Eleven members of the Alaska House Republican Caucus have released a statement in response to a pending lawsuit initiated by the Alaska Legislative Council against Governor Dunleavy.
The statement reads, “We were never polled on the question of returning to Juneau to address this issue. Members of our caucus were denied the opportunity to weigh in on this lawsuit before a decision was made by the Legislative Council. As a result, the voices of hundreds of thousands of Alaskans were not heard. We are disappointed that the Legislative Council has implicated us in a lawsuit that we did not consent to and do not approve of, disenfranchising Alaskans’ voices in the process.”
Several members signed onto the statement. They include: Rep. George Rauscher (R-Sutton), Rep. Mike Prax (R-North Pole), Rep. Dave Talerico (R-Healy), Rep. Colleen Sullivan-Leonard (R-Wasilla), Rep. Cathy Tilton (R-Chugiak/Mat-Su), Rep. Sharon Jackson (R-Eagle River), Rep. Sara Rasmussen (R-Anchorage), Rep. Mel Gillis (R-Anchorage), Rep. Laddie Shaw (R-Anchorage), Rep. Sarah Vance (R-Homer), Rep. Ben Carpenter (R-Nikiski).
Rep. Vance spoke to KSRM on the pending lawsuit, “The Legislative Council, which is our internal governing body that governs the business of the legislature decided to sue the governor on grounds that he did not fulfil his duty in appointing people to the boards and commissions and other various appointments that he is required to make in a certain time frame. We were not consulted on this lawsuit until it went before the legislative council which we have one member on. Then it came out in the news that the lawsuit was being pursued by the legislature. As members of equal voting, we were not consulted and feel that that does not reflect well upon our representation for Alaska.”
The House and Senate, normally, would meet during the regularly scheduled legislative session in order to consider appointments, but the COVID-19 pandemic has put a halt to that with lawmakers passing a law allowing them to take the confirmations up at a later time.
Vance says that the Legislative Council hasn’t heard the representatives voices, “They’ve already begun to pursue the lawsuit and once they made that decision, which they often do in executive session, the decision has already been made. Our voices have not been heard, except by the one member who all she could do at the time was just simply vote ‘no’ as the minority. It was not a true consultation of the body of the legislature. That’s why we are making a statement that this is not something that we support.”
Vance speaks on if this lawsuit affects the upcoming state legislature, “Several of the members of the current legislative council that are part of the 31st legislature will no longer be a part of the 32nd legislature. They have been voted out. So it’s going to cause a dramatic shift in leadership. The legislative council will be under the management of the house of representatives for this year’s cycle. If that jurisdiction alternates, we have members from both bodies on it, but it will have a new council sometime this month as the 32nd legislature convenes and adopts new leadership. So that is yet to be seen.”
