2020 Alaska legislative session

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Some states made changes to 2020 state legislative sessions and legislative activity in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
For a full list of changes, visit: Changes to state legislative session dates in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020.
Alaska: The Alaska State Legislature suspended its session, effective March 29, 2020, through May 18, 2020. The legislature adjourned on May 20, 2020.
Alaska State Legislature

Seal of Alaska.jpg
General information
Type:   State legislature
Term limits:   None
Session start:   January 21, 2020
Website:   Official Legislature Page
Leadership
Senate President:  
Catherine A. Giessel (R)
House Speaker:  Bryce Edgmon
Majority Leader:   Senate: Lyman Hoffman (D)
House: Steve Thompson (R)
Minority Leader:   Senate: Senate: Tom Begich (D)
House: Lance Pruitt (R)
Structure
Members:  20 (Senate), 40 (House)
Length of term:   4 years (Senate), 2 years (House)
Authority:   Art II, Alaska Constitution
Salary:   $50,400/year + per diem
Last election:  November 6, 2018
Next election:  November 3, 2020
Redistricting:  Alaska Redistricting Board
Meeting place:
Alaska capitol.jpg

In 2020, the Alaska State Legislature was scheduled to convene its legislative session on January 21, and adjorned on May 20.

Several state legislatures suspended their sessions or otherwise limited legislative activity in response to the coronavirus pandemic. On March 29, 2020, the Alaska State Legislature suspended its session, effective immediately and continuing through May 18, 2020. The legislature adjourned on May 20, 2020.[1][2]

At the start of the 2020, Alaska was one of 28 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Following the 2018 election, Republicans had a 13-7 majority in the Senate and a 23-16 majority in the House. Democrats formed a majority coalition with four members of the Republican Party and two unaffiliated candidates in the House, meaning neither party held a state government trifecta. Republicans controlled the governorship.

At the beginning of the 2020 legislative session:
  • Republicans held a majority in the Alaska state Senate.
  • 15 Democrats, four Republicans, and two unaffiliated members held a majority coalition in the state House.
  • Alaska was one of 14 states with a divided government.
  • Alaska’s governor was Republican Mike Dunleavy.

    • Black.png Click the links to read more about the 2020 state Senate and state House elections.
    Black.png Click the links to read more about the 2018 state Senate and state House elections.

    Partisan control in 2020

    See also: State government trifectas

    Alaska was one of 14 states without a state government trifectas at the start of 2020 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Alaska was also one of 28 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Alaska State Legislature in the 2020 legislative session.

    Alaska State Senate

    Party As of January 2020
         Democratic Party 7
         Republican Party 13
    Total 20

    From Alaska's statehood in 1959 to 2020, control of the Alaska State Senate was competitive. Of the 31 elections held between 1958 and 2018, 18 left the two parties within four seats of each other. However, control of the chamber was not always determined by the partisan split. For example, from 2007 to 2012, a bipartisan coalition comprised mostly of Democrats controlled the chamber even though Republicans either had the numerical majority or the chamber was split 10-10. Only in the elections after 2012 did Republicans begin holding both numerical and governing majorities. The table below shows the partisan history of the Alaska State Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2018. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Alaska State Senate election results: 1992-2018

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18
    Democrats 9 8 7 5 6 8 8 9* 10* 10* 7 6 6 7
    Republicans 10 12 13 15 14 11 12 11 10 10 13 14 14 13
    Independents 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

    *Chamber controlled by bipartisan governing coalition

    From 1992 to 2020, Republicans had numerical majorities in the Alaska Senate after all but two elections that split the chamber 10-10, but they did not necessarily control the chamber whenever they had a numerical majority. Going into the 1990s, Democrats had not held a numerical majority since the 1980 elections. Republicans continued to maintain majorities, with their high point being a 15-5 advantage following the 1998 elections. Their control weakened after that as they saw their majority reduce to 11-9 after the 2006 elections. It was in the aftermath of that election that Republican Lyda Green assembled a bipartisan coalition that included all nine Senate Democrats and six Republicans. The coalition elected Green as president. She did not run for re-election in 2008, in which year the chamber reached a 10-10 split. However, the bipartisan group maintained control of the chamber, sometimes working against the priorities of Republican Gov. Sean Parnell.[3]

    In 2012, Republicans retook control of the Alaska Senate with a 13-7 majority, effectively ending the bipartisan group that Green had established. Although some rural Democrats joined with the new Republican majority, they did not have the same influence over the agenda that Democrats previously had.[4] Republicans expanded their majority in 2014 and 2016 by winning a 14-6 majority, just one seat away from their 1998 high point. In 2018, Democrats regained control of one seat.[5]

    Alaska House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2020
         Democratic Party 15
         Republican Party 22
         Independent 2
         Vacancies 1
    Total 40

    From when Alaska gained statehood in 1959 to 2020, there were two eras of partisan control in the state House, one for each major party. From 1960 to 1994, Democrats enjoyed almost uninterrupted control of the chamber, losing their majority in just two elections: 1966 and 1982. 1994 marked the beginning of the next era, with Republicans winning control every year until 2016. That year, Republicans won a numerical majority, but Democrats gained effective control of the chamber through a bipartisan governing coalition. After the 2018 elections, the parties split control of the House. The table below shows the partisan history of the Alaska House of Representatives following every general election from 1992 to 2018. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Alaska House of Representatives election results: 1992-2018

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18**
    Democrats 20 17 16 14 13 13 14 17 18 16 15 16 17* 16
    Republicans 18 22 24 26 27 27 26 23 22 24 25 23 21 23
    Independents 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1

    *17 Democrats, three Republicans, and two independents formed a 22-member governing coalition.

    **15 Democrats, four Republicans, one independent, and Speaker Bryce Edgmon, who changed his party affiliation from Democratic to unenrolled on February 11, formed a 21-member governing coalition.

    The Democratic-controlled era of the Alaska House began to unravel in the 1980s as Republicans closed the long-standing seat gap between the parties. In 1994, Republican gained a five-seat advantage and began their own period of control. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Republicans expanded their seat advantage to double-digits, controlling as many as 27 of the chamber's 40 seats after the 2000 and 2002 elections. The 2006 and 2008 elections gave a boost to the Democrats, putting them just four seats behind the Republicans. However, the elections from 2010 to 2014 widened the gap between the parties.

    In 2016, Republicans lost two seats, bringing their caucus to 21 members — the bare minimum for a majority. However, their majority came apart when three Republicans — Paul Seaton, Louise Stutes, and Gabrielle LeDoux — left the caucus to join 17 Democrats and two independents in a majority coalition. According to Seaton, the majority coalition was constructed around a shared vision of fiscal policy, with members wanting to decrease spending, restructure Alaska's Permanent Fund, and institute a broad-based tax. The coalition elected Democrat Bryce Edgmon as speaker of the house.[6]

    After the 2018 elections, Republicans held 23 seats in the chamber, with 16 Democrats and one independent. On February 11, 2019, Edgmon changed his party affiliation from Democratic to unenrolled. Three days later, Edgmon, the chamber's remaining 15 Democrats, four Republicans, one independent officeholder voted to elect Edgmon speaker again. The parties then split control of key leadership positions in a power-sharing agreement.

    Leadership in 2020

    Alaska State Senate

    Alaska House of Representatives

    Regular session

    The following widget shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2020 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria in 2020. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Alaska state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2020 legislative session, there were 27 standing committees in Alaska's state government, including seven joint legislative committees, 10 state Senate committees, and 10 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees


    Senate committees


    House committees


    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Alaska Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XIII of the Alaska Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Alaska

    The Alaska Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Alaska requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments. Alaskans do not have the power to use a citizen initiative to amend the state's constitution. The power of initiative in Alaska is restricted to proposing state statutes.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds vote in each legislative chamber of the Alaska State Legislature during one legislative session to refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 27 votes in the Alaska House of Representatives and 14 votes in the Alaska State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Section 3 of Article 13 of the Alaska Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot every 10 years starting in 1970. Alaska is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Alaska 10 years 2022 2032



    Historical context:

    • A total of 54 measures appeared on statewide ballots in Alaska from 1995 to 2018.
    • From 1996 to 2018, the number of measures on even-year statewide ballots ranged from one to seven.
    • Between 1996 and 2018, an average of four measures appeared on the ballot in Alaska during even-numbered election years.
    • Between 1996 and 2018, 55.77 percent (29 of 52) of the total number of measures that appeared on statewide ballots during even-numbered years were approved, and about 44.23 percent (23 of 52) were defeated.


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Alaska.

    Alaska Party Control: 1992-2025
    No Democratic trifectas  •  Six years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor I I R D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R I I I I R R R R R R R
    Senate S R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R S S S
    House D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D S S S S S S S

    See also

    Elections Alaska State Government State Legislatures State Politics
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    Alaska State Flag-Close Up.jpg
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    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Anchorage Daily News, "Alaska Legislature approves $4.5 billion budget plus $1,000 Permanent Fund dividend, then departs Juneau," March 29, 2020
    2. ↑ Multistate, "2020 Legislative Session Dates," last updated May 20, 2020
    3. ↑ McClatchy DC, "Tea party goes after Alaska's bipartisan Senate coalition," July 9, 2012
    4. ↑ Alaska Commons, "Day 98: Or, Why I Miss the Bipartisan Working Group," April 26, 2016
    5. ↑ Alaska Dispatch News, "Alaska House will be run by coalition while Senate remains under Republican control," November 10, 2016
    6. ↑ Alaska Dispatch News, "Alaska House will be run by coalition while Senate remains under Republican control," November 10, 2016
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