Politics

Murkowski weighs in on marijuana, minimum wage and Alaska's general election

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski weighed in on marijuana legalization, raising the federal minimum wage, and whether she will be supporting any Alaska Republican candidates in the 2014 primary and general elections during a press conference in downtown Anchorage Monday afternoon.

In the Aug. 19 primary election, Alaskans will decide several statewide issues:

• Whether to legalize recreational marijuana use;

• Raising Alaska's minimum wage from $7.75 an hour to $8.75 an hour in 2015, increased to $9.75 in 2016 and further increases tied to inflation in subsequent years, if the initiative submitted Friday is certified by Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell;

• The SB 21 referendum, which seeks to roll back the changes to oil taxes that passed the Legislature in 2013;

Another initiative that requires lawmakers to approve any mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region by passing a law ensuring it won't threaten the area's salmon fisheries.

Alongside these ballot measures will be a host of candidates who have announced their campaigns for governor and lieutenant governor. Murkowski said she won't be supporting any Republican candidate during the primary election. Whether Murkowski will endorse the Republican candidate during the general election against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich depends on who wins the primary.

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"If Joe Miller wins, I'm not probably going to be working too hard," she said. Murkowski lost to Miller in the 2010 Republican primary before conducting a write-in campaign that won her the general election and kept her in office.

In contrast to Begich and Rep. Don Young, Murkowski spoke against marijuana legalization in Alaska. Referencing her past work with the nonprofit organization Alaskans for Drug-Free Youth, which worked to re-criminalize marijuana during her tenure with the organization, she said, "My position hasn't changed."

She cited the conflict of federal law, under which cannabis remains illegal, and state laws in Colorado and Washington, two states which have both legalized recreational marijuana use. Murkowski believes that conflict is "going to create a lot more problems than what we're seeing right now," she said.

"With all of the difficulties that we face as a state when it comes to substance abuse, why would we do anything to make it worse by saying this particular drug is OK, too? We've got enough problems with alcohol," Murkowski said.

Both Begich and Young have both said that they will support whatever Alaskans decide in August when it comes to legalizing marijuana.

When asked whether she supports raising the Alaska minimum wage -- another initiative that, if certified, will go before voters on the August primary ballot -- Murkowski said that her focus is on work being done on a national level to raise the federal minimum wage.

"I think that we do have room to increase the federal minimum wage," Murkowski said, but that any law must be crafted in a way that is beneficial to the worker, employer and economy.

Whether raising the minimum wage comes at a state or federal level, "let's make sure we do this right," she said. While the measure might come before the Senate during Congress' next work session, she expressed "less optimism" that any minimum wage legislation would see movement in the U.S. House.

Contact Laurel Andrews at laurel(at)alaskadispatch.com. Follow her on Twitter @Laurel_Andrews

Laurel Andrews

Laurel Andrews was a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in October 2018.

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