The Alaska House of Representatives is organized with committee assignments.
Update: The report has not been voted on yet because several members were not available for various reasons. Rep. Josiah Patkotak had to attend to a medical emergency, while Democrat Rep. Geran Tarr is said to have walked out of her own caucus after not getting the seat she wanted.
The most powerful person in the House is still Rep. Bryce Edgmon, as he sits on Rules and also on Finance. If he doesn’t like what happens in Finance, he can stop any bill in Rules.
Speaker: Louise Stutes
Majority Leader: Chris Tuck
Majority Whip: Matt Claman
Minority Leader: Cathy Tilton
Minority Whip: Laddie Shaw
Committee on Committees: Chair Louise Stutes, Bryce Edgmon, Chris Tuck, Kelly Merrick, Neal Foster, Cathy Tilton, Laddie Shaw
Rules: Chair Bryce Edgmon, Louise Stutes, Kelly Merrick, Neal Foster, Cathy Tilton, Laddie Shaw, David Eastman
Finance: Co-chairs Kelly Merrick and Neal Foster, Vice Chair Dan Ortiz, Adam Wool, Bryce Edgmon, Andy Josephson, Sara Rasmussen, Steve Thompson, Bart LeBon, Ben Carpenter, DeLena Johnson
Community and Regional Affairs: Co-chairs Calvin Schrage and Sara Hannan, Vice Chair Josiah Paktotak, Harriet Drummond, Mike Prax, Ken McCarty, Tom McKay
Education: Co-chairs Harriet Drummond and Andi Story, Tiffany Zulkosky, Grier Hopkins, Mike Prax, Mike Cronk, Ron Gillham
Health and Social Services: Co-chairs Tiffany Zulkosky and Liz Snyder, Ivy Sponholz, Zack Fields, Ken McCarty, Mike Prax, Chris Kurka
Judiciary: Chair Matt Claman, Harriet Drummond, Liz Snyder, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, David Eastman, Chris Kurka, Sarah Vance
Labor and Commerce: Co-chairs Zack Fields and Ivy Spohnholz, Calvin Schrage, Liz Snyder, David Nelson, James Kaufman, Ken McCarty
Resources: Chair Josiah Patkotak, Zack Fields, Grier Hopkins, Calvin Schrage, Sara Hannan, George Rauscher, Mike Cronk, Ron Gillham, Kevin McCabe
State Affairs: Chair Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, Geran Tarr, Andy Josephson, Matt Claman, Sarah Vance, James Kaufman, David Eastman
Transportation: Co-chairs Grier Hopkins and Ivy Spohnholz, Harriet Drummond, Sara Hannan, Tom McKay, Kevin McCabe, Mike Cronk
Special committee assignments have not yet been announced.
The new masking rules from the Biden Administration apply to everyone on federal property — buildings, facilities, monuments, and other jurisdictions. In parks and wild lands, that means masks must be worn if others are nearby.
According to a new directive, it also means those on fishing boats or other commercial vessels must wear face masks, even while sleeping.
According to National Fisherman, the rule is going to be enforced by the Coast Guard, although it’s unclear how practical that actually is in Alaska or other commercial fishing grounds around the country.
Order under Section 361 of the Public ic Health Service Act requires persons to wear masks “while on conveyances and at transportation hubs.
“A conveyance operator transporting persons into and within the United States must require all persons onboard to wear masks for the duration of travel.”
That means from any seaport, in addition to airports and train stations.
“Conveyance operators must use best efforts to ensure that any person on the conveyance wears a mask when boarding, disembarking, and for the duration of travel. Best efforts include:
boarding only those persons who wear masks;
instructing persons that Federal law requires wearing a mask on the conveyance and failure to comply constitutes a violation of Federal law;
monitoring persons onboard the conveyance for anyone who is not wearing a mask and seeking compliance from such persons;
at the earliest opportunity, disembarking any person who refuses to comply; and
providing persons with prominent and adequate notice to facilitate awareness and compliance of the requirement of this Order to wear a mask; best practices may include, if feasible, advance notifications on digital platforms, such as on apps, websites, or email…”
According to the order’s definition section, “Conveyance shall have the same definition as under 42 CFR 70.1, meaning “an aircraft, train, vessel . . . or other means of transport, including military.”
Exempted are boats that are used solely for personal, non-commercial use.
Those who work aboard commercial fishing boats spend time at sea and frequently have bunks assigned to them. The new regulation from the Biden Administration does not contain any exemptions for removing a mask while sleeping. Those under the age of 2 are not required to abide by the federal mask mandate.
Rep. Kelly Merrick, who represents one of Alaska’s most solid Republican districts in Eagle River, made it final on Monday — she was joining the mostly Democrat coalition.
Led by Rep. Louise Stutes as Speaker, the coalition is made up of all Democrats or undeclared Democrats, and Stutes and Merrick, who are Republicans.
It ended a weekend of dramatic tension for House Republicans, who learned on Thursday that Merrick was leaving their caucus.
Merrick confused the matter by issuing a press release last week that said she was not joining the Democrat coalition.
“To be clear, I have not joined the Alaska House Coalition. However, like most Alaskans, I have been frustrated by taking the same fruitless votes day after day and I felt we could no longer afford to delay extending the Governor’s emergency disaster declaration, crafting a fiscally conservative budget, and passing the construction jobs bill,” Merrick wrote, referring to a disaster declaration that did not, in fact, extend, and a bond measure that the governor wants to put before voters this year to address infrastructure needs and jobs.
“Speaker Stutes has served many years in the Legislature, has personal relationships with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and is committed to bringing people together to tackle issues facing Alaska,” she wrote.
In fact, Stutes had tried to convince Republicans to make her Speaker of a Republican-led coalition, but they consider her untrustworthy. Many of them report that Stutes has treated them badly during her many years of working against them, and she was not able to close that deal in recent weeks.
By Monday afternoon, Merrick had been awarded a coveted spot leading Finance, which means she has, in fact, joined the coalition, although there may be some terms she has established with the Democrats. Most likely, she will be the co-chair for the Capital Budget, which will please her union allies, including her husband, Joey Merrick, head of the Laborers Local 341 Union in Anchorage. Bryce Edgmon is the other do-chair of Finance and that indicates he was key to the negotiation to bring Merrick over. These are the coveted seats in the Legislature.
The coalition moved Merrick’s seat in the chamber away from her Republican friends Rep. Sara Rasmussen and Laddie Shaw, to have her positioned next to Democrat Rep. Zack Fields, who is credited with courting her over to the Democrat-led coalition. Until last year at least, Fields worked for Merrick’s husband as a business development director at the union, and may still hold a position with the union; the disclosure report is not on file.
The Committee on Committees was announced by Stutes on Monday. Often, it will have two members from the minority caucus, who are there to represent the interests of the members who will be awarded minority seats on committees. The Committee on Committees is made up of Speaker Stutes, with Reps. Merrick, Neal Foster, Chris Tuck and Bryce Edgmon, and minority members Reps. Sara Rasmussen and Mike Cronk, both Republicans.
In what is an unusual twist, both Merrick and Stutes are Republicans, which gives Republicans an actual majority on the Committee on Committees. But in actuality, Stutes has always favored and voted with Democrats, and so the majority Republican representation is a mirage.
The rest of committee assignments will have to wait. Stutes and Merrick are trying to tempt other Republicans to build out her coalition, which now stands at 21, with a minority caucus at 19.
The current minority strength may make that difficult, because a 19-member minority is considered powerful, and a caucus of 21 is considered unstable, because any single majority member can become a hostage-taker on issues important to him or her.
Merrick’s district is bright red, with 6,039 registered Republicans and just 1,821 registered Democrats.
Merrick received praise from many Democrat lawmakers and politicos, such as Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, a hard Democrat, who thanked her for rising above party politics to join the coalition.
On the Kenai Peninsula, District 31 Republicans have passed a resolution censuring Sen. Lisa Murkowski for her actions in the impeachment hearings against former President Donald J. Trump.
That district isn’t the only one. There are several others that have either passed similar resolutions or that are in the voting process.
Districts 3, 8, 9, 11, and 12 have passed similar censures, and Districts 7 and 10 are in final vote. Both of the Mat-Su Valley Republican Women’s Clubs are working on resolutions or censures.
[Note: District 26 has also passed a resolution.]
The other six senators who joined Murkowski in voting to convict Trump were Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. Ultimately, the conviction fell short of the votes needed by Democrats to finish Trump off.
On Saturday, the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Louisiana censured Cassidy.
On Sunday night, the North Carolina Republican Party was taking a censure vote Burr.
Utah Republicans are passing around a censure resolution targeting Romney for “his personal and political vendetta against President Donald J. Trump ahead of the Constitution of the United States, the interest of We, the People, and the advancement of the Republican Platform.”
Toomey has been censured by multiple county Republican districts in Pennsylvania.
But of the seven, only Murkowski is standing for reelection in 2022.
The Alaska GOP State Central Committee meets in mid-March in Anchorage. Word is that the districts leading the censures of Murkowski will bring their efforts to the State Central Committee for a statewide vote.
In 2018, Murkowski donated $10,000 from her campaign war chest to the Alaska Republican Party (she was not running that year). In 2016, she gave $398,976 to the state party, according to opensecrets.org.
Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer on Friday introduced Senate Bill 83, an election integrity bill that could provide additional tools for the Division of Elections to increase Alaskan’s trust in elections.
SB 83 allows for increased post-election audits, stronger requirements for absentee ballot voter certificates, and limited by-mail voting in communities under 750. For those communities, the Division of Elections director would conduct the mail-in voting aspect of the election.
Additionally, it would require the Division of Elections to determine the costs of recounts in regulation, rather than in statute.
“The integrity of our elections is of utmost importance – we cannot have a functioning democracy without it. This bill would not create an overhaul of our existing elections system but rather bolster what already works,” said Meyer.
Meyer said he is expanding the statewide conversation about election security and integrity. In addition to bills presented by Sen. Mike Shower, Sen. Shelley Hughes, and Rep. George Rauscher, the ideas presented in SB 83 reflect the firsthand experience Meyer gained while overseeing the 2020 primary and general elections.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy today said he will not be issuing another emergency order. At least not today. The emergency declaration is expiring and is not being renewed.
Testing at airports will be voluntary from here on, he said. Over 200 regulations that were suspended to help businesses, will be evaluated over the next few weeks for change to ensure businesses are not burdened.
He said that cities like Anchorage may continue to have their own regulations that are not state regulations.
“I’m going to strongly suggest to our first class cities that they too look at the numbers we are looking at, that the metrics we are looking at,” he said.
He did release a new COVID-19 recovery and transition plan that begins the process of moving Alaska to the path to normalcy while still effectively managing the virus.
If the State sees the metrics changing for the worse, that will require another conversation.
Hisdirective to commissioners and state employees are that they shall continue following all policies regarding COVID-19 that were in place under the COVID-19 disaster declaration that expires today, February 14, at midnight.
The administration is issuing four health advisories that address general safety, travel and critical infrastructure, with appendices focusing on the seafood industry. The advisories are based on the latest epidemiological data and expertise within the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and outline best practices to continue mitigating the spread of COVID-19, according to a news release from his office.
“My administration will begin moving Alaska, its economy and our lives forward through this transition and recovery process,”said Governor Mike Dunleavy.
Make no mistake about it, the virus may be with us for some time. But the data shows that the worst is most likely behind us. Alaska’s vaccination plan is one of the most successful in the country and we have faith that the health care system is robust and prepared. My plan can get us there if we continue to keep an eye on the data and, Alaskans continue taking personal responsibility for their health and wellbeing. – Gov. Mike Dunleavy
Health Advisory 1 – Recommendations to Keep Alaskans Safe – Addresses the safety measures Alaskans can take to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Health Advisory 2 – International and Interstate Travel – While Alaska resident and non-resident travelers will no longer be required to have pre-travel negative tests upon arrival, it is still considered one of the best mechanisms to track the virus and prevent community spread. The existing airport testing infrastructure will remain in place to protect Alaskans and visitors alike.
Anyone positive for COVID-19 is not allowed to travel.
Health Advisory 3 – Intrastate Travel – Outlines expectations of communities for allowing travel Critical Infrastructure personnel, as well as for community members and Critical Personal needs. The advisory recommends COVID testing three days prior to travel to locations on the road system and the Alaska Marine Highway System. For locations off the road system and the Alaska Marine Highway System, a test is recommended for trips lasting longer than 72 hours before returning to a rural community. Without a test, strict social distancing should be followed.
Health Advisory 4 – Critical Infrastructure – The advisory provides clear guidance for Critical Infrastructure businesses operating in Alaska to protect both communities and industries.
“Throughout the response, the goal of the state has been to support and provide resources to communities and to Alaskans,” said Commissioner Adam Crum. “While we have amended our plans, we will continue to find ways to serve Alaskans as we transition to a recovery phase. We all know there is still a ways to go, but we are in this great position because of Alaskans continuing to do the right thing by protecting themselves and each other, and we will come out stronger on the other side, together.”
Governor Dunleavy will continue to follow what happens throughout Alaska and our healthcare system, and reserves the right to declare a future emergency if the data indicates stricter measures are needed to protect the health and wellbeing of Alaskans.
Most Alaska families are suffering through a cold and isolated winter in Alaska, where they are homeschooling their children as best they can, while working two jobs and waiting for schools to reopen.
Parents report to authorities in Anchorage of the horrible depression and anxiety their children are suffering from during the Covid era, where many students are just now returning to school, but cannot see their friends through the face masks they all must wear for the entire day.
Some of these experiences are documented in a public meeting that was censored by YouTube, but is now available on the MustReadAlaska Rumble page.
Must Read Alaska has posted this video on Rumble after it was censored by YouTube.
But that’s not Dr. Anne Zink’s family. The Zink family has a Sprinter van that they outfitted and took off in November on a road trip, heading for Southern California, where the kids are learning to surf and rock climb, while completing their school work. Dad is evidently the chaperone for the adventure, while Mom Zink returned home to Alaska.
Zink is Alaska’s chief medical officer for the Department of Health and Social Services and is the key adviser to the governor on matters of Covid mitigation and control.
The adventure in “Van Life” high school are chronicled at the Four Alaskansblog, where apparently the family got the van across the Canadian border by telling guards that they were going through Canada to complete their education. (Pro tip: This may not work for average Alaskans; check before you head for the border with your van.)
The blog is the picture of privilege. While, Dr. Zink is remaining at home to keep the lid on Covid in Alaska, the family is on the adventure of a lifetime, with the teens taking over the writing and posting on the family travel blog.
Dr. Anne Zink has an active Twitter page to communicate Covid updates.
They have posted about surfing, climbing and exploring the Southwest.
Zink, meanwhile, was featured in a recent Washington Post story about vaccine distribution in the wild north:
Living the gypsy life might be an option for other Alaskans to adopt as they try to cope with the uncertainties of school closures and limited activities for their children. But most Alaskans have jobs that require them to stay in Alaska. This lifestyle is a rare privilege.
For most who adopt van life, it means giving up a lot of their worldly possessions. For others, it’s just a temporary adventure. Read more about van life at the blog gonomad.com
The Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center has apologized for having named five specific bars in downtown Ketchikan, in what was supposed to be an effort to alert people about possible Covid exposure.
“It was not the intent of the EOC to draw negative attention to the establishments or to imply that they had done anything wrong. The EOC is very aware of the hardships that these businesses have faced the past year, and we sincerely apologize for any perception that the EOC was calling out businesses in a negative light. In fact, the EOC is very pleased with the manner in which these establishments have worked with the EOC and Public Health, and have implemented employee testing protocols and mitigation plans for their businesses,” the agency wrote in a news release.
“In many of the cases identified last week, unfortunately, the nature of the operation and the length of potential interaction in those locations led to the difficulty in the contact tracing. The close contacts could not be identified by Public Health through the normal investigation, and an announcement of the commonly attended businesses became necessary. It was necessary to announce the risk to the public so that people could self-identify and proceed with quarantine and testing. Four of the five named businesses were contacted by Public Health prior to the announcement, and messages were left for the fifth business,” the EOC explained.
Local hospitality representatives had strenuously objected to the naming of bars, because they said it was just as likely that everyone who went to a bar also visited other businesses around Alaska’s First City.
Steve Schmidt, one of the founders of the Lincoln Project and a well-known national political operative, is the latest to resign from the disgraced organization that toppled Donald Trump.
Schmidt is known in Alaska circles because he was the key strategic adviser on the McCain for President campaign in 2008, and it was he who chose Alaska former Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate.
Schmidt is now a registered Democrat. One of his main partners in the Lincoln Project, John Weaver, was also an adviser on the McCain campaign, and this is where the plot thickens.
Schmidt and Weaver are the latest in a number of resignations from the Lincoln Project, which took credit for the defeat of Trump in 2020. They are both the original co-founders of the savage organization, which masqueraded as a Republican “never Trump” effort.
The scandal became known within the organization last June, but was covered up during the campaign season. Over recent weeks, the drumbeat against Weaver got louder as he was accused of sexually harassing more than a few young men. The allegations against Weaver are from at least 21 men, who said that Weaver sent them sexually suggestive messages. Some of the men said they were offered professional help by Weaver in exchange for sex. Additionally, questions are being raised about how the group spent its money in 2020.
Weaver has since said that he is gay, evidently excusing himself from harassing and enticing numerous young men, some of whom were his employees.
Schmidt and Weaver’s ties to Alaska didn’t end in 2008 with the spectacular defeat of Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin.
In 2020, their Lincoln Project spent millions of dollars to get Al Gross elected and Sen. Dan Sullivan defeated.
The Lincoln Project spent a known total of $4.277 million in that effort. In the end, Gross only received 43 percent of the vote.
Schmidt has made a living pushing false narratives about his political enemies, especially Trump, but now he has posted something on Twitter that he says is his “truth.”
“It was just a touch – a light one – and it lasted for only a moment. I was a 13-year-old boy at the Rock Hill Boy Scout Camp. His name was Ray, and he was the camp medic. The older scouts called him ‘Gay Ray,” and taunted and teased us about our inevitable encounter with him when the itch of the mosquito bites became too much to bear. It happened almost precisely like the older kids said it would. Covered in bites, I went to the Medical Cabin. He told me to take my clothes off. I complied. He looked at my body and examined the bites, just like they said he would. He began applying an ointment just like they said he would. I remember being paralyzed as his hands moved up my body and brushed over my penis. I remember all of this with perfect clarity up to the moment I was touched. The next part is fuzzier. I just know that I left. Then, I came back to camp, and I must have had a look on my face because I remember the laughing. The look on my face must have looked familiar to the other boys because it was the same one they must have had when they returned from Ray’s exam. Camp continued, and I made sure never to return to the Medical Cabin.
“When I got home, I told my parents. The adults huddled, and the collective decision they made was to deal with it internally. He wasn’t turned into the police because the consensus of the adults was that dealing with law enforcement would be traumatic for all of the boys involved. In the end, we were told that Ray wouldn’t return. I don’t know what happened to him, and even when the day came that I had the power, money and ability to find out and do something to him, or about him, I chose not to.
“Something else happened in that cabin that day. The extroverted little boy who walked in died; an introverted boy with deep trust issues walked out. Before that day, I have no memory of ever feeling anger. After that day – and despite the passage of so many years – the anger has never left. It’s always there; below the surface. It has risen up many times over the years.
“Later in life, that anger would immolate my faith in the Catholic Church. My faith had been diminished to a flicker of flame by the time I served in the White House. I remember feeling like something that had anchored me was stolen. I felt lost in a strange way, though at the time, I would never have described myself as particularly religious. I reached out to see if I could get an audience with the man who had presided over my Confirmation at St. Luke’s Church in North Plainfield, New Jersey. By this point, he was a Monsignor and the acting Auxiliary Bishop of the Metuchen Diocese. when I met with him in Washington, he was his Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick. Learning that the man I trusted to share my soul and the deepest memories of my violation was amongst the most prolific of the Catholic Church’s sex criminals permanently shattered my faith and left me estranged from God. It has taken nearly 16 years since that betrayal to find faith again, which I have during the process of my conversion to Judaism.
“A touch on a table at age 13 that lasted seconds has been a defining event in my life. It never went away. That moment bequeathed me the three companions of my life that are always close and often present: anger, shame and depression.…” his statement reads in part.
“I wish John Weaver was not a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, but as hard as I wish for that to be, I can’t change that he was. I am enormously proud of the Lincoln Project and what we have accomplished to-date. I believe we built the most successful and politically lethal SuperPAC in history. We built a movement with millions of people, and we played a decisive role in Donald Trump’s defeat.
“During these last weeks, I have been consumed by anger and rage as I have seen the attacks from the rancid collection of liars, thugs and fascists, including Donald Trump Jr. and Laura Ingraham, attack the Lincoln Project, my character and the character of my friends over John Weaver’s amoral predations.
“I am in a tough business, and I know what I signed up for. I am long past the moments of fear that gripped me when FBI agents showed up at my house to tell me I was on the hit list of the Trump bomber. The truth is that these attacks awakened all of my old companions at once – shame, anger and depression. For those around me, it is the anger that has been most visible. For those who love me, it has been the depression. Either way, it has not brought out my best self. I am not the daily manager of the Lincoln Project, but I am the senior leader. As the senior leader, it is my responsibility to set an example and to assume accountability.
I would like to apologize to Jennifer Horn. I let my anger turn a business dispute into a public war that has distracted from the fight against American fascism. Jennifer was an important and valuable member of our team. Truth be told, I didn’t interact with Jennifer very often, but I always enjoyed the occasions when we did. She deserved better from me. She deserved a leader who could restrain his anger. I am sorry for my failure. Yesterday, I was shown correspondence between Jennifer Horn and Amanda Becker, a reporter at The 19″‘ News. I was told it came from an anonymous source. That direct message should never have been made public. It is my job as the senior leader to accept responsibility for the tremendous misjudgment to release it. I apologize on behalf of the organization to both Jennifer Horn and Amanda Becker. I woke up this morning, and realized I’ve been fighting for a long time. lt’s taken a toll. I’m tired.
But Schmidt also said he was stepping aside to increase diversity in the organization:
“Presently, the Lincoln Project board is made up of four middle-aged white men. That composition doesn’t reflect our nation, nor our movement. I am resigning my seat on the Lincoln Project board to make room for the appointment of a female board member as the first step to reform and professionalize the Lincoln Project.
“The Lincoln Project was built to fight. It is my deepest hope that, despite the recent internal events that have distracted from our cause, you will entrust in us to continue to fight for what the entire Lincoln Project movement believes in: combatting the rising tide of fascism andauthoritarianism in this country.”
The Lincoln Project says it is hiring an outside investigator to look into Weaver’s behavior. And it appears that former employees of the grifter organization are ready to talk, and they may contradict Schmidt about what he knew and when he knew it.
