This week, Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced the appointment of Stephen Colligan to a seat on the University of Alaska Board of Regents, marking the third time he’s tried to fill the position and the second time he’s drawn from people with ties to the fight around the latest redistricting cycle.
The Alaska Legislature narrowly rejected the governor’s first pick for the board, Bethany Marcum, over her support of the governor’s 2019 budget cuts that gutted the university system and for her work on the Alaska Redistricting Board. His second pick, former chief of staff and Republican operative Tuckerman Babcock, resigned after two months on the job.
The governor’s announcement of the appointment calls Colligan “a long-time business owner with decades of professional experience in the public and private sectors” that includes work in unmanned aircraft and robotics. His appointment will take effect immediately, but will face a confirmation vote with the Legislature next year.
Marcum was a central figure in the redistricting fight, serving as the key architect behind a bid to expand the conservative Eagle River’s influence in the Alaska Senate. Both plans put forward by Marcum and the board’s conservative majority were struck down by the Alaska Supreme Court as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders.
Colligan played a far more minor role in shaping Alaska’s election districts than Marcum, testifying during the redistricting trial on behalf of the Mat-Su Borough as an expert witness. The Mat-Su Borough was chafing over the board’s decision to pair the area with Valdez and pump up the population of Mat-Su area districts rather than looking for changes elsewhere.
At trial, Colligan was critical of the documents and public-facing software provided by the board, arguing that it contained technical errors that made it difficult for the public to interpret. Colligan was an expert witness, testifying that he had put together a consulting group to examine the issue. He also argued that the board should have taken into account the mode of transportation used within a district.
His credibility at trial, however, was questioned because of his work with the Republican redistricting group, Alaskans for Fair and Equitable Redistricting. That group had put forward a plan that ran contrary to Colligan’s suggestion of taking transportation modes into consideration because it would have tied Anchorage’s Hillside with a strip of the Kenai Peninsula that would have reached all the way into Nikiski.
The courts ultimately ruled against the Mat-Su Borough’s attempt to redraw the area’s maps, leaving it paired with Valdez.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
