JUNEAU -- For the second time, Alaska Senate Democrats have rejected Gov. Sarah Palin's choice to fill the empty seat in the state Senate. And it's causing tension within the Democratic ranks, with senators Lyman Hoffman and Donny Olson saying their colleagues are playing politics instead of voting on appointees based on their qualifications.
The nine Senate Democrats, after a closed-door meeting Thursday night, announced Friday they were rejecting Palin's pick of Joe Nelson for the Senate seat. The Democrats did the same thing last week in rejecting Tim Grussendorf, who was Palin's first pick to fill the seat that came open when Kim Elton of Juneau resigned to take a job in the Obama administration.
Hoffman and Olson said they and the other Democrats met for an hour on Nelson and 40 minutes of it was spent on talking about if they would vote in the open. Then their colleagues wanted to hurry up and get the vote over with quickly, Hoffman and Olson said, ignoring the qualifications of a man who is the admissions director at the University of Alaska Southeast, has a law degree, and is an elected board member of Sealaska, the Southeast Alaska Native corporation.
"We're not even talking about the guy's attributes any more ... It's turned into a political football that seems to be losing its focus, and the big losers are the people of Juneau," said Olson, of Nome.
Kim Metcalfe, the Juneau Democratic Party chairwoman, said that's not true, and that the Senate Democrats were right to reject Nelson. "I don't think Joe was qualified for that seat. He was basically an unknown in Juneau, at least to the Juneau Democrats," she said.
Nelson has never run for political office. He is married to Mary Nelson, formerly Mary Kapsner, who represented a western Alaska district for five terms in the House.
Anchorage Democratic Sen. Johnny Ellis, the Senate majority leader, said Hoffman and Olson are entitled to their opinions, and he doesn't want to drive wedges between the Democrats.
Ellis said Nelson is a nice person, but he still opposed him for the seat.
"He was unknown to me," Ellis said. "I really didn't know him other than 'hello to Mary Kapsner's husband' in social settings. So he's an unknown political quantity. He's never been elected to public office. And he didn't seem to have the support of the local folks."
Both Olson and Hoffman also supported the governor's previous appointee, Grussendorf, who is Hoffman's chief of staff. They said Grussendorf has long experience in the Legislature and would have been able to step right into the job. Juneau Democrats opposed Grussendorf in part because he was a registered Republican until just a few weeks ago, although Grussendorf says that was a mistake by the division of elections and he had meant to be registered as undeclared. He ran for the state House in 2002 as a Democrat.
No senator would say what the vote count was on the appointees.
Hoffman, one of the most powerful members of the Legislature as co-chairman of the Finance Committee, wasn't happy with the process in either the Grussendorf or Nelson decisions. "Politics are filtering into the Senate decision because we are no longer discussing qualifications," said Hoffman, of Bethel.
Hoffman said some senators have said they would only support an appointee who was on a list that Juneau Democratic Party officials have suggested to the governor. The party first submitted only the name of House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, saying she was "head and shoulders" above the other applicants.
But Kerttula has been critical of Palin and is further to the political left than the governor wants in the seat. After Palin passed her over for Grussendorf, the Juneau Democrats then recommended three other names as well as Kertulla's.
Hoffman and Olson said they would have backed Kerttula, but it is clear Palin won't pick her. The rest of the names submitted by the Juneau Democrats are people who say they wouldn't run when the seat is up in a year and a half, said Hoffman -- leaving it open for Kerttula to take the Senate seat.
"What is their process, to protect Beth so she runs unopposed?" Hoffman said. "Their process should be, who is the best person to represent the community of Juneau."
The three other names on the Juneau Democrats' list have all said they would rather see Kerttula take the seat, according to party officials. Metcalfe, the Juneau Democratic Party chair, said that doesn't mean they would all step aside at election time, although she believes Kerttula would win the seat when it's up.
The other names on the list are Jeff Bush, a local Assembly member, Mike Miller, a Juneau legislator until 1985, and Sally Smith, a Fairbanks legislator until 1982 and former mayor of Juneau. Metcalfe said it is not about the list at this point, and Juneau Democrats hope to meet with Palin. There's little time left; the Alaska Legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year in just nine days.
"This is a stalemate. I don't think it's doing either side any good. Juneau is suffering from a lack of representation," Metcalfe said.
Governor softens her stand on abortion permission bill
Gov. Sarah Palin told reporters on Friday she's willing to compromise on a bill that would require parents to give their permission before girls under age 17 could get an abortion.
In a wide-ranging news conference in her Juneau office, Palin said she's willing to drop the requirement for consent and accept a bill that would just require parents to be notified about their teenager's plan to have an abortion.
Palin said late last month she was not interested in the compromise.
But she said Friday it's clear to her now that's the only way to possibly get the bill passed, with just nine days left in the 2009 session of the Legislature.
Read more about what Palin said Friday on our Alaska Politics blog: adn.com/alaskapolitics.
By SEAN COCKERHAM
scockerham@adn.com