Republicans punish another comrade for thinking for himself

Frontiersman editorial board

Once again we're treated to a round of "It's Gov. Frank Murkowski's ball, and if you don't like his rules, you can go home."

In one of the first press releases out of Juneau for the new legislative session, Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, announced some chairmanship changes in the House. The crux of the release was that Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, was removed as the chair of the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and as the vice-chair of the House Labor and Commerce Committee.

Lynn was the lone Republican to vote with the Democrats in favor of a special session to review Murkowski's veto of a bill relating the longevity bonus. Kott was quoted in the release as saying, "The conditions speak for themselves. Each member of the caucus agrees to the rules of the caucus prior to session. Sanctions are imposed when the agreed upon rules are violated." It would appear one of the rules is, "Vote the way the governor wants, or face the consequences." This isn't the first time a Republican has been punished for not fitting the administration's definition of team player. In November, Ketchikan bar owner Jim Elkins walked the plank, supposedly for making inappropriate comments on a radio program. Elkins had been tapped for the Senate seat in District A, but the seat was pulled out from under him and filled instead by Bert Stedman. The administration claimed they pulled Elkins' appointment because he'd suggested that he'd given money to Republican campaigns. In fact, he said that he'd helped raise a lot of money.

What may have actually led to Elkins' demise was the fact that he'd publicly criticized the governor's elimination of the longevity bonus. Are we detecting a pattern here?

Murkowski and the Republican caucus are on a mission. Nobody can fault them for that. This pattern of punishing or removing every person who fails to toe the party line, even once, is troubling, though. This is not a parliamentary style of government.

Our system allows voters to pick individual representatives, and while those representatives are most often affiliated with one party or another, we expect them to serve their constituents, rather than the party's hard line.

The heavy-handed tactics of the Republican party can only serve to discourage our legislators from acting as individuals. That may sound like a good idea to you … as long as your expectations fit within the Republican caucus' game plan.