AK Must Redraw District Map
Remember the new district map for Alaska? Well, it has had a tumultuous, though brief life span.
Some hated it, some disliked it, some said it was fair, and a lot of Democrats clutched their pearls and gasped, “Don’t make a stink, because it could be worse!” Um. Worse than losing the bipartisan coalition in the senate, and maintaining a solid minority in the house? Gee, I’m glad we didn’t go there.
Well, the kerfuffle over the map went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, and the divided opinion said … (drumroll please) … Back to the drawing board! You heard right. The map that we used to fill the Capitol building in Juneau with a bunch of crazies, yahoos, and oily sock puppets has now been declared no good. In two years, the map will be changed yet again, hopefully to something that sucks less.
The court had allowed for an interim plan to be used for this year’s elections. But in a decision released Friday, the court found the board did not follow the process it was instructed to follow. That process called for the board to design a plan focusing on state constitutional requirements then determine if that plan complies with federal law.
That’s right, Alaska first.
The nightmare of 59 out of 60 seats being up for grabs during this recent redistricting episode will only be eclipsed by the nightmare to come in 2014, when we may see 60 out of 60 legislative seats come up. Pass the Advil, and a box of wine. And start saving your pennies now for the inevitable requests for political donations coming your way starting in about 6 months… or sooner.
Amusingly, one of the dissenting judges who was against the re-re-districting was Dana Fabe, who caused conservative Republicans to set their hair on fire and run around shrieking like the wind because of her oh-so-progressive ways. She said the map was OK. So, now the distraught conservatives of Clan Minnery can douse their flaming locks, and shut their gaping maws, after they stuff them with crumpled and defunct maps.
What will our new districts hold in 2014? Could we see, perhaps, the second life of Senator Joe Paskvan, or Senator Joe Thomas, or Senator Bettye Davis? Who knows? But we’ll have had two years of extreme right wing legislators making laws in Juneau, who won their seats in soon-to-be-non-districts that didn’t pass the smell test in the highest court.
Perhaps the next two years of pro-Pebble, anti-choice, anti-union, pro-vaginal probe, anti-public school legislation on the table will be enough to shock mainstream Alaskans into actually getting out to vote in 2014.
Buckle up boys and girls, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Too bad the SC didn’t rule before the election…. looks like AK will be mini Michigan for a while..
it is all rather untidy. Alaska has to get preclearance from the Fed for any redistricting plan because we have never managed to get ourselves opted out of problems under the VRA . (Opt out here means clean up our act as regards problems with the Alaska Native right to vote unhindered to the point we can be signed off from oversight from DOJ )
This redistricting board chose to go after preclearance without paying adequate and mandatory attention to state apportionment law which is now managed under the Hickel Rule.
They screwed around so long coming up with a plan that there was almost no time to see what they had done before the primary. The SC made them deal with complaints from specific areas and told them to use the Hickel rule but by and large it was a last minute barely-did-the-minimum so preclearance didn’t have to be re-dealt with before ballots had to be printed routine.
I’m at the better late than never phase myself.
Now- if we can just keep the damage the gerrymandered districts reps can do to a minimum before the next election…
oh geeze, will it never end
This redistricting has happened in so many parts of the US that one would think it would inspire more people to vote for decent legislators, who actually make/enforce laws on behalf of their constituents. I, for one, am not going to hold my breath. At least AK gets to go back to the drawing board.
Rethuglican legislature reminds me of my ex-FIL of blessed memory and no,I don’t mean the wet dream stuff. When it came time for Kenneth to fix pasture fence,he never took the time to do it right,but we always took time to do it over.
It just makes my head hurt… At least I’ve still got a great Rep. and Sen. (even if he did have to join the darkside).