Back when I managed the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, someone sent me a promo pamphlet about a book purporting to teach power techniques for CEOs. The governor must have read the book. Legislative leaders must not have.
     Here's what the guv learned and leg leaders didn't: maintain strict control of the message and maintain strict control of the agenda. He's doing both, so far, during this special session to review the concepts in his yet-to-be signed gas line contract with three multi-national oil and gas companies.
     If the governor can control message and agenda, he can be the most equal of the three branches of government. (He's already demonstrated his dominance of the third branch, the judiciary, by refusing to release his gas line contract after the court ordered it set free.)
     I do understand the governor has the right to call a special session of the legislature. Article II, Section 9 of Alaska's constitution provides: "special sessions may be called by the governor. . . At special sessions called by the governor, legislation shall be limited to subjects designated in his proclamation calling the session." He can call us into special session and can limit the topics but cannot compel the order of business or the manner in which the legislature deals with the topics presented.
     Unless, of course, legislative leadership allows it. They have. In this special session to consider the gas line contract, the governor's singing "I'll Do It My Way" and legislative leaders are humming in the background.
     The governor's way is to:

• chose who presents to the legislature;
• wind up the keys in the back of his presenters;
• set the schedule;
• prepare the information packets;
• limit questions to his minions to 3X5 cards (one question per card, please, and no follow ups);
• mandate that answers to legislative questions are answered only at the end of a mind-numbing day;
• tell legislators when to show up for his presentations;
• have his staff in the wings to start the clapping after each administration presentation;
• tell legislators when to take 10-minute bathroom breaks; and
• allow nary a skeptic or independent analyst to present to the legislature.

     I'll just bet he treated oil company CEOs the same way he's treating the legislature when he hammered out a gas line contract that contains a lot of government paid-for incentives. Negotiations probably went something like this: "Sorry, you'll just have to sit still while my commissioner finishes reading his power point slides" (Frank). "But I have to take a number one break and besides, I need to get some more 3X5 cards" (BP's Sir John Browne).
     Let's face it, in this special session, the "governor proposes and legislature disposes" model is turned on its head. In a world where the three branches of government are really co-equal: the legislature calls witnesses not lecturers; legislators and staff pick and prepare briefing materials; committee chairs control the gavel; questions on complex issues aren't confined to small cards; questions are asked when pertinent not when convenient; and there's a public comment period where anyone, not just the governor's appointees, can testify.
     If the governor reads my newsletters, by this point he's probably sputtering that I'm being unfair. He'll say this is simply a 10-day learning period and then the legislature is free to take the reins. But I'll bet there's a full chapter in his CEO/power book that covers the premise: "if you can't set the stage and win in 10 days, you don't deserve to be a CEO." That chapter's probably chock full of folksy anecdotes about controlling hearts and minds in 10 days or less--"Hey, we all know couples who've consummated a relationship in less than 10 days. Heck, we probably even know couples who consummated their relationship under sanction of marriage in less then 10 days."
     Well we're three days into this special session. Potentially, another 27 days remain. It's time legislative leaders read the CEO power book (or have staff read the book and summarize). It's time legislative leaders set their own agendas so we can have an independent look at the governor's concession contract.
     After all, Alaskans expect us to exercise our own judgment when it comes to their futures.

Phone: (907) 465-4947 Fax: (907) 465-2108 Mail: Sen. Kim Elton, State Capitol Juneau, AK 99801   Got a scoop? Call or email your tips and suggestions to any of the email addresses below: Email: Senator.Kim.Elton Jesse.Kiehl Paula.Cadiente Web: http://elton.akdemocrats.org

Capitol Undercurrents  

Boring--Rep. Eric Croft yesterday noted he was thinking about seeking a legal opinion to clarify if the administration is violating the Geneva Conventions with their stultifying gas line presentations. Sitting through hours of administration talking heads is tortuous, Croft contends. It's almost unanimous (those three or four legislators who mercifully fell asleep were not allowed to vote) that the administration give up it's policy of rendition, let us go home and simply send us the transcripts. We can all read.

A Ms. Cleo prediction--It's passing odd that the governor did not add oil taxes to his call for a special session given the implosion of the tax bill on the last night of the regular session. (That's when the senate, in a couple of bi-partisan votes, refused to pass a lenient tax bill without seeing the gas line contract it would be rolled into.) My guess is the guv will add the tax issue to his special session call close to the end of the special session. That tactic gives him more sway because adding it late creates more chaos and chaos is the foe of thoughtfulness and contemplation.

Hint of things to come?--One of the folks in my office was polled last night by a firm out of Portland, Oregon. Portland is home to a polling company frequently used by Alaska Republicans. He remembers two of the questions with some precision. The first question he remembered was "If Frank Murkowski's oil tax passes (it's an extra $1 billion per year), would that make you feel more or less positive about him?" The second question he remembered was "If you knew each of the following were true about Frank Murkowski, would you be more or less likely to vote for him in November: he increased education funding 30 percent for K-12 education and 15 percent for UA; Tony Knowles left the state with a $1 billion deficit while Frank Murkowski made tough choices and balanced the budget; he reduced time to permit without changing environmental protections. Wow, when you put things that way, it makes you wonder why he's the least popular governor in the U.S. with the exception of Ohio's indicted governor.