Delegation heads to Juneau

MAT-SU -- The Valley delegation is sitting strong going into the 23rd session of the Alaska Legislature, with several members in positions of power and the potential of more to come.

Members of the House and Senate Republicans both met Thursday, deciding who would hold key positions in the two bodies. In the Senate, three Anchorage-area races are still very much up in the air and the 17 elected senators felt it wisest to just choose the key members and wait until every race was settled to divide up the remaining seats.

Sen. Gene Therriault, R-North Pole, was selected as the Senate president, a position held last year by Sen. Rick Halford, R-Chugiak.

Although Therriault said Friday that the Valley represents only a portion of his large district, he plans to find out how he can best support his Mat-Su constituents.

"I don't see myself, with the little bit of the district that I have, being a leader, but will continue to go back to the delegation," Therriault said. "I have a lot to learn yet on Valley issues, and I plan on turning to the rest of the Valley delegation on the dynamic of what needs to be done."

Sen. Lyda Green, R-Mat-Su, was successful in her request for a position of power in the 23rd Legislature. As the co-chair of the Senate Finance committee, she will be responsible for overseeing the state's operating budget as it passes through the Senate. Green said Friday she's looking forward to the new position.

"You get so much insight into all the departments and all of their budgets," Green said.

Considering the political wrangling over last year's operating budget -- with nine Mat-Su parks closed and positions cut at the Willow Department of Transportation maintenance station, Green has a lot of work ahead of her. One of the first tasks she faces may be an early-session discussion about potential needs for supplemental funding.

"I think there'll be some lively discussion about it," Green said of the supplemental funding. "I think its ironic, based on the type of winter we've had so far, nothing's been expended in road maintenance so far. I would say anything [DOT] did was premature … but I think there's going to be a lot of stuff to watch and look out for."

Representative-turned-senator, Scott Ogan, R-Mat-Su, has yet to learn which committees he'll be assigned over the next two years. The senator has a senior seat on Alaska's Energy Council and has made his bid for the chairmanship known, but a decision on the council's leadership will likely not be made until December, when the outcome of the three remaining Senate races is known.

Ultimately, Ogan said he's looking forward to seeing what can be accomplished with a Republican-led House, Senate and administration.

"It's been a heady few days and I'm extremely excited about having Murkowski in there," Ogan said. "[But] we could be our own worst enemies, and we need to do this all-Republican leadership with thoughtful deliberation."

In what several House members said was a close silent ballot, Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, was selected as the new Speaker of the House. Also tapped for key positions were Rep. Lisa Murkowski, R-Anchorage, who won her bid for the House Majority leader seat, and Reps. John Harris, R-Valdez, and Bill Williams, R-Saxman, who will serve as House Finance committee co-chairs.

Perhaps the most notable coup for the Valley delegation in the House was that made by newcomer Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer. Gatto, one of 11 new representatives who will gavel in this January, secured the chairmanship of the House's special committee on education and was tapped as vice-chair of the House Health, Education and Social Services committee. He'll also serve as a member of the Labor and Commerce committee and the Resources committee.

"I came within one vote of chairman of HESS," Gatto said Friday. "Everybody I talked to said they wanted me [on their committee]."

Excitement aside, Gatto said he recognizes the weighty task ahead of him as chair of education. At the end of this month, he said, a key education report will be out, which will likely result in an evaluation of the current methods of funding education in Alaska. Another important task his committee will deal with, he said, will be helping the state come in to line with federal regulations stemming from the No Child Left Behind Act.

Rep. Beverly Masek, R-Willow, Friday, applauded Gatto for his efforts.

"He did a great job," Masek said. "I think our Valley is pretty well represented."

Masek, Thursday, was selected to serve as vice-chair of the House Resources committee, vice-chair of the Legislative Council committee and vice-chair of the special committee on Military and Veterans' Affairs. She will also serve as a member of the House Transportation committee. Legislative Council, she said, is the only committee she is new to -- she has been a member of the other three committees for most of her eight-year tenure.

Masek is one of just two members of the Valley delegation serving on the House Transportation committee. During the last round of committee assignments, Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, Ogan and Masek were all tapped to serve on the committee. Not having that chairmanship, Masek said, should not adversely affect Valley residents.

"Having a chairmanship doesn't necessarily guarantee anything," Masek said. "We each have a vote and we each have representation on the committee. I think we've really done well, despite that there were 28 of us again in the majority."

Kohring holds the Valley's second seat on the House Transportation committee, a seat on the joint Legislative Budget and Audit committee, as well as a membership of the Special Committee on Economic Development, Trade and Tourism. But what the eight-year House member said he's most looking forward to is his chairmanship of the House's Special Committee on Oil and Gas.

"Most of these positions are contested," Kohring said, "and mine was no exception. I was fortunate enough to win the votes of my colleagues."

Kohring said the chairmanship, as well as his other committee memberships, stand to help him move forward on the ideas he campaigned on -- building the economy. Through the Oil and Gas Committee, he said, he'll be able to help pursue the natural gas line voters stood behind, in addition to working toward beginning oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He cited discussions he's had with officials from Evergreen Resources, a company that he said now has three exploratory wells underway in the Valley. Kohring said in working with Evergreen, he hopes to help move resource industries forward in the Valley.

"I'm working with them in crafting legislation that helps streamline the permitting procedures," Kohring said. Evergreen, he said, had to fill out thousands of pages of permitting applications and waited several months for approval to drill one gas line, while the same process, in Evergreen's home-state of Colorado, took fewer than 20 pages and was finished in a few weeks. "We feel that's too much bureaucracy -- too much red tape."

Holding the Valley's remaining House seat is newcomer Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak. Stoltze will serve as a member of the House Finance committee, which makes key funding decisions on the operating and capital budget, as well as every bill that has a fiscal note, or need for funds, attached.

"This was my first choice," Stoltze said of the committeeship. "I thought it was important that the region have the seat, and I got consensus from the rest of the delegation."

While Stoltze is no newcomer to the ins and outs of the legislative process -- he served as a legislative aide to former Chugiak senator Rick Halford for a number of years -- Stoltze said he's looking forward to seeing what it's like on the other side of the desk.

"I've worked with the Valley delegation before, although this will be the first time I've served with them," Stoltze said. "I consider this a Valley seat, and I'm going to be working with them and making sure Valley priorities are addressed."