Opinion ID: 2604170
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Senate District E (the Donut District).

Text: Senate District E is a two-member district composed of House Districts 6, 7, and 16, with a population of 36,025.52 and a deviation from ideal district population size of -2.2%. The Board created this district to respond to public dissatisfaction with the former senate configuration linking House Districts 5, 6, and 7, and to retain the balance between regional and Anchorage senate representation. [4] Based on testimony it received and the personal knowledge of its members, the Board's view was that a single-member senate district made up of House Districts 6 and 7 would become an Anchorage seat. The Board believed that alignment of Districts 6, 7, and 16 into a two-member senate district provided a strong foundation for regional representation. It found that the bulk of the senate district population was located in communities in which the economic focus is independent of Anchorage in some respects, substantially intertwined in others, and would share a common communication and transportation network. One Board member testified that the Board attempted, to the extent possible, to leave traditional groupings intact. She added that it heard considerable testimony from members of the Prince William Sound communities who believed that combining House District 16 with Districts 6 and 7 to create a two-member senate district would be[] a way in which to distribute political power in such way that the Prince William Sound, ... the Nikiski area and the Mat[anuska]-Su[sitna area] could be balanced.