A faction of Republicans in the Alaska House of Representatives has formed a "freedom caucus" that will focus on states' rights, Medicaid and budgeting as the state faces a fiscal crisis.
Centered in the conservative Mat-Su, the caucus will provide members with a forum to compare notes and promote conservative ideas without the constraints of a more "political setting," said Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, one of the group's founders.
"It helps to be able to test your talking points on people that aren't going to throw you out," he said. "You need a sounding board sometimes -- that's the bottom line."
For now, the caucus has three other members, all conservative Republicans in the party's majority organization in the House: Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbold, the group's chair; Palmer Rep. Shelley Hughes; and Wasilla Rep. Cathy Tilton.
Reinbold said more invitations have been extended, and an early meeting attracted additional attendees -- though none has joined yet. No effort has been made to organize a similar caucus in the Senate, she added.
The group's loose rules cap weekly meetings at an hour and ask members to become issue experts, Reinbold said. Rumors that members would be required to bring a Bible to meetings were not true, though they're encouraged to bring "any form of wisdom," Reinbold added. She gave one of her favorite quotes as an example: "If you want your government to leave you alone, don't leave your government alone."
"Our ultimate goal is to protect the rights of the people and defend freedom," Reinbold said.
She said the group doesn't aim to compete with the Republican majority organization -- it simply will examine issues through "conservative eyes," she said. Gov. Bill Walker, for example, wants to expand the Medicaid insurance program to give about 40,000 low-income Alaskans access to health coverage but Reinbold pointed out that 151,000 people are already enrolled in the program.
"We have to ask, is that sustainable, and can we really afford to put more on, knowing that the federal debt is $18 trillion, $19 trillion dollars?" Reinbold asked. (The national debt topped $18 trillion recently.)
In a phone interview, Hughes said she expected the group to make the state budget its biggest focus.
Alaska faces a $3.5 billion deficit this year after a sharp drop in oil prices, and budget discussion and debate have already consumed the attention of many lawmakers and Walker's administration in advance of the legislative session, which begins next month.
The Legislature's Republican leadership sent Walker a letter last week urging him to take "immediate action" to cut the budget.
Asked how the new caucus' focus on cutting the budget would be any different from their colleagues', Hughes responded. "There were some of us who talked about doing that in the last couple of years, and we didn't make as much progress as we would have liked."
"That was one of the reasons I was interested in the freedom caucus," she said.
Keller said one of the group's priorities is "to have a budget that is not in deficit."
"Many give that lip service but that has to translate into what happens when it comes down to a particular issue," he said. "The principle's easy: If you don't have the money, you can't spend it."
Experts have said that closing the state's $3.5 billion budget gap will either require new forms of revenue -- politically unpopular options like income or sales taxes, or using some of the earnings from the Alaska Permanent Fund -- or massive cuts to state programs. New revenue sources are "hardly worth consideration," Keller said, adding that his focus instead will be "painfully looking at the entitlements" run by the state's education and health and social services departments -- and he added that the freedom caucus would be a venue for those discussions.
A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, said Chenault couldn't be reached for comment. A staff member for incoming House Majority Leader Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, said Millett was unavailable.
In the past, other groups outside typical majority or minority legislative organizations have formed along ideological or geographical lines, from a large fiscal policy caucus a decade ago to the present-day Interior, Anchorage and Bush caucuses.
Individual factions have also emerged within the GOP before -- in 2012, establishment members were pitted against the emergent tea party, and that rift led to a battle over the state Republican Party chairmanship.
Hughes said the new group ultimately wants its ideas to get traction outside the four-member caucus.
"We don't want to spin our wheels with something we can't get done," she said. "There's nothing exclusive about this group."
The current House majority leader, Lance Pruitt, R-Anchorage, said he attended an early freedom caucus meeting and doesn't object to "conservatives trying to make sure that they're standing together on some of their issues."
As to whether he'd ultimately join, he said, "It depends on the direction that they choose to go."
"I don't want to be part of anything that is potentially going to bring division," he said. But, he added, "If their goal is just trying to share some ideas on ways to cut the budget, and ways to handle some of the challenges we're going to be facing, I'd welcome being able to join my colleagues."