Senate begins to take shape

Anchorage Republican Sen. Cathy Giessel will be president of the State Senate when the Legislature convenes in Juneau Jan. 15, Senate Republicans in the majority decided over the weekend.

Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, and Natasha von Imhof, R-Anch., will cochair the influential Senate Finance Committee under the Senate’s planned organization.

Giessel has chaired the Senate Resources Committee for several years and is familiar with petroleum and other natural resources issues and also has a professional background in the health field.

Stedman, a veteran legislator, and von Imhof, now in her second Senate, have finance backgrounds.,

Sen. Mia Costello, R-Anch. will be Senate Majority Leader and Fairbanks Sen. John Coghill, also Republican, will chair the Senate’s Rules Committee. Both are experienced legislators.

Democrats in the Senate minority have selected Anchorage Sen. Tom Begich as the new Senate Democratic leader. Begich, who had a background in education, is the brother of Mark Begich who recently lost his bid for governor when Republican Mike Dunleavy was elected Nov. 6.

Notable for his absence in the Senate Majority is Bethel Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat who often aligns with Republicans to be a member of the Finance committee.

Hoffman is an experienced legislature who is influential whether he is in the Majority or Minority, as he apparently will be in this Legislature

Senate Majority spokeswoman Rena Miller said other Majority members of the Senate Finance Committee will be named later this week or next week along with chairmanships of the Senate committees.

This organization is for the two year term of this Legislature.

Organization of the state House is meanwhile on hold pending the final outcome of one Fairbanks House seat where Republican Bart LeBron holds a slender five-vote lead over Kathryn Dodge, the Democrat. The final count of absentee ballots will be held later this week.

If LeBron wins Republicans will hold a narrow 21-19 majority in the 40-member state House, but that count includes Mat-Su’s Republican Rep. David Eastman who often votes independently of his GOP colleagues.

If Dodge wins the House will be split evenly at 20-20 still including Eastman among Republicans. At that point there would be a standoff between the two sides with no legislative business being done, even election of presiding officers or committee assignments, until a workable Majority is established.

It takes 21 votes of the 40-member state House to do business or pass a bill. If there are only 20 votes if favor of an actiob nothing happens.

It may have been premature but House Republicans did meet after the Nov. 6 election to announce the selection of Rep. Dave Talericio, R-Healy, as House Speaker and with Reps. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole and Lance Pruitt, R-Eagle River, as cochairs of the House Finance Committee.

However, that was while the LeBron-Dodge race in Fairbanks was up in the air, and the meeting of House Republicans happened without Eastman being present. Eastman has said that he opposes Talerico as Speaker.