AK State House: A Democratic-led coalition currently holds 22 of the 40 seats in Alaska’s state House of Representatives even though the GOP members nominally are in the majority, but national Republicans are trying to rectify that situation by defeating several rogue incumbents in Tuesday’s primaries.
The Anchorage Daily News’ James Brooks reports that the Republican State Leadership Committee and GOPAC have spent a total of $165,000, which he calls “a huge amount for the Alaska legislative races.” On the other side are unions, which are a powerful force in local politics and are taking action to protect the GOP coalition members.
Despite the national GOP’s outrage over the state of affairs, coalition politics are nothing new in Alaska. Democrats and a group of Republicans ran the state Senate from the start of 2007 through the 2012 elections, but mainline Republicans retook control that year and have held the upper chamber ever since. In 2016, though, all 17 Democrats in the 40-member state House, as well as three Republicans and two independents, banded together to form a majority that elected Democratic state Rep. Bryce Edgmon speaker.
Republicans seized a nominal 23-seat majority in the 2018 elections, and for a while, those results appeared to spell the end of another bipartisan alliance—and give the GOP its lone pickup of a legislative chamber that cycle. However, Republicans simply could not find a candidate for speaker who could command a majority.
The deadlock lasted through February of the following year, a full third of the way through the legislature's 90-day session. Edgmon, though, dropped his party affiliation and formally became an independent, a move that made it easier for him to win GOP support. Ultimately, a new coalition was formed that included all 15 Democrats, two independents, and eight Republicans, which gave it a 25-15 majority.
However, the alliance has shrunk by three since then. In March of 2019, GOP state Gabrielle LeDoux was stripped of her committee assignments after she voted against the chamber’s leaders on the budget, though she still isn’t part of the regular GOP caucus. GOP state Rep. Tammie Wilson later resigned and was succeeded this winter by Mike Prax, an ardent conservative who had no interest in taking part in the coalition.
The coalition also tragically lost another one of its members in late July when state Rep. Gary Knopp was killed in a mid-air collision. Knopp, whose name will remain on the ballot, was facing two GOP primary opponents, and if he wins posthumously on Tuesday, Republicans will be able to petition to choose a replacement nominee. House District 30, which is located in Kenai is the south-central part of the state, backed Donald Trump 71-21.
As Brooks reports, several Republican coalition members also face notable opposition. One major target is state Rep. Chuck Kopp, who holds a 52-40 Trump seat in Anchorage.
Labor is also working to renominate state Rep. Jennifer Johnston, who represents a 49-43 Trump seat that’s also in Anchorage. LeDoux, whose own Anchorage district voted for Trump 52-38, also maintains labor support even though she no longer is part of any alliance and was charged with voter misconduct back in March.
State Rep. David Eastman also faces a tough GOP primary battle even though he isn’t part of the coalition. However, his intra-party critics remember how, after the 2018 election, he said he wouldn’t back a GOP speaker without some preconditions. Eastman was supposed to be one of the 21 Republicans who was to form the new majority, and his enemies blame him for causing the deadlock that eventually led to Edgmon becoming speaker.
Since then, Eastman has spoken against a number of his party’s priorities, and House Minority Leader Lance Pruitt announced in March that he was on “probation.” Eastman’s HD-10, which is based in Sarah Palin’s old Wasilla stomping grounds, favored Trump 71-21.