Juneau Senate seat dispute may prompt legislation

Juneau now has a new senator after not being represented for weeks in the Alaska Senate, but some legislators are saying the state needs a new process for filling such vacancies.

"For us, we're just fortunate to have it over, but if something good could come out of it, it would be to see that no other district has to go through what Juneau just went through," said Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.

Juneau now has a respected former mayor with wide community support in Dennis Egan to replace former Sen. Kim Elton, who resigned to take a position in the Obama administration dealing with Alaska issues.

A process for filling vacancies that had worked for years proved vulnerable when Gov. Sarah Palin and Senate Democrats couldn't agree on a candidate, and both sides accused the other of breaking Alaska's long-standing practice.

It's a process in which many of the steps were dictated by tradition - but not by law - that left Juneau without representation until Palin agreed to nominate Egan as Juneau's new senator on the session's last day.

Sen. President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, said there are some "hiccups in the process" that might need to be resolved by new legislation. That might be to codify the traditional process, or it might be a new system, he said.

The process of replacing Elton got off to a troubled start when Juneau Democratic Party leaders broke from tradition and only nominated Kerttula as a replacement. That was unusual, but not unprecedented. Typically three recommendations have been submitted for the governor to choose from.

That single recommendation appeared to irritate Palin, who mentioned it repeatedly in the following weeks.

The governor responded with her own appointments that critics said did not follow tradition, such as appointing three people to the seat. Legislative attorneys said that move was invalid.

While governors are required by law to appoint members of the same party as the departing legislator to fill vacancies, two of Palin's appointees had re-registered as Democrats to be eligible for the appointment.

Stevens and others have said that codifying the process of having local party leaders make recommendations may be needed. Currently, that is done by tradition only.

Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, said he intends to introduce legislation setting up a process by which vacancies would be filled by special elections.

That's something other legislators said they opposed because it would likely take a minimum of 30 days to fill a seat. With the delays in filling the Juneau seat, some of those objections diminished.

Kerttula said she intends to study the issue while the legislature is out of session, and look at how other states fill vacancies.

"I lean toward having a special election," she said. "I know what we do now isn't a good process."

Palin had her own views about tradition and legality, and questioned whether the Legislature's confirmation process, which does not comply with the Alaska Open Meetings Act, was legal.

The Alaska Department of Law issued an opinion this week that was critical of the Legislature's secret process.

"While we recognized that there is a tradition of confirming such appointments in private, we have never agreed with this procedure and have doubts as to its constitutionality," acting Attorney General Richard Svobodny said in the opinion.

The appointment of Egan was the second for Palin as governor. Her first came with the replacement of former Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, after he resigned when faced with corruption charges.

It took Palin only a few days to appoint Wes Keller to that seat and a few more for him to be confirmed. She made no objection then when Keller, a Republican from her hometown of Wasilla, was confirmed in secret.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at523-2250 or patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.