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Alaska State Legislature House and Senate Democrats |
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http://www.akdemocrats.org Mike Doogan, Press Secretary (907) 465-3842 or 723-2572 (907) 465-5125 press@akdemocrats.org |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE · July 25, 2003 |
Longevity Bonus: Secret Votes Cloak Hidden Agendas
Democrat requests public disclosure of Republican special session votes
ANCHORAGE – Today Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) requested that the Legislative majority make public the results of the special session poll they conducted. The letter requests a list of who voted “yes” or “no” for a special session to override Governor Frank Murkowski’s veto of Alaska’s Longevity Bonus program.
In a letter to Senate President Gene Therriault (R-North Pole) and Speaker of the House Pete Kott (R-Eagle River), Representative Gara expressed displeasure that the vote of Republican members opposed to the Longevity Bonus would be kept secret.
“The public is entitled to know which, if any, Republicans would join the Democrats in protecting the Longevity Bonus program,” said Gara. “The Republican leadership should not be able to keep the votes of their party’s members a secret. The public has a right to know the votes of their elected officials.”
Earlier this month Democrats called on their Republican counterparts to join them in overriding the Governor’s veto.
To date Democratic legislators have expressed their intention to re-instate the Longevity Bonus.
Republican leaders stated yesterday that not enough of their party members would join with Democrats to override a veto. But the Republican leaders declined to make public the results of the poll they conducted among their members. The poll among legislators was required by statute because 25 percent of the legislature called for a special session; Democrats earlier this month sent enough requests to Therriault and Kott to require a full legislative poll.
(see Letter Attachment at top of page)
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 http://www.akdemocrats.org/Documents/072503_longevity_secret_votes.pdf · Additional information: Representative Les Gara's Letter Representative Les Gara |
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