Lt. Gov Kevin Meyer, acting as the presiding officer in the State House, discusses the rules of order with House members during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Representative-designee Sharon Jackson, second from left, watches proceedings in the Alaska House on the first day of session Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. Jackson was picked by Gov. Dunleavy to replace Nancy Dahlstrom, who left for a job in the executive branch, but the inability of the House to organize has meant she hasn't been able to be seated. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. David Eastman, R-Wasilla, salutes during the pledge of allegiance during the start of the Alaska House session Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Alaska Senate president Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, center, confers with senators Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, left, and Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, laughs with Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky, D-Bethel, on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Lt. Gov Kevin Meyer, right, acting as the presiding officer in the State House, speaks with House members discuss the rules of order during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, left, and Rep. David Talerico, R-Healy, discuss the rules of order during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. Talerico tried to make a motion to seat Sharon Jackson, who the Governor had appointed to fill a seat vacated by Nancy Dahlstrom, who left for a job in the executive branch, but Tuck objected saying that the House first needed to vote on a Speaker Pro Tem. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. Laddie Shaw, R-Anchorage, talks with Rep. Cathy Tilton, R-Wasilla, during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. Gary Knopp, R-Kenai, talks with reporters during a recess Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. Knopp left the 21-member majority, triggering a scramble to come up with a bipartisan majority that has ground work at the House to a halt. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Rep. Geran Tarr, D-Anchorage, gestures to Rep. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage, before the start of the session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Lt. Gov Kevin Meyer, acting as the presiding officer in the State House, takes a phone call as House members discuss the rules of order during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Sen. Tom Begich, D-Anchorage, pins an Alaska Senate pin on Sen. Scott Kawasaki's suit, before the start of the session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. Kawasaki is taking off his Alaska House pin, which he wore as a House member during the 30th Legislature in 2018. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla gets a boutonniere pinned on by Emmie Jackson before the start of the session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Lt. Gov Kevin Meyer, acting as the presiding officer in the State House, gavels the House in on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
Alaska state Rep. Bart LeBon, left, looks on as members of the House are sworn in on the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, in Juneau, Alaska. LeBon, a Fairbanks Republican, won his seat after the Alaska Supreme Court upheld a recount that showed he won by one vote. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Alaska state Reps. Chris Tuck, right, and Gabrielle LeDoux, center, look over a note during a break in a House floor session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, in Juneau, Alaska. The House convened Tuesday without an organized majority. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Alaska state Rep. Dave Talerico, foreground, a Republican state House leader, looks on as members are sworn in on the first day of the legislative session on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019, in Juneau, Alaska. He is seated beside Rep. Gary Knopp, who left the GOP caucus in hopes of forging a majority bipartisan coalition in the House. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, confers with Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage during an at ease Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. The body has not been able to agree on a speaker of the House, which is necessary to conduct most business. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
JUNEAU — For the third time in state history and the first time since 1981, the Alaska House of Representatives has begun its regular legislative session without choosing a leader.
In a floor session that began Tuesday afternoon and extended into the early evening, House lawmakers continued a deadlock that began in December when Rep. Gary Knopp, R-Kenai, announced he would seek to create a bipartisan coalition rather than join 20 other Republicans in a bare-minimum 21-person majority.
The deadlock will continue into at least a second day: Shortly after 5 p.m., the House adjourned until 1 p.m. Wednesday.
As the 31st Alaska Legislature begins without a House speaker, House staff could go unpaid, legislation cannot be introduced and Gov. Mike Dunleavy could be forced to delay his State of the State address.
The deadlock has also prevented one of the House’s 40 members from taking her seat.
With no temporary or permanent speaker of the House to take up the gavel, Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer acts as a temporary presiding officer. When Meyer attempted to confirm Dunleavy’s appointment of Sharon Jackson to represent House District 13 — the elected representative, Nancy Dahlstrom, accepted a job as Dunleavy’s corrections commissioner instead — Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, rose from the floor and declared that accepting the appointment was beyond the lieutenant governor’s powers.
“This is really out of order,” Tuck said, explaining that the House needed to first choose a leader of its own.
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The dissent sparked an extended break in the proceedings as lawmakers consulted the Alaska Constitution, statutes and legal experts.
“We’re going to not take up the letter at this particular time, the letter sent to the House Republicans,” Meyer said, acknowledging that Jackson would not join the House immediately.
Rep. Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage, left, and Rep. David Talerico, R-Healy, discuss the rules of order during an at ease on Tuesday. Talerico tried to make a motion to seat Sharon Jackson, who the Governor had appointed to fill a seat vacated by Nancy Dahlstrom, who left for a job in the executive branch, but Tuck objected saying that the House first needed to vote on a Speaker Pro Tem. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
About 2:30 p.m., Rep. David Talerico, R-Healy and the likely speaker of the House if Republicans hold a majority, asked Meyer to adjourn the House until 5 p.m. in order to allow new representatives to sign their oaths of office.
As Jackson — seated in the House’s gallery — left the chambers, she was escorted by Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole. As the Daily News attempted to ask Jackson a question, Wilson said, “Not right now,” and ushered her away.
Under the Alaska Constitution and the rules that govern the Legislature, a vacancy is filled by the governor, whose choice must be confirmed by legislators belonging to the appointee’s party. The problem Tuesday was that without a speaker of the House, there is no one able to formally receive the message from the governor and thus start that process.
“It’s a little ambiguous, but it clearly does not state the lieutenant governor has the authority to go ahead and do that,” Knopp said of the Constitution and the Legislature’s uniform rules.
The closest guide may be from 2003, when Dahlstrom herself was appointed to replace then-Rep. Lisa Murkowski, R-Anchorage. Murkowski had just been named to the U.S. Senate by her father, Gov. Frank Murkowski. When Dahlstrom was appointed after the 2002 election, the House waited until after Speaker Pete Kott was voted to accept the message from the governor appointing Dahlstrom and the message from House Republicans confirming her. Because there was no delay in selecting Kott — who was approved 39-0 — there were no problems seating Dahlstrom.
Knopp said he doesn’t believe Tuck was out of order to request that an interim speaker of the House be chosen before seating Jackson.
“I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request,” he said. “I think that’s what’s going on.”
Talerico said he doesn’t believe there’s any other motive to Tuck’s move beyond preserving the separation of powers between the lieutenant governor, a member of the executive branch, and the Legislature.
“I think that’s where they’re really at,” he said of Tuck’s move.
Talerico said he’s heard people refer to any resolution of the deadlock as a finish line, but he doesn’t think that’s appropriate.
“The finish line, what we’re talking about, is the beginning line of the session,” Talerico said.
Alaska Senate president Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, center, confers with senators Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, left, and Mia Costello, R-Anchorage, on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 at the Alaska State Capitol. (Loren Holmes / ADN)
In the Senate, first-day events were conducted with ceremony and a lack of surprises. Senate President Cathy Giessel, R-Anchorage, took office on a unanimous vote. She becomes one of at least 14 female presiding officers of legislative bodies nationwide, according to figures compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Of the Senate’s five new members, three have previously served in the House. Sen. Lora Reinbold, R-Eagle River, Sen. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, and Sen. Chris Birch, R-Anchorage, served in the House during the 30th Legislature. Sen. Jesse Kiehl, D-Juneau, and Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, are new to the Legislature, though Kiehl is a longtime aide to Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, whom he replaces.
A 14-member Republican-led majority (it includes one Democrat) controls the 20-member Senate, and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka and co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said his group is ready to begin its work.
“The House will have to catch up later on,” Stedman said. “We’re not going to wait for them.”
James Brooks
James Brooks was a Juneau-based reporter for the ADN from 2018 to May 2022.