By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Sitka’s Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins today expressed relief and excitement at the tie-breaking vote in the House this morning electing Kodiak Republican Louise Stutes as House speaker.
The vote broke the stalemate in the House on its organization for the next two years, though the details on how that will proceed are yet to be worked out, Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat, said.
Speaking of today’s vote to elect Stutes, Kreiss-Tomkins said by text message:
“No one was 100 percent sure until the votes were on the board.”
The tie was broken when Republican Rep. Kelly Merrick of Eagle River cast her vote for Stutes. Shortly afterward, Merrick, who is just beginning her second term in the House, issued a press release saying the reasons for her vote were to end the deadlock, allow the Legislature to move forward, and ensure the House speaker is a Republican.
“To be clear I have not joined the Alaska House Coalition,” she said in the press release. “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.”
Stutes was one of the handful of Republican members of the bipartisan ruling coalition of mostly Democrats and independents in the last legislative session.
Presently the 40-member House has two factions vying for leadership, one composed of 20 Republicans, and the other a coalition with Stutes the lone Republican joining four independents and 15 Democrats.
Kreiss-Tomkins for the past four years has been part of a majority bipartisan coalition of mostly Democrats and independent representatives, and has served as chairman of the House State Affairs Committee.
Earlier this week he told the Sentinel he and others in the House had been trying to find a path forward to break the stalemate. Josiah Patkotak, an independent representing Utqiagvik, was elected temporary speaker, which the Sitka Democrat saw as a hopeful sign.
Kreiss-Tomkins said the bipartisan coalition in the past was formed around those interested in coastal issues such as commercial fishing and ferries.
In today’s 21-vote majority electing Stutes as speaker, two Republicans joined 15 Democrats and four independents from Ketchikan, Dillingham, Anchorage and Utqiagvik.
Kreiss-Tomkins said at press time today that the election of Stutes is a “watershed” development, but everything else is still being figured out at this time.
“(We’re) taking it hour by hour,” Kreiss-Tomkins said in a text message.
