Alaska Elections

The U.S. Justice Department has given its approval to Alaska’s new redistricting plan.

The approval – known as “preclearance” under the Voting Rights Act – comes in the midst of a federal lawsuit, filed by Alaska Native groups to keep the state from implementing the plan until the Justice Department weighs in.

In a letter to the Alaska Redistricting Board’s attorney today (Wednesday), U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez says the decision does not bar subsequent litigation to bar enforcement of redistricting changes.

The Alaska Supreme Court has denied a motion to delay implementation of the state’s new redistricting plan.

The Riley plaintiffs to the lawsuit, from Fairbanks, filed a motion last week to block the court’s order until the U.S. Justice Department clears the plan under the Voting Rights Act. In its order the Supreme Court said it would consider a new motion if DOJ fails to approve the plan before the August 28 primary election.

The Supreme Court also has denied Petersburg’s motion calling for a rehearing on the house district’s plan. Petersburg argued that the court overlooked a “Native influence” House district in Southeast Alaska. Petersburg objects to being in a House and Senate district with downtown Juneau and maintains that it belongs in a district with smaller Southeast communities.

Meanwhile, the candidate filing deadline for the legislature remains 5 p.m. Friday (June 1). The court on Wednesday also rejected the Alaska Democratic Party’s petition to delay filing for at least two weeks.

In its May 29 petition, ADP director Kay Brown said multiple redistricting plans have created plenty of uncertainty over new district lines.

The Alaska Supreme Court last week threw out the Redistricting Board’s latest plan and adopted the April 5 version.  The ruling came just ten days before the June 1 candidate filing deadline. Brown said that was not enough time for candidates to evaluate the election district and get their paperwork to the division.

Democrats wanted the deadline extended until the U.S. Justice Department clears the plan, or at least until June 8.

State Elections director Gail Fenumiai has said no deadlines needed changing because the division mapped each scenario as it was released by the redistricting board. She said precinct boundaries for the April 5 plan have already been drawn.

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Some plaintiffs in the Alaska Redistricting lawsuit have asked the Alaska Supreme Court to halt implementation of the plan until the U.S. Department of Justice rules on it.

Attorney Michael Walleri filed a motion on Tuesday to stay the court’s ruling. The Fairbanks North Star Borough joined in the motion. The court has not yet ruled.

Walleri’s motion says the state should have federal pre-clearance on the plan for Alaska election district’s before they go into effect. Pre-clearance means the Justice Department has ruled that the plan conforms to the U.S. Voting Rights Act. Justice Department approval could take 60 days once the plan is filed with D-O-J.

The Division of Elections will be using the new maps in the August primary and November general election. Walleri argues that implementing the political districts prior to pre-clearance violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

Petersburg also will ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision. The City Council on Wednesday authorized its attorney to formally object to the court’s decision. Attorney Tom Klinkner said the only recourse is to file a motion for reconsideration, or rehearing.

Petersburg officials have repeatedly objected to being in a new legislative district with Juneau. They maintain the rural fishing town does not have enough in common with the much larger Capital City.

Some Southeast Native leaders are relieved that the latest redistricting plan was thrown out in court.

Tuesday’s action by the Alaska Supreme Court restored a Native-influence district in the region. It includes Haines, Angoon, Hoonah, Kake, Kasaan, Klawock, Saxman and Metlakatla.

The Alaska Federation of Natives, the Alaska Native Brotherhood, Sealaska Corporation, and the Tlingit and Haida Central Council had protested the rejected plan.

Ed Thomas is president of the Central Council.

“The representation from rural communities is very important because their challenges are increasing, instead of getting any better. So it’s very important to have a voice in the state Legislature from our villages,” he says.

Read more about the regional redistricting picture.

The rejected plan, released just last week, would have put Haines and Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley in the same House district. That would have pitted incumbent Juneau Republican Cathy Munoz and incumbent Haines Republican Bill Thomas against each other.

Thomas, who is Tlingit, has spent several terms representing most of the region’s small cities and villages.

Both redistricting plans set up a hard race for Southeast’s senior Tlingit lawmaker, Angoon Democratic Senator Albert Kookesh.

Angoon will be in the same Senate district as Sitka Republican Bert Stedman. He co-chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, and Kookesh has said he expects an uphill battle.

Thomas, of the Central Council, worries about the overall loss of Native representation.

“I have to say that with redistricting we really end up losing a rural voice, no matter what we do. So we have to do our best to really have a better mixture,” Thomas says.

The region’s redistricting plan is only in place for the 2012 election. It also sets up a race between incumbent Republican representatives Kyle Johansen of Ketchikan and Peggy Wilson of Wrangell.

Population shifts have reduced Southeast’s eight current legislative seats to six.

Link to the Alaska Redistricting Board.

The Alaska Supreme Court has rejected the latest redistricting map for Southeast Alaska and approved a plan that combines downtown Juneau with Petersburg, Gustavus and Skagway.

Last week the board paired Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley with Haines and Skagway. But in Tuesday’s decision, the court cited numerous objections and said there is a risk the U.S. Justice Department would not clear the plan under the Voting Rights Act.

Juneau – the largest city in the district – appears to be the elephant in the room. Redistricting Board Executive Director Taylor Bickford says it’s a defining demographic reality of the region.

“From what we’ve seen from our public hearing process, the comments we received, the lawsuits that have been filed, is that it seems like really nobody wants to be paired with Juneau,” Bickford says. “So no matter how we draw Southeast Alaska, there’s always going to be some community that has to be paired with Juneau and ultimately isn’t happy with that.”

The plan approved by the court was adopted April 5th by the redistricting board. Both Petersburg and Skagway have objected to being in a district with downtown Juneau and Douglas, currently represented in the House by Beth Kerttula and in the Senate by Dennis Egan.

Kerttula calls it a great district, a beautiful district, and says she will be happy run to represent it.

“I feel badly for communities that feel like they’re getting split up and split off of their old district. And I empathize with that. All I can say is I’ll work my hardest to do a good job, no matter what district I’m in,” Kerttula says.

Meanwhile, Haines Representative Bill Thomas and his community are relieved not to be in a district with Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley. Last week’s map had Thomas running against Representative Cathy Munoz. The Haines Borough and Alaska Native groups objected.

“I’m surprised and happy that it worked,” Thomas says. “But you know I was prepared to run, if I had to, in the Mendenhall. In talking to people we were laying the ground work, but I’m glad I’m back to the villages.”

The population of Thomas’ current House District 5 is more than one-third Alaska Native. The political map approved by the Supreme Court combines Haines with Angoon, Hoonah, Kake as well as Sitka.

It also resurrects a contest between Wrangell Rep. Peggy Wilson and Ketchikan Rep. Kyle Johansen.

Wilson represents her hometown, Petersburg and Sitka. Now she’ll be in a district with Ketchikan, Saxman and parts of Prince of Wales Island.

Reached via cell phone in the Midwest, Wilson says the decision surprised her. Both Johansen and Wilson prefer not to run against each other.

“I just hate it because Kyle and I have been good friends up until now,” she says. “Since the redistricting, we both felt uncomfortable about it. So, it’ll be a little strained.”

People intending to run for office must file by June 1st with the Alaska Division of Elections.

Director Gail Fenumiai says despite the changing political maps this year, no deadlines need to be adjusted.

“We have been mapping each scenario as it had been released and so we’ve got our precinct boundaries drawn for the amended plan of April 5,” Fenumiai says. “We’re working on getting them all finalized and into proper form and we’ll start the regulation process at the end of the month and submit them to the Department of Justice for preclearance.”

Fenumiai says voter identification cards will be mailed by mid-July so voters know their district and precinct. She says the Division of Election’s online voter lookup system also will be re-activated.

Haines is the latest community in Alaska to enter a lawsuit over redistricting.

The Borough Assembly on Friday asked the Alaska Supreme Court to allow it to participate in the suit currently before the court. Multiple lawsuits against the Alaska Redistricting Board have been combined into a single case.

The borough objects to the board’s latest plan that lumps Haines and Skagway into a House district with Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley. The Haines Borough has a population of about 2,600 people, while the Mendenhall Valley and rest of the current House District 4 is nearly 16,000.

At a special meeting Friday morning, the Haines Borough Assembly authorized its attorney to file its objection. Friday was the deadline for public comments and briefs on the Redistricting Board’s latest plan for Southeast Alaska political boundaries.

The Assembly said it was in the public interest of Haines residents to join the suit.

Assembly member Debra Schnabel said the Haines socioeconomic profile is more in line with rural Alaska than the suburban nature of the Mendenhall Valley, especially such issues as “infrastructure development, fisheries issues, power, and solid waste management, those sorts of things that smaller rural communities are dealing with would not be represented fairly if we were in a district with a majority suburban socioeconomic group.”

The Redistricting Board’s previous plan for Southeast had grouped Skagway with downtown Juneau. City officials had filed an objection to that proposal.

While Skagway officials say they still support a plan that keeps rural communities together, Mayor Stan Selmer said the latest redistricting plan makes slightly more sense for Skagway because it includes all Upper Lynn Canal communities that are linked by the Alaska Marine Highway System; also Skagway would not be competing with downtown Juneau for cruise ship monies.

In a Skagway Assembly meeting Thursday night, Selmer said he was “ambivalent to a point” about being in a Mendenhall Valley district.

“Up until this last week we were down meeting with Sen. (Dennis) Egan and Rep. (Beth) Kerttula, building our lines of communication, and now potentially, under this new Option A, we get to keep Sen. Egan but we have an opportunity to vote for Bill Thomas if we choose to, whereas before we didn’t even have the opportunity to vote for Bill,” Selmer said.

The latest plan has Haines Rep. Bill Thomas running against Juneau Rep. Cathy Munoz. Native groups also are opposed to it.

In its present configuration, Thomas’ House District 5 is 36.6 percent Alaska Native.

Both Haines and Skagway previously requested the Redistricting Board adopt political boundaries that would place Haines in a House District with a population of Alaska Native residents sufficient to qualify the district as a Southeast Alaska Native Minority Influence District for purposes of the federal voting rights act.