Legislative assault on voter-approved initiative continues

MYRL THOMPSON/Juneau Report

March 25, 2007

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the weekly Juneau Report newsletter filed by Capitol watchdog and citizen lobbyist Myrl Thompson, a former independent candidate for the Legislature in House District 15. To inquire about receiving the full report, e-mail myrl@ak.net.

I should not have to editorialize too much on this subject. The information following this piece will speak volumes on the matter.

Both times that I ran for the state House of Representatives, I refused to take special interest group or out-of-state money. The reasons were obvious to me.

Most legislators realize that if you want to get elected, you should take the money and run. Then you can tell your constituents and lie to yourself that this money doesn't influence you.

Well they hope that the common citizen doesn't delve too deeply into this one. The fact is that large contributions do hold sway, in almost every case, otherwise large political donors would not keep contributing.

Let me explain a few things about the process. First of all, last session Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, tried to pass a reasonable tax on the cruise ship industry. The industry and his own party fought him tooth and nail on this.

I was in committee hearings last year and witnessed various votes on the subject. To tell you the truth, he got beat up pretty badly and voted down consistently.

Gatto stood up for Alaskans and faced the cruise ship industry with little help from his colleagues to try to get the industry to pay its fair share. The people of Alaska managed to get done what Carl started, through the initiative process. That recently passed initiative is currently under assault from the cruise ship industry with the help of large campaign donations to key members of the legislative majority.

Part of the initiative set up the &#8220ocean ranger” program, so cruise ships in Alaska waters would be monitored by independent on-board marine engineers. The cruise industry had been caught on major violations numerous times in recent years. So it is not surprising that they want to gut the recently passed initiative.

Here is what you need to know about the process in general to understand what the industry already knows and why they donate as they do.

Committee assignments are made by a vote of caucus members, with help from the Committee on Committees when necessary. The Speaker of the House assigns bills to various committees. The chairs of various committees with leadership help decide when and if a particular bill will be heard.

In committee, there have to be enough votes to move a bill out of committee for it to progress. The Rules Committee chair, with help from the leadership, decides whether to move a bill to the floor or hold it in their committee, possibly forever. If moved to the floor, the speaker decides when the bill will be brought up for floor debate or a vote.

With the above stated simplification, you can use the contributions listed below to see how the cruise ship industry is working their donation recipients to strip the &#8220ocean ranger” program from law.

Kyle Johansen, R-Ketchikan, and his Transportation Committee are sponsoring the bill to do just that. House Judiciary, chaired by Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, will hear the proposed legislation - House Bill 164 - on Wednesday.

It is scheduled to go to House Finance after that. House Finance is co-chaired by Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, and Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski.

Below are the donations that have &#8220no effect” on the process. The contributions are also claimed to be not at all connected to the assault on the recently passed initiative of the people.

You may wonder whom these legislators are representing. The choices are simple. It's either a large, well-financed, out-of-state industry or the already demonstrated will of the people of Alaska.

For more on this subject, visit this link for my Frontiersman piece from last Sunday: www.frontiersman.com/articles/2007/03/24/opinion/opinion2.txt

2006 campaign-year donations from cruise ship executives to Alaska legislators who sit on committees where industry bills related to weakening the cruise ship initiative are being or have been heard in 2007:

Kyle Johansen, $3,900

chair, Transportation

member, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism

Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, $3,300

co-chair, Finance

member, Committee on Committees

Ralph Samuels, R-Anchorage, $3,250

House majority leader

member, Judiciary

member, Committee on Committees

Mike Hawker, R-Anchorage, $3,000

member, Finance

Jay Ramras, R-Fairbanks, $2,850

chair, Judiciary

Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, $2,425

member, Transportation

member, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism

Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, $2,225

co-chair, Finance

member, Committee on Committees

John Coghill, R-Fairbanks, $2,250

chair, Rules

member, Committee on Committees

member, Judiciary

Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, $2,000

chair, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism

vice chair, Transportation

Richard Foster, D-Nome, $1,750

member, Finance

Craig Johnson, R-Anchorage, $1,625

member, Transportation

John Harris, R-Valdez/Mat-Su, $1,500

Speaker of the House

chair, Committee on Committees

member, Rules

Nancy Dahlstrom, R-Eagle River, $1,500

member, Judiciary

Bill Stoltze, R-Mat-Su/Chugiak, $1,450

member, Finance

Anna Fairclough, R-Anchorage, $1,350

member, Transportation

Mike Kelly, R-Fairbanks, $1,250

member, Finance

Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, $0

member, Transportation

member, Economic Development, Trade and Tourism

2006 campaign year contributions By Richard Fain, CEO Royal Caribbean Cruises Coral Gables FL

21,850

MCGUIRE, LESIL L 12/09/2005 250.00

STEVENS, GARY L 12/09/2005 250.00

THOMAS, JR., WILLIAM 12/09/2005 250.00

BUNDE, CON 12/09/2005 500.00

STEVENS, BEN A 12/09/2005 250.00

KELLY, MICHAEL P 12/09/2005 250.00

HARRIS, JOHN L 12/09/2005 250.00

SAMUELS, RALPH 12/09/2005 250.00

COGHILL, JOHN B. 12/09/2005 250.00

MCGUIRE, LESIL L. 12/09/2005 250.00

KOHRING, VIC 12/23/2005 250.00

NEUMAN, MARK A 12/23/2005 250.00

ROKEBERG, NORMAN 12/26/2005 250.00

DAHLSTROM, NANCY A 12/26/2005 350.00

OLSON, KURT 12/27/2005 500.00

HUGGINS, CHARLIE R 12/27/2005 500.00

THERRIAULT, GENE 12/28/2005 500.00

HOLM, JIM 12/29/2005 500.00

HAWKER, MICHAEL C 12/29/2005 250.00

ELKINS, JIM 12/30/2005 250.00

RAMRAS, JAY 12/30/2005 250.00

MEYER, KEVIN 12/30/2005 250.00

CHENAULT, CHARLES M. 01/02/2005 500.00

LEDOUX, GABRIELLE 01/03/2006 250.00

MEYER, KEVIN G 10/30/2006 750.00

WANAMAKER, RANDY 11/02/2006 500.00

GONNASON, JEFFREY A 11/03/2006 1000.00

WANAMAKER, RANDY 11/03/2006 500.00

LEDOUX, GABRIELLE 11/03/2006 1000.00

KOHRING, VIC 11/03/2006 500.00

PETERSON, DARWIN R 11/03/2006 500.00

NEUMAN, MARK A 11/03/2006 500.00

FAIRCLOUGH, ANNA I 11/03/2006 500.00

DAHLSTROM, NANCY A 11/03/2006 500.00

JOHNSON, CRAIG 11/03/2006 750.00

KOHRING, VIC 11/03/2006 500.00

HAWKER, MICHAEL C 11/03/2006 500.00

HOLM, JIM 11/04/2006 1000.00

STRAIT, STEVEN R 11/04/2006 500.00

MEYER, KEVIN G 11/04/2006 750.00

ROSES, BOB 11/04/2006 500.00

CHENAULT, CHARLES M 11/05/2006 500.00

STOLTZE, BILL 11/06/2006 500.00

COGHILL, JOHN B 11/06/2006 500.00

KELLY, MICHAEL P 11/06/2006 500.00

SAMUELS, RALPH 11/08/2006 1000.00

RAMRAS, JAY 11/08/2006 500.00

JOHANSEN, KYLE B 11/17/2006 500.00