Alaska lawmaker fears loss of rural legislative districts

JUNEAU -- House Majority Leader Alan Austerman expects one or two rural House districts to be lost this year when political lines are redrawn based on new population data.

Austerman says that population shifts over the last decade suggest urban districts will get smaller, while rural districts and those in the Bush will get bigger.

The Kodiak Republican says that's a concern because it will leave individual lawmakers with huge swaths of territory, with a wide range of communities and interests to represent.

Voters last fall defeated a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would have expanded the size of the Legislature by six members. Austerman supported that effort.

He says the issue deserves further debate but he says he's not sure how much latitude there is for the Legislature itself to get involved.

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