Alaska’s Redistricting Board will hold a public hearing in Palmer on Monday, April 25th. We need to tell the Board that Mat-Su voters will not be denied our right to five full House Districts within our Mat-Su Borough boundaries.

The Mat-Su is being treated like a pawn in someone else’s redistricting chess game. For instance, one proposed plan has Mat-Su Senators representing districts that stretch to Ketchikan, to Fairbanks and to Anchorage. Mat-Su House Districts also spill over our borough boundaries, under all but one plan.

Lets be clear, we deserve representation from people who live in the Mat-Su, representatives who know our issues, representatives who will be accountable to us. We deserve and demand equal representation. The Board needs to be told that all five of our House Districts must lie fully within our Borough boundaries.

We need our own Representatives and Senators. Our Borough population grew 50% during the last decade, rising to 89,000 in 2010. (And those are only the residents who allowed themselves to be counted.) This 50% growth makes us one of the Nation’s fastest growing regions. We have serious infrastructure, employment, education, social service, public safety, resource management and governance challenges. We need elected Representatives and Senators fully dedicated to helping us meet these challenges.

The Redistricting Board is legally required to reapportion our Legislature based on the 2010 U.S. Census. The Board must adopt new district boundaries before June 15th. The Board has calculated that every 17,755 Alaskan residents are entitled to one member in the House of Representatives. That means our 89,000 Mat-Su Borough residents are entitled to 5 full House Districts.

Our borough is larger than the State of West Virginia, as well as nine other States, so it should be easy for the Redistricting Board to establish boundaries for five House Districts within our Borough boundaries.

Your letters and your testimony will count! Alaska’s Supreme Court will be reviewing the Board’s final redistricting plan. The Court will be very interested in your comments on this issue. The Court has ruled in the past that Borough boundaries should play an important role in the drawing of district boundaries. We are entitled to five full members of the Alaska House of Representatives. The Supreme Court will acknowledge our claim.

The Board is considering plans submitted by several organizations. Only one plan dedicates five full House Districts to the Mat-Su. The Rights Coalition plan honors the Mat-Su Borough’s boundaries and can be viewed at www.akrightsplan.com. The Alaska Redistricting Board’s website contains information on the other plans being considered.

You will make a difference by going on the record. Please attend the Board’s public hearing in Palmer on Monday, April 25th from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Borough Assembly Chambers, 350 E. Dahlia, if you can. Otherwise, please submit your comments in writing to: Alaska Redistricting Board; John Torgerson, Chair; 411 W. 4th Avenue, Suite 302, Anchorage 99501.

Your right to equal representation depends on it.