Anchorage Dems issue urgent call for testimony

Via Email:

The Redistricting Board meets Monday morning to decide how House Districts will be paired into Senate Districts. Anchorage Democrats sent out an email today with talking points and a call for testimony.

You can view the new map here.

Find your new district, consider why your area is best paired with a neighboring district: similar neighborhoods, community councils, commercial areas, parks & trails, whatever your area's identity.

Below are some Talking Points that you can use:

Eagle River

• Eagle deserves to have its own Senate seat, and therefore Districts 22 and 24 must be paired
• Eagle River is a distinct community that should not be split into two different Senate districts
• Chugiak/ Eagle River has very distinct needs and services from the rest of the Municipality of Anchorage.  They manage their own roads and parks and have different land use rules, a legislator from Anchorage could not adequately represent them.
• Eagle River residents are attempting to form their own borough because of their distinct needs

East Anchorage

• The Board has divided East Anchorage into 4 House districts which can pair into two East Anchorage Senate districts. This should be recognized by pairing Districts 18 and 23 and Districts 17 and 19.
• The public has spoken loud and clear that East Anchorage is a distinct community with very different needs from Eagle River and South Anchorage and the Board’s Senate pairings should reflect this.
• Pairing Districts 18 and 23 will create a compact Muldoon district which will unite the neighborhoods along Muldoon Road into a single district
• Pairing Districts 17 and 19 would put the socio-economically similar neighborhoods of Mountain View, Russian Jack, Reflection Lake, and Chester Valley in the same district, allowing these residents to elect a Senator who understands their concerns.
• East Anchorage contains many of the most diverse neighborhoods and schools in the country, and pairing East Anchorage districts with South Anchorage or Eagle River would deny these diverse communities their right to be fairly represented and could violate the Voting Rights Act.

Downtown/ JBER

• Districts 20 and 21 should be paired to place Government Hill, Downtown, Fairview, and JBER in the same district.
• For populations, the Board had to divide Downtown into two districts, pairing these districts will ensure they are at least in the same Senate District
• Government Hill is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Anchorage and has longstanding ties to the other historic neighborhoods in District 20
• Servicemembers from JBER regularly frequent businesses and services in Downtown

Turnagain/ Spenard

• The Spenard district (District 13) should be paired with the Turnagain district (District 12)
• Spenard and Turnagain are two very closely linked neighborhoods and residents often describe the whole area as “Spenard-Turnagain”

Midtown

• The Taku-Campbell district (District 14) should pair with the Abbott Loop district (District 16) to form a united Midtown district.
• These two districts form the residential core of Midtown Anchorage, which is a distinct community within Anchorage that should have its own senator

South Anchorage

• The main division in South Anchorage is between the Hillside and the “flatlands” west of the Seward Highway, and the two South Anchorage Senate seats should be a Hillside district and a flatlands district
• The two Hillside districts (Districts 9 and 15) should be paired together.  They share similar interests: Limited Road Service Areas, private wells, septic tanks, etc.
• The Oceanview and Bayshore (Districts 10 and 11) should pair together to form a Senate district.
• Residents often refer to Oceanview-Bayshore as if it were a single neighborhood, so it should not be split into separate Senate districts.

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