In the 1993 flick True Romance, Gary Oldman’s gangster character, Drexl Spivey, after he beats the shit out of Christian Slater’s character Clarence Worley, says to an associate, “He must have thought it was white boy day. It ain’t white boy day, is it?”

Here in Alaska, we’ve seen several white boy days as Governor Sean Parnell, Senate President Gary Stevens and Speaker of the House Mike Chenault have made their picks for the redistricting commission, which will be responsible for redrawing legislative districts in the wake of the 2010 census. Thus far, Parnell’s appointed two white Republicans, and Stevens and Chenault have appointed one each. Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Walter Carpeneti will choose the fifth and final member of the commission.

It’s not horribly surprising, given the state constitution’s structure for appointing the members of the redistricting commission, that they’re all Republicans. Our constitution doesn’t allow for the minority party’s leaders to pick members, unlike several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Pennsylvania and Washington. But given our demographics—the 2006 to 2008 U.S. Census American Community Survey found the state’s population is 47.9 percent female, and 68.6 percent white—Flashlight thinks the Republican powers that be could have at least one commission member who’s not a white dude.

It’s not just the redistricting commission, though.

During Governor Parnell’s administration (since July of 2009), all six of his judicial picks have been men, and in all but one case, there was at least one woman nominated for the judgeship by the Alaska Judicial Council. (The last time a woman was appointed to the bench was when former Governor Sarah Palin chose Morgan Christen to serve on the state supreme court, in May 2009.)

Flashlight’s not the only one that’s noticed—the Anchorage Daily News’s Alaska Ear has been snarky about the white Republican guys on the redistricting commission, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner wrote about the lack of women judges back in March, before Parnell made two more male appointments—Andrew Guidi to the Anchorage Superior Court and Paul A. Roetman to the Kotzebue Superior Court.

There’s still one spot left on the redistricting commission, and Flashlight’s hoping Chief Justice Carpeneti will break with tradition and appoint, say, an Alaska Native to the commission. (Someone from a Bush community wouldn’t hurt either, especially considering rural Alaska is likely to suffer losses in representation after the 2010 census. The four appointees thus far hail from Kodiak, Douglas, Soldotna and Fairbanks, so neither the state’s largest city nor the Bush has a voice on the commission yet.)

And there are currently three open judgeships, one in Anchorage Superior Court, one in Anchorage District Court, and one in Juneau District Court, and as of right now there are female applicants for both of the latter. Here’s hoping it ain’t another white boy day.

bjk@anchoragepress.com