Friday marked the end of week one for Alaska Legislature. Despite the uncertainty, both chambers elected their leaders and assigned their committee members. Kavitha George, Alaska Public Media’s statewide affairs reporter, was in Juneau this Week and spoke with Casey Grove about the Capitol’s last few days.
Listen:
This transcript has been lightly edited to improve clarity.
Casey GroveThings have been a bit unpredictable in the Legislature this week, but we can now say that the House is well-organized, right?
Kavitha Georg:That is right. We went into session with the belief that we would see the same thing as the previous cycles. Those were the times when the House was stuck for weeks and representatives tried to form a group. There was no other legislative activity that could be done during this time.
A coalition is a group of legislators that has a majority — you need more than 20, because they are usually united by ideology or common positions on particular issues to form the majority caucus. Then they can elect a speaker and choose other leadership roles.
The House was without a speaker at the beginning of Tuesday’s first day. Interestingly, on Wednesday, Wasilla Republican Cathy Tilton was elected House Speaker and announced that Republicans had formed a alliance.
Casey GroveHow did it all come together? What has happened between then and now?
Kavitha Georg:It appears that 19 Republicans – that is, all Republicans but Kodiak Rep. Louise Stutes or Wasilla Rep. David Eastman — joined forces with Bush Caucus in order to form a majority under Tilton.
The Bush Caucus is comprised of four rural Democrats or independents: Bryce Edgmon, CJ McCormick, Neal Foster, CJ Mcormick, and Josiah Patkotak, Utqiagvik.
The people in the middle are the ones who will make a coalition. Rep. Foster also noted that the Bush Caucus had historically worked across the aisle, with both right-leaning minorities and left-leaning majorities. He stated that they are primarily focused on rural issues such as power cost equalization, infrastructure, and other related issues.
Casey Grove This is a significant shift from the past few years, when Democrats led the House majority. Does that signal a shift in the House’s actions this year?
Kavitha Georg:It is. Tilton stated that this coalition is bound by common policy goals. Although she has referred to fiscal stability as one goal, it is unclear what exactly that actually means. It could possibly include a cap on state spending, she did mention.
She stated that they are also interested in looking at election issues. Some of the majorities have participated in a Republican push for repealing ranked choice voting.
The majority of the current population is very mixed politically. One area where this could create roadblocks is in the PFD. There are Republicans like Tilton who support a full-statutory PFD and others like Edgmon, who don’t want to overdraw The Permanent Fund.
Infighting in the House has been a common theme over the past few years, and I believe representatives are well aware of this reputation. Everyone, from Tilton to Bush Caucus Democrats, is pledging their commitment to working together in this session.
Casey Grove For now, let’s pretend it’s one big happy family. So that’s the House. What’s happening in the Senate?
Kavitha Georg:Things run a lot more smoothly in the Senate. They organized the Senate in November and have been running smoothly this week. The majority, or actually a supermajority, is headed by Gary Stevens from Kodiak Republican. It’s a wide, 17-member bipartisan caucus almost equally split between Republicans, Democrats. They are focusing on increasing funding for education and teacher workforce development.
Three senators are not part of the majority. These are North Pole Sen. Robert Myers and Mat-Su Senators. Mike Shower and Shelley Hughes. They were often left out of committee assignments. This is because Shower and Hughes have been irritable and have not been able to get along with others. Stevens indicated that they would be able to revisit the committee assignments at a later date if Hughes and Shower prove easier to work with.
Casey Grove Technically, there are bipartisan majorities in each chamber, but it sounds like the House leans more right. How can we predict how the Senate and House will cooperate?
Kavitha Georg:The House of Representatives and the Senate work together on legislation and the budget. Even though these issues may be worked on in isolation, the other chamber will have to sign off at some point.
Each side will have to make some judgements about what they can do to get past each other. The Senate, for example, has indicated they don’t want to repeal ranked choice voting. This is not good news for House efforts.
There will likely be a lot more back and forth between the PFD and Gov. Stevens. Sen. Stevens stated this week that he does not believe the state can afford the $3800 dividend Gov. Last month Dunleavy presented the proposal. We have already discussed some of the conflicts in the House there. You should be ready for some serious discussions.
