Alaska’s Legislative Ethics Committee Has Predictable Record of Targeting Conservatives, Christians


(Click image to visit the full list of decisions published by Alaska’s Ethics Committee)

 

If you knew absolutely nothing at all about Alaska’s Legislative Ethics Committee, you might find it remarkable that it spends the vast majority of its time prosecuting conservative, Republican legislators (at taxpayer expense of course).

In fact, according to the committee’s own website, every investigation posted to the committee’s website since 2020 has exclusively targeted conservative, Christian legislators. The more conservative you are, the more likely it is that the Ethics Committee will come knocking.

When you consider the political makeup of the committee, this should come as no surprise. While Republican outnumber Democrats 2-to-1 among Alaska voters, Democrats have outnumbered Republicans by at least 2-to-1 on the House and Senate Ethics Committees. In fact, there are fewer Republicans serving on the Ethics Committee than on any other committee in the legislature, and it has been that way for years. Even those new to politics might find this arrangement rather odd. I certainly found it odd when I served on that committee years ago.

At the heart of the corruption in the Alaska Legislature sits the Ethics Committee.

The five permanent members of the committee include one Democrat megadonor, two former Democrats who now identify as non-partisan, and no Republicans. It therefore comes as no surprise that most of the five members of the committee signed the petition to recall Mike Dunleavy.

In 2024, this is what the Alaska Supreme Court considers politically “neutral”. In fact, all five permanent members of the committee were hand-picked by the chief justice of the supreme court himself (no friend of Mike Dunleavy or of conservatives).

Of these five appointed members, most (including the Democrat megadonor) have either served on the committee or been paid by the committee, literally for decades:

Skip Cook, who chairs the Senate Ethics Committee, has served on the committee since 1998 (26 years).

Joyce Anderson has either worked for the committee or served on it since 2001 (23 years).

Conner Thomas has served on the committee since 1999 (25 years).

With these same three people working for each other and appointing each other to various leadership positions on the committee for literally decades, what could possibly go wrong?

The Solution
This year, the chief justice of the supreme court has made three more appointments to the Ethics Committee. He has appointed Skip Cook to another term on the committee, Joyce Anderson to another term on the committee, and Rachel Kelly to her first term on the committee. Again, none of his three appointees are Republicans.

By intentionally delaying these appointments until after the start of the legislative session, the chief justice is seeking to turn what would otherwise be a 3-year term on the committee into 4-year terms for each of his latest appointees.

The solution is simple. Legislators should say NO to each of these appointees.

Each of these appointees require confirmation from the legislature.

Legislators have no excuse for voting to perpetuate the continuation of this patently corrupt “committee”.

The legislature will be holding confirmation hearings for each of these appointees later today. Public testimony will be taken.

The hearing will begin at 1pm in the House Judiciary Committee, located in Room 120 of the State Capitol Building.

Those who cannot attend in person but would still like to testify can do so by phone:
Those in Anchorage should call: 907-563-9085
Those in Juneau should call: 907-586-9085
Those in other parts of the state should call: 844-586-9085

Starting at 1pm, the meeting will be livestreamed at https://akleg.gov/index.php#tab5