SPECTRUM: Senate seat belongs to the people of the district

Dear Senators,

The Governor has inexplicably chosen to ignore the three nominations forwarded by the Alaska Republican Party (ARP) with respect to the vacancy in Senate District E.

When we learned of the resignation of Senator Dunleavy, the ARP moved with alacrity to solicit applicants, schedule a joint meeting of the 45-50 District Officers, and select three applicants to forward to the Governor. This was all accomplished by Tuesday, January 16.

We are now 24 days later, and without so much as a whisper of communication, the Governor has unilaterally picked a name out of the hat.

This "fly by the seat of your pants" approach to governing is certainly one of the reasons so many of his policies and initiatives fail.

If all three names submitted by the ARP were unacceptable to Governor Walker, there was an obvious alternative. Simply ask the ARP to reconsider and send some additional nominees.

At this point, we see no alternative to the strange action of the Governor but to stand firm with the people who have been elected to represent their Districts, the volunteers who serve in Senate District E.

I am absolutely confidant the Republican members of the Alaska State Senate will reject the Governor's high-handed, arrogant action.

My letter to you is to assure you that we remain ready to go back to the drawing board in light of the fact that the Governor has rejected our nominees: Rep. George Rauscher, Todd Smoldon and Thomas Braund.

This does give me a bit of an appreciation for the difficulty you must have with this Governor in developing legislation and policy. It is hard to move forward together when he operates in such an arbitrary and unilateral manner.

This Senate Seat does not belong personally to Governor Bill Walker.

It belongs to the people of the District. The people who elected a Republican Senator. Those people are represented by the 45-50 members of their District Committees. The Governor makes a choice (traditionally from that list) and the Republicans of the State Senate ensure the choice truly represents the people of the District.

The Governor has utterly failed in his duty, I am absolutely confidant the Republican members of the State Senate will not.

Sincerely,

Tuckerman Babcock

Chairman

Alaska Republican Party