The Democrat majority in the Alaska House of Representatives has told the Republican minority to sit down and shut up. They make the rules to advantage the Democrats.
House Republicans who were assigned to serve on Finance subcommittees as assigned Finance members are not allowed to sit at the table with the voting members of the subcommittee and are not allowed to speak. They can only watch the proceedings — essentially giving them no role at all.
However, when Rep. Andy Josephson took over for Rep. Bryce Edgmon during Thursday’s subcommittee meeting on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s budget, he was allowed to sit in as a voting member, since Edgmon was trying to leave town. Josephson is in the Democrat majority, but not on the subcommittee. It’s a rule violation that was brought to the attention of the committee by Rep. George Rauscher, who said he had never seen that done before — the plug-and-play of a legislator who was not a voting member of the subcommittee.
Watch the committee meeting here as the double-standard is revealed by Rauscher:
The rule that co-chair Rep. Sara Hannan cited allows the majority to, indeed, slide in any of its Finance Committee members if there is an absence on a subcommittee of a member of the majority. That way the Democrats can ensure that no alternate Republicans will ever be allowed to sit at the table.
