz in a district that extends 600 miles to Yakutat. The map below from KTOO shows the wobbly Ortiz Triangle. The board says this is a “software glitch” that will be corrected.

Matt Buxton of The Midnight Sun has more on the situation, as does Peter Stanton, a Ketchikan teacher.

While major news organizations have offered little real coverage, the “What Do I Know?” blog has been tracking the situation and providing a good public service and background.

In Fairbanks, there are at least two elements of district lines proposed by John Binkley, chairman of the board, that should be corrected.

One is the Binkley proposal to include Salcha and Harding Lake with Chena Ridge, clearly an attempt to weaken the west side Democratic stronghold of Fairbanks by adding conservative votes from the other end of the community.

The Binkley plan would break up the suburbs near the University of Alaska Fairbanks by linking them through the unpopulated Tanana Flats to Eielson, Salcha and Harding Lake. This would help the Republicans and harm the Democrats.

The second element of the Binkley plan would put all of Fairbanks at a disadvantage by reducing representation by about one-quarter of a state House seat. This would happen by having more than the recommended population in each district, a total of about 4,000 residents spread across five districts.

Fairbanks has the population for 5.25 representatives, but Binkley wants to draw the districts so they do not go beyond the borough boundaries. This would cut Fairbanks to 5 representatives.

Instead of having 18,335 people in each district, there would be more than 19,000, diluting the voting power of Fairbanks compared to the rest of the state.

The Binkley plan would lessen the political power of Fairbanks, by no longer having one representative with a district that is partially inside the borough and partially outside of it. Regardless of party affiliation, this plan is not a good one for Fairbanks.

The borough boundaries mean something, but almost no one in Fairbanks knows where the borough boundaries are and they are not a true dividing line for any neighborhoods or communities.

Fairbanks deserves full representation, not a reduction of one-quarter of a House seat.
Binkley should withdraw his plan.

Under the current district boundaries, House District 6, held by Rep. Mike Cronk, includes rural suburbs of Fairbanks to the north and east of the city and a large swath of Interior Alaska.

The area to the west of Fairbanks, a Democratic stronghold, would become part of a district with many Republicans in Moose Creek, Eielson, Salcha and Harding Lake, under the plan put forward by John Binkley, chairman of the state reapportionment board.

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