Day after day, sessions of the Alaska State House have been short affairs, seeking to successfully nominate someone as the Speaker of the House. Thursday marked the day when the perpetual 20-20 tie vote was broken with a 21-19 vote, solidifying Louise Stutes to serve as Speaker of the House.
The vote that changed the deadlock came from Representative Kelly Merrick of Eagle River. Shortly after casting the vote, she explained her goals in a press release: “To be clear, I have not joined the Alaska House Coalition. However, like most Alaskans, I have been frustrated by taking the same fruitless votes day after day and I felt we could no longer afford to delay extending the Governor’s emergency disaster declaration, crafting a fiscally conservative budget, and passing the construction jobs bill.”
As she has not joined the majority coalition, there are still question marks about legislation moving through the House as smoothly as it has in previous years. Merrick’s aim is to allow consensus legislation to at least have an opportunity to make progress, such as the Governor’s extension of the COVID-19 disaster declaration.
