In a 22-17 vote, the drama ended and the Committee assignments have been made for the Alaska House of Representatives.
The report has been amended.
Some changes were made to the report. Rep. Tom McKay is now on Resources and Rep. Kevin McCabe is now on Community and Regional Affairs.
Although last-minute vote-hostage-taking took place by Rep. Geran Tarr, who was withholding her vote on the committee assignments, the procedure went smoothly Thursday morning. Three Republicans are aligned with the Democrat-majority coalition: Speaker Louise Stutes, Rep. Kelly Merrick, and nominally Rep. Sara Rasmussen, who says she is not part of the coalition, but voted with them to approve the committee assignments. Rasmussen, representing South Anchorage, was awarded a coveted seat on Finance.
The minority caucus of Republicans is comprised of 18 members, with Rep. Cathy Tilton as minority leader and Rep. Laddie Shaw as minority whip.
With committees established, over 100 bills were read across the floor and assigned to those committees.
The House Minority Caucus is now made up of Ben Carpenter, Mike Cronk, David Eastman, Ron Gillham, DeLena Johnson, James Kaufman, Chris Kurka, Bart LeBon, Kevin McCabe, Ken McCarty, Tom McKay, David Nelson, Mike Prax, George Rauscher, Laddie Shaw, Steve Thompson, Cathy Tilton, and Sarah Vance.
The majority caucus has Matt Claman, Harriet Drummond, Bryce Edgmon, Zack Fields, Neal Foster, Sara Hannan, Grier Hopkins, Andy Josephson, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Daniel Ortiz, Josiah Patkotak, Calvn Schrage, Liz Snyder, Ivy Spohnholz, Andi Story, Chris Tuck, Adam Wool, Tiffany Zulkosky, all of whom are reliable Democrats or pretend undeclareds, and Republicans Louise Stutes and Kelly Merrick.
Sarah Rasmussen, also a Republican, has insisted she is a member of neither caucus.
