Bipartisan-Democrat caucus says it has the votes to control State House in 2025

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Rep. Bryce Edgmon

Following the count by Alaska’s Division of Elections, the House Majority Coalition announced it will take over leadership of the House and will work on exploding budgets for defined benefits for public employees.

The group has begun work on priorities of education, energy, retirement reform, and balanced budgets.

“We have a strong team with a bipartisan leadership, rural and urban representation, and are getting to work now to prepare for the session starting in January,” said Rep. Bryce Edgmon, who identified himself as “Speaker.” In fact, Rep. Cathy Tilton is still the speaker until the House gavels in on Jan. 21.

Edgmon was a Democrat but years ago reregistered as an undeclared candidate, which allows him to pretend he is not a Democrat and move back and forth with the power swings. From Dillingham, he was speaker from 2019-2021.

“Numerous Republican members have been in discussion about joining the caucus, and the House Majority welcomes all members who are committed to balanced budgets, education, energy, and retirement reform,” the press release from the caucus says.

It appears the House will be run by a Democrat and undeclared majority, much like the Senate, with a few Republican peeling off from the minority to join the caucus.

With both the House and Senate organizing as bipartisan caucuses with majority-Democrat members, Gov. Mike Dunleavy will have a challenge on his hands and may find it hard to get his legislation passed. He will likely be presented with a new defined benefits package for some state workers, and he may not have the votes to sustain a veto.

The next legislative session starts on Jan. 21 and runs through May 21.

55 COMMENTS

  1. Edgmon is a hard left Democrat, undeclared in name only (UINO). When Democrats form a coalition with a few Republicans, it simply means that Republicans must fall in line with the Democrat agenda. There are two ways to play this stupid game.
    1. All Republicans join the coalition with Democrats and work internally to either get some Republican agenda passed, or secretly work to foil some of the Democrat agenda later in the session.
    2. Stand firmly opposed to the coalition and work with Mike Dunleavy and the Trump Administration to block the Democrats agenda, every opportunity available.

      • What has Dunleavy actually accomplished? Their still stealing the our dividend, he promised to get Alaskans the back PFD funds they stole. After what happened the las two elections and nothing has been fixed. with the size of our population and it takes 3 weeks to count. Why are all ballots not due at end of election day or at most that Friday of the same week as election. Everybody knows when we vote. everybody has the same chance to vote. In my opinion this is all being done so votes can be manufactured in the bush. Dahlstrom should have spent her time fixing our elections not trying to mess things up like Palin did. Florida has millions of voters and they were able to count and finish on election night. also with Dunleavy, I hope Trump doesn’t pick him he’s weak. no what Alaska needs right now. We are becoming just an extension of rest of the left coast.

    • After all this time I’m amazed how many fans the Cowardly Lion has.

      Dunleavy has been at best inept. Most often less than worthless

    • There is another way he could get voted out. He barely wins his elections in dillingham. During my tenure in the southwest, it was my thoughts that he was the worst thing for Alaska. I still believe that I saw many times we’re single women, some of them raising 5 or 6 kids living in a shack with no electricity and no running water, barely scraping out a living on what the village threw their way. Depended on the pfd, 4 food clothing and family needs. I pleaded with him to give the full pfd. I told him that all he was doing was hurting his own constituents. And when I got a big, fat, middle finger from him, I decided to go on here some 7 years ago and voice my opinion. To that I received threats to my job and my livelihood. My boss called me up and told me. I understand you’re doing it again.
      And he tried to convince me that Bryce was good for Alaska. Good for schools.But I knew better because I witnessed it firsthand. You see, this picture of a norwegian man dressing up in native costume, claiming to be native, and it may get him elected, but it doesn’t pull the wool over the eyes of many. Dillingham if you want to get rid of him, vote him out.

  2. Heck yeah let’s break the bank with a defined retirement lol. Alaska truly deserves what they get. Us folks out here in the Valley can only do so much.

  3. It boggles my mind that the citizens don’t understand state and local politics, nor do they seem to have any collective memory. I mean, Kopp got re-elected? Wow.

    • Merrick is in the Senate and I can guarantee that I did not place any mark next to her pathetic name. As far as I’m concerned her and her husband can GTF out of Eagle River and move into the scum that is Anchorage proper. If anyone wants to give her or her husband my name I will tell it straight to their lying faces. I don’t back down.

  4. We deserve this, when the stupid vote and the lazy don’t. The state is going to be as screw up as Anchorage and I don’t see a good future for my children and grandchildren. Fortunately they are skilled workers and can work anywhere.

  5. These arrogant, self-serving RINOCRATS hand themselves and their cronies loads of money, congratulate themselves, , do absolutely NOTHING concrete to help any conservative cause, and then have the sheer nerve to criticize Eastman. They are pathetic. They are not helping Alaska in any way.

  6. We are either going to sink or swim, hopefully we swim. There are enormous opportunities coming our way we just have to have good enough leadership to make it happen. Show us what you got Juneau.

  7. Good. The sooner this state finishes taking the remaining 25% of the PFD, has an income AND statewide sales tax the better. I hope it gets so expensive to live here that there’s a mass exodus, leaving only the military, existing resource extraction and tourism. The only way we’re going to get any modicum of common sense is to burn this down and start over.

    • Amen. The state is corrupt on all levels and Dunleavy and Dahlstrom are incompetent and/or justa s corrupt. I never thought it would get this bad up here, but looking back on it, our politicians have been very cheap prostitutes for a long time.

    • Johnson, there already is an exodus. For 11 striaght years our population has been in decline. We give away our valuable oil, and gold, and Dunleavy is ensuring our dividends get smaller. He thinks your money is better off going to Exxon, Hilcorp, etc.

  8. Our RINO Kenai Peninsula representatives Bjorkman and Ruffridge, who probably got into politics to do ’good’ will now do ‘well’ for themselves as they pay back their liberal donors as the caucus with the democrats. Jesse, in particular, was elected by force-feeding half-truths ‘LIES’ and outright lies to an uninformed electorate. He ran a disgusting campaign financed by big labor, NEA and well-known democrat donors. It was easy to look at his APOC and see the ugly truth.

    • MA, you may be onto something there, looking back, It was the moderate republicans who were able to reach across the aisle and do business based on nothing more than a handshake that got things done for this country. This constant, never-ending battle….Is it getting anything done?
      And it’s just costing the taxpayers dollars. Something has to change.

      • “This constant, never-ending battle….
        And it’s just costing the taxpayers dollars.”

        That is the whole point of our current government. And it will cost future taxpayers even more. Short-term “gains” ie. votes used to glean power and wealth (together making for more control) traded in for our long-term pain.

    • Ah yes calling it like it is. You will never be invited to the party if you expose the truth about these RINOs soon they will attack you behind your back to afraid to say it to your face. Because they are after all actually Cowardly Democrats. Well they should get their Resumes ready because we are coming for them next election.

  9. I appreciate the hope being sold of overwhelming the vote and getting this repealed in a future election. People need to understand that this strategy does NOT work: Trump’s overwhelming 2024 vote count is being metered away to probably land at 50% or slightly less….with around 2 million votes still being counted as of November 20. With all the extra, and I believe real, votes in 2024, he is only around 2 million more votes than 2020 – that alone is at least as suspicious as the disappearing Biden voters from 2020 but no on is talking about it.

    The reality is that down ballot votes are likely being reallocated around the country and elections like Alaska are seeing a drifting left/uni-party state legislature, no repeal of RCV, and MAGA warriors like David Eastman being taken out.

    If we want a realistic solution/proof of fraud, we need to activate people to do on the ground canvassing to show if there are fraudulent voters on the rolls. In the process, we also need to survey voters to ask how they voted on RCV and if they trust our elections. This is something citizens can organize and we need to get started immediately. If people don’t want to answer the questions, that is fine but get a reading on how many people actually do say they voted.

    ‘https://www.cookpolitical.com/vote-tracker/2024/electoral-college

  10. As it has been said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” keep voting for the same people or the same type of people and we will continue to get the same results.

  11. I am thinking that these coming “bi partisan” Legislative coalitions will be feeling really generous when the PFD that they come up with is in 10% range versus the outrageously generous 25% of the last few years. Gotta keep the government growing.

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