House committee assignments announced

By
Suzanne Downing
-
13

(3-minute read) BIPARTISAN ORGANIZATION DOMINATED BY DEMOCRATS

The House bipartisan majority announced committee assignments today and the Democrats won hands down.

Republicans who joined the bipartisan caucus seem to have traded all other positions of influence for control of the Rules and Finance committees.

Democrats control all other committees, which means that the governor’s requested statutory changes will run into a lot of hurdles in this House organization. Most of the governor’s bills will likely die in committee.

The Rules Committee includes Republican Minority members Lance Pruitt and David Eastman. Breakaway Republicans that joined the Democrats give it a 5-to-2 Republican control. But if bills aren’t moved out of committees, the control of the Rules Committee is less of a concern.

The Judiciary Committee is controlled by Senate Bill 91 defender Rep. Matt Claman. The governor has a suite of bills to roll back some of the leniency of that controversial crime bill that Claman has supported.

The Resources Committee chairmanship is split between Rep. John Lincoln, who is generally for common-sense development, and Rep. Geran Tarr, who is solidly anti-development and who has tried to ram through various taxes on oil companies. Her efforts may be stopped before they ever get to the floor by Republicans in Rules and Finance.

But five of the nine members of the Resources are anti-development, including Tarr, Reps. Sara Hannon, Grier Hopkins, Ivy Spohnholz and Chris Tuck.

Rep. Gary Knopp of Kenai, who led a breakaway group of Republicans joining the Democrats to take control of the House, won a seat on Finance, as did Rep. Bart LeBon of Fairbanks, who joined the bipartisan group. Finance now has eight Republicans and three Democrats. That committee is the one bright spot for conservatives.

A surprising number of freshmen are on this committee: Kelly Merrick, Ben Carpenter, and LeBon, but all three offer a lot of experience.

Community and Regional Affairs, where the governor’s SB 57 (oil tax authority of local governments) will likely be heard first, is dominated by legislators who will make sure that bill is dead on arrival: Democrats Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is chair, with Zack Fields as vice chair; Gabrielle LeDoux, Andi Story, and Adam Wool creating a voting bloc on that committee that can advance or stop legislation.

Health and Social Services is co-chaired by far-left Democrats Ivy Spohnholz and Tiffany Zulkosky, with Matt Claman, Harriet Drummond and Grier Hopkins sure to kill any measure that rolls back Medicaid spending.

All committees except Rules and Finance are co-chaired or chaired by Democrats, and dominated by Democrats, which for the purposes of this article includes Reps. Louise Stutes and Gabrielle LeDoux, who have caucused with Democrats historically. Stutes managed to get on six committees, with two chairmanships.

Here’s the chart:

13 COMMENTS

  2. Only in Alaska do Republicans lose when they win. I really don’t understand this – are the people that we voted in so feckless and weak that they couldn’t strategize House control with a majority? I understand that we have true RINOs to contend with, but wasn’t the head of the Republican party a professional strategist? What is the major malfunction?

    • Well, we really cannot count LeDoux or Stutes in the R column can we? They were never going to join a Republican Majority. We soon found out that Knopp is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, so did the Rs really have a majority? Also, we all know that Independents ALWAYS go left, so the house never had a chance of forming with a Republican Majority.

  4. Governor as line item veto power

    the darkening of alaska is a done

    deal.

    am gonna buy a lot of real estate cheap with my bejamins

  5. What a bunch of crapola! I am not happy with what they have done. I agree, a bunch of turncoats! This is not what the people voted for….

  7. This is a glaring example of why the GOP needs to clean their bloody house up. They are not vetting their candidates. When you allow your opponent to run your House you’re destined to lose. In this case it’s a very literal phrase

  9. Remember who the Chair of the Republican Party has been for the last two years. This is his legacy and if you don’t know where he landed then you are not paying attention. This election cycle was good for one thing. We have a good governor in place. Next election cycle better be about finding good candidates, preferably ones whose names don’t frequent court view, and getting behind these candidates to First, primary successfully the driftwood in the ranks, and second, take out the legislative obstructionists to the governor. I do not hold out much faith.

  10. Mr (not rep) Knopp totally hosed us! He kept saying he is a Republican and the “concern” was a caucus by one vote. Yep, that was a “concern” over the knowing that the Democrat-Socialists would take over in any form that he was wanting!
    Thanks a lot for absolutely NOTHING Mr Knopp! All those voters that voted for Republicans who supported Governor Dunleavy are not NOT represented!

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