Recall group files signatures

ANCHORAGE -- Valley residents seeking to launch the state's first legislator recall completed their first step in the process Tuesday, and are now waiting for the Alaska Division of Elections to give them the go-ahead for the second step.

The "Ogan is So Gone" recall committee gathered nearly 2,200 signatures, more than 400 of which were gathered over the course of three days in the past week. The group is seeking to recall Sen. Scott Ogan, R-Mat-Su, who they claim "demonstrated corruption in office by actively promoting legislation directly benefiting business interests of his employer, Evergreen Resources, instead of protecting the private property and due process rights of his constituents."

They claim his "persistent and irreconcilable conflict," as a contractual worker for Evergreen, demonstrated "a failure in ethical judgment that shows lack of fitness to serve in public office, incompetence and neglect of duty."

Ogan has, in other venues, stated that he severed ties to Evergreen because of the perceived conflict, and has during this legislative session helped craft legislation to bring the coal-bed methane drilling industry back under more stringent traditional oil and gas drilling guidelines. He did not respond to a message requesting a comment for this story.

Recall group members said they see Ogan's efforts as political damage control, and noted that Senate Bill 312, which was sponsored by the Senate Resources Committee, chaired by Ogan, does not apply to existing or pending leases within the Mat-Su Borough.

"It leaves us in a position of defending ourselves against multi-billion dollar companies, if there are damages," said Lazy Mountain resident John Vinduska, one of a handful of recall supporters who dropped off the signatures at the division's office Tuesday.

According to staff at the division, the signatures turned in by the group will now be checked against voter registration rolls. If the requisite 1,273 signatures, and the signatures of at least 100 people who agreed to sign as sponsors are obtained, the contents of the application are reviewed by the Alaska Department of Law. Pending the department's decision, the division director either certifies or denies the application, and notifies the recall committee. If the application is certified, the division will print petition booklets, and the process of obtaining signatures from 3,183 registered voters -- 25 percent of the 12,730 voters who voted in District H in the most recent statewide race -- can begin.

When asked if he thought obtaining signatures twice would confuse or complicate the process, Ed Tompkins, also a Lazy Mountain resident, said he believed support for the recall was growing, and that obtaining the signatures a second time would pose little problem.

"I've talked to hundreds of people and there was a handful that said the senator was doing a good job," Tompkins said. "But 95 percent either did sign or couldn't because they weren't in the district. People would just see the 'Ogan is So Gone' sign and come right to you."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.