Opinion ID: 2604170
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Senate District E.

Text: The state contends that the article VI, section 6 requirements should be less strictly applied with respect to the apportionment of senate seats because the provision explicitly pertains only to house districts and because the framers of the constitution sought to use senate districts to achieve regional representation. In the absence of a constitutional amendment to the contrary and given the framers' intent to use geographic area and rural representation as the criteria for apportioning senate seats, we hold that the article VI, section 6 requirements do not apply to the redistricting of senate seats. In Wade v. Nolan, 414 P.2d 689, 700 (Alaska 1966), we upheld the authority of the governor to reapportion senate districts despite the absence of express authority for such reapportionment in the constitution. After discussing the possibility that the framers intended to freeze the apportionment of senate districts and the invalidity of frozen area apportionment plans under federal law, we stated: Unanticipated changes in the law of the land have invalidated the Senate apportionment and now require that the Senate be expeditiously reapportioned on a population basis... . The Governor and the Reapportionment Board have reapportioned the Senate in the same manner that the constitution requires them to reapportion the House. An enlightened construction of Article VI which permits realization of its fundamental purpose, that reapportionment not be dependent in any manner on legislative initiative and that effective means of enforcement be readily available to any voter, is that its remaining constitutional provisions provide the implied power in the Governor and the Reapportionment Board to reapportion the Senate on an interim basis and we so hold. 414 P.2d at 700. In Wade we did not reach the question of the applicability of article VI, section 6 to senate redistricting. We subsequently noted that the constitution has never been amended in this regard and that the governor's implied power to reapportion senate districts therefore remains in force under Wade. Egan, 502 P.2d at 874. [19] Wade does suggest the approach to be taken when, as here, circumstances require this court to decide an issue not explicitly considered by the framers themselves: The facts before us were not anticipated by the Convention. It is appropriate, therefore, that we attempt to determine from Article VI as a whole and appropriate Convention Minutes, what was the pervading purpose and intent of the Convention. We must then determine whether a fair interpretation of the various provisions of Article VI will support a construction which permits accomplishment of this purpose, bearing in mind that often    what is implied is as much a part of the instrument as what is expressed. 414 P.2d at 698 (quoting Ex parte Yarbrough, 110 U.S. 651, 658, 4 S.Ct. 152, 155, 28 L.Ed. 274, 276 (1884)). Regarding the issue at bar, the minutes of the Constitutional Convention indicate that the creation of the senate districts reflected a compromise between rural and urban interests. Representatives of urban areas sought at-large representation by population while those speaking for rural areas sought smaller districts determined by geographic area. See 3 Proceedings of the Alaska Constitutional Convention 1876 (January 12, 1956) (Statement of Delegate John Hellenthal) (The Committee has not ignored the principle of representation at large... . [But] the Committee [also] felt strongly that emphasis should be placed on giving representation in both the house and the senate to a degree to representatives from nonurban areas); see also id. at 1881-82 (Statement of Delegate Frank Peratrovich). To protect the interests of the less populous rural areas, the framers amended the proposed constitution to provide that the boundaries of the senate districts would be respected if the districts were modified. [20] As the following exchange between delegates demonstrates, geography and rural representation, not socio-economic integration, was of paramount concern: HARRIS: ... [T]he idea of the whole compromise from the beginning was that one [branch of the legislature] would be based on a geographic standpoint and the other one on a population standpoint, and the rural areas went along with it with that in mind, that they would be guaranteed representation... . [A] lot of other people from the rural areas ... said, We may lose our house representatives, it is very possible, but we will never lose our senator. [T]his amendment ... is a compromise. It is a guarantee to the rural areas that they will always have representation... . ... . HELLENTHAL: ... [T]o clear up any doubts that the senate was to be based strictly on area and the house strictly on population, ... let me read from the report of the Committee: In the composition of the senate, stress was placed upon area with minor stress upon socio-economic groups. It did develop, though, that there was a conflict in the Committee... . This amendment ... is crystal clear. The senate of Alaska, and the constitution is now based strictly, 100 per cent upon area, but the great objective of this group has been secured in that the minor areas are assured of representation. That was what we set out to accomplish, that the minor areas in Alaska, the small hinterland, would be assured of representation, and it wouldn't all go to the cities. 5 Proceedings of the Alaska Constitutional Convention 3468-69 (January 28, 1956) (emphasis added). We conclude that the framers aimed to ensure that rural communities retained senate representation by using geographic area as a criterion for establishing senate districts and did not contemplate socio-economic integration as a criterion for redistricting senate seats. Therefore, we hold that the provisions of article VI, section 6 which set forth socio-economic integration, compactness and contiguity requirements are inapplicable to redistricting and reapportionment of senate districts. [21]