Governor reappoints Bethany Marcum to Alaska Redistricting Board

By
Suzanne Downing
-
12

No sooner had the Alaska Legislature voted to not confirm Bethany Marcum as a regent for the University of Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy turned around and reappointed her to the Alaska Redistricting Board.

Marcum had resigned from the redistricting board when she was named to the Board of Regents last year. She was a regent until a legislative confirmation or denial. The liberal majority of the Alaska Senate voted against her and swung the vote of a joint session on Tuesday, and she was officially off the Board of Regents.

Marcum served on the Alaska Redistricting Board during the 2021-2022 redistricting process. That’s the political process for redrawing the House and Senate political lines after every U.S. Census. Some legislators who spoke against her in the joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday said her work on the redistricting board played a big factor in their decision.

Marcum recognized that the job was to draw lines fairly for districts, but in the end the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Democrats, who accused Marcum of trying to swing districts toward Republican voters. It was the justices themselves who gerrymandered Alaska to favor the party that has only half of the registered voters that the Republican Party has.

The board is set to meet on Monday at 1 pm to go over the justices’ decisions, and to deliberate whether there is a route to push back on the judicial activism, as well as to determine the settlement amounts to the Democrat stakeholders who sued the board successfully, with the help of the Alaska Supreme Court’s liberal makeup. The board meets at the Anchorage Legislative Information Offices on Benson Blvd. at Minnesota Drive.

Marcum is the executive director of the conservative policy think tank Alaska Policy Forum.

Alaska Supreme Court decides, and gerrymanders for Democrats

12 COMMENTS

  1. can somebody explain why republicans who say their conservative voted against her. when these republicans joined with the dems did they give up something. it must be the dems control these republicans, so we have to clean house i guess at election time. i do have faith that the governor will put these republicans in their place. these senators really think their special. the other day on gavel to gavel it showed stedman walking down the center of a hall way and senator Wilson had to go to the side it was disgusting. mike svenson sitka

  2. The Alaskan Republican party better kick all the Rino’s out of the party that ran as Republicans then went traitors and joined the senate democrats. I for one will never give the Alaskan GOP one cent until they do…

  4. Congratulations Bethany! Happy you’re re-engaged at this level despite political potato-heads pouncing on your position with U of A.

  5. The last thing in life the Board of Regents want is a lady with the proven ability to reason and balance a checkbook.

    There’s no bigger threat to over-educated idiots than an intelligent person willing to stand up to unbalanced thinking.

  6. I say the GOP should change their mascot the elephant, to the Lynx! Why you may ask? Because Lynx are not afraid to eat their own kind….Just saying it would be a better representation.

  8. We need a new political party to support. The one we have now is one big mess with the same goal to lie and steal for their own benefit. They have a proven track record so why do people vote for someone who lies to them and steals from them?

  9. 4 years ago, the legislature rejected Karl Johnstone for Board of Fish based on a last-minute, fraudulent claim made by Ivy Spohnholz on the floor. Sounds like Bethany was rejected by a similar technique, though the nature of the fraud was different this time around. I’m sure the no votes are all very proud of themselves. They better enjoy it while they can, as they aren’t gonna enjoy playing under their new rules. Cheers –

  10. Glad to see she got re-appointed to the redistricting board, but UA is missing a sane person to counter-balance the spending lefties. Good for Big Mike to keep her active.

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