Anchorage officials continue to debate how the municipality’s electoral map will look.
The Assembly is currently considering four different maps as part of the city’s reapportionment. The process occurs every 10 years following the U.S. Census. Depending on which map is chosen, some Anchorage residents could be represented by a new Assembly member. The new map would go into effect after the April 6 municipal election.
Downtown Anchorage Assembly member Chris Constant chairs the reapportionment committee and says the goal is for each Assembly district to have roughly the same amount of people.
“Getting them mathematically as close as possible,” Constant said. “Contiguous and connected, but also honoring the communities of interest or this idea of keeping communities together.”
While some proposed changes are as small as adding a couple blocks to a district, other adjustments would be more noticeable. All four proposed maps would increase the size of District 1 — Constant’s downtown district. However, there is disagreement about which parts of other districts would be in the larger downtown one.
Another issue is which districts would get Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. Three of the maps have the base as part of District 2, which includes Eagle River and Chugiak. The fourth splits the base, putting the Elmendorf half in downtown and the Fort Richardson half with Eagle River and Chugiak.
South Anchorage Assembly member John Weddleton submitted one of the maps. Another came from Mayor Dave Bronson and Eagle River/Chugiak Assembly member Jamie Allard. Local political advocacy group Anchorage Action also submitted a map as did resident Robert Hockema.
The state recently went through a contentious redistricting process, which ended up being legally challenged and faced accusations of partisanship. Constant said while there have been disagreements in drawing the local Anchorage map, the process has been smoother.
“For the most part, folks have been really open and willing to participate, and we have been working on it for months,” Constant said. “And we don’t have, under state law, the authority to do our business in the dark. The state redistricting process, they did all their work in executive sessions, and we aren’t doing that because we can’t.”
People can submit online comments about the proposed maps at muni.org. Also, people can provide in-person public testimony at the next two Assembly meetings, one on Tuesday and the second on March 15.
At the first meeting, Constant said, the hope is the Assembly will narrow its selection down to one map that other members can make amendments to. The public could then testify on the amendments at the second meeting.
The Assembly has scheduled a special meeting on March 23 to vote on the reapportionment map.
Another upcoming change to the Anchorage Assembly is adding a 12th seat.
That person will represent the downtown district, which currently only has one Assembly member. Constant said the Assembly plans to declare a vacancy at the same meeting they vote on reapportionment. After that, the Assembly must set a special election within 90 days to fill the 12th seat.
Below are the other three reapportionment maps up for debate:
[Sign up for Alaska Public Media’s daily newsletter to get our top stories delivered to your inbox.]
Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
