Members of the Alaska Senate bipartisan majority coalition promise it will be moderate and consensus-focused. (via AlaskaBeacon)
Sen. Gary Stevens of Kodiak, right, speaks at an Anchorage news conference on Friday announcing the formation of a 17-member bipartisan majority caucus. Stevens, a Republican, will be president of the body and Republican Cathy Giessel, sitting next to him, will be majority leader. Matt Claman, an Anchorage Democrat who is moving from the House to the Senate, will chair the Judiciary Committee, Stevens announced. In all, the caucus will hold nine Democrats and eight Republicans.
Cathy Giessel, a Republican from South Anchorage, will be the majority leader; Sen. Bill Wielechowski, a Democrat from East Anchorage, will be chairman of the Rules Committee, which determines with the president which bills are voted upon, Stevens announced. The powerful budget-writing Finance Committee will have three co-chairs, he said: Republican Sen. Bert Stedman of Sitka, overseeing the operating budget; Democratic Sen.
In other ways, the new majority formalizes what had been a de facto coalition in recent years comprising Senate Democrats and the more moderate Republicans. That experience, Stevens said, is evidence in favor of a bipartisan majority over an all-Republican majority. Over the past four years, these senators have opposed unplanned draws from the Alaska Permanent Fund, as well as the deep cuts to government services that Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed in 2019.
“Alaskans are concerned about high inflation, gas, and energy prices; Biden’s anti-resource development policies which are harmful to our state; and leftist policies that hurt families and children. Alaskans’ votes for state Senate clearly indicated Alaskans preferred policies based on conservative principles that will open up new opportunities and promote a strong economy, strong communities, and strong families,” she said in the statement.
Giessel said she has been in the three senators’ position. When Stevens was last Senate president, in 2011 and 2012, she was considered one of the most conservative senators – and was one of the four members outside of the majority. That approach is not productive, she said. Whatever the configuration of their leadership, lawmakers in the coming session will have to manage what might be future budget troubles.
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