The Senate also rolled out a capital budget with an extra $4 million for public safety, the brewery battle is getting serious and all but one legislator has approved a bill dealing with sexual assault training.
The three bills had been sidelined amid a “Mini Mutiny” of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s meeting devolved on Saturday amid brinkmanship between the chair and its members.
This week it seemed like everyone wants to run for governor, or at least wanted us to believe that they do. Hosts Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar dig into all the gubernatorial race posturing as well as the fall out from the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision on Gov. Walker’s veto of PFD spending, the continued attacks on transgender folks at both the national and local level, and, of course, the Trump administration’s monumental Friday night news dump. Then we talk with former celebrity Alaska weatherman and current Alaska Marijuana Industry Association Executive Director Cary Carrigan about the state of the marijuana industry in Alaska. We may also get his expert take on Hurricane Harvey, and boy does he have a good one.
The Supreme Court rejected the argument brought by Anchorage Sen. Bill Wielechowski.
In case you’re not intimately familiar with the case, we’ve put together a primer on the lawsuit.
In the April 23 episode of Alaska’s most listened to political podcast, Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar discuss the state budget gridlock in Juneau, certification of Jim Minnery’s restroom initiative targeting transgender people in Anchorage, why Real ID matters, and a new poll showing how gubernatorial hopefuls might do in their primary races. We are also joined by State Senator Berta Gardner to talk about everything that is happening — or not happening — in the legislature.
In our April 7 episode, Casey Reynolds and Forrest Dunbar discuss what happened in Anchorage’s local elections now that all the votes are in, what is going on in the state budget and PFD reform efforts, and the state of internet privacy protection legislation. We are also joined by Assemblyman-elect Felix Rivera to talk about what he saw and heard on the campaign trail and his thoughts as a member of the LGBT community on legislators objecting to letting Drew Phoenix serve on the Alaska Human Rights Commission because he is transgender.
The legislative session shows no sign of ending anytime soon and those interested in running for Governor in 2018 can’t start raising money for another month, but that isn’t stopping speculation about whether the current occupant of the office, Governor Bill Walker, will run again and who might run against him.
In June, we looked at how Democrats could wrest power from Republicans in the State Senate, or at least create a bipartisan coalition.
The short version of that story is that, yes, there is a potential path for Democrats to have a role in senate leadership. It requires them winning at least two seats currently held by Republicans and getting at least three more to jump ship and organize with them, let’s not pretend it is the most likely of scenarios. But it is plausible.