Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.

2023 Alaska legislative session

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
← 2022
2024 →


2023 Alaska legislative session
Seal of Alaska.jpg
General information
Session start:    January 17, 2023

Session end:    May 17, 2023

Leadership
Senate President
Peter Micciche (R)

House Speaker
Louise Stutes (R)
Majority Leader
Senate: Shelley Hughes (R)
House: Chris Tuck (D)
Minority Leader
Senate: Tom Begich (D)
House: Cathy Tilton (R)

Elections
Next Election:    November 5, 2024

Last Election:    November 8, 2022

Previous legislative sessions
2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2023 legislative sessions


In 2023, the Alaska State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 17, 2023, and adjourn on May 17, 2023.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2022 elections. Republicans won an 11-9 majority in the Senate and a 21-15-4 majority in the House. Republicans also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2023 session, Alaska was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2023 legislative session:
  • Republicans held a majority in the Alaska state House and state Senate.
  • Alaska was one of 22 Republican state government trifectas.
  • Alaska's governor was Republican Mike Dunleavy.

    • Leadership in 2023

    Alaska State Senate

    Alaska House of Representatives

    Partisan control in 2023

    See also: State government trifectas

    Alaska was one of 22 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2023 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Alaska was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Alaska State Legislature in the 2023 legislative session.

    Alaska State Senate

    Party As of January 2023
         Democratic Party 9
         Republican Party 11
    Total 20

    Alaska House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2023
         Democratic Party 15
         Republican Party 21
         Independent 3
         Nonpartisan 1
    Total 40

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2023 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation met these criteria in 2023. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Alaska state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2023 legislative session, there were 23 standing committees in Alaska's state government, including 3 joint legislative committees, 10 state Senate committees, and 10 state House committees.

    Joint legislative committees

    • Armed Services Committee
    • Legislative Budget and Audit Committee
    • Legislative Council Committee

    Senate committees

    • Senate Community & Regional Affairs Committee
    • Senate Education Committee
    • Senate Finance Committee
    • Senate Health & Social Services Committee
    • Senate Judiciary Committee
    • Senate Labor & Commerce Committee
    • Senate Resources Committee
    • Senate Rules Committee
    • Senate State Affairs Committee
    • Senate Transportation Committee

    House committees

    • House Community & Regional Affairs Committee
    • House Education Committee
    • House Finance Committee
    • House Health & Social Services Committee
    • House Judiciary Committee
    • House Labor & Commerce Committee
    • House Resources Committee
    • House Rules Committee
    • House State Affairs Committee
    • House Transportation Committee

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Alaska Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article XIII of the Alaska Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Alaska

    The Alaska Constitution provides two mechanisms for amending the state's constitution—a legislative process, and a state constitutional convention. Alaska requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments. Alaskans do not have the power to use a citizen initiative to amend the state's constitution. The power of initiative in Alaska is restricted to proposing state statutes.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    A two-thirds vote in each legislative chamber of the Alaska State Legislature during one legislative session to refer a constitutional amendment to the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 27 votes in the Alaska House of Representatives and 14 votes in the Alaska State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.

    Convention

    See also: Convention-referred constitutional amendment

    According to Section 3 of Article 13 of the Alaska Constitution, a question about whether to hold a state constitutional convention is to automatically appear on the state's ballot every 10 years starting in 1970. Alaska is one of 14 states that provides for an automatic constitutional convention question.

    The table below shows the last and next constitutional convention question election years:

    State Interval Last question on the ballot Next question on the ballot
    Alaska 10 years 2022 2032


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Alaska.

    Alaska Party Control: 1992-2025
    No Democratic trifectas  •  Six years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor I I R D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R I I I I R R R R R R R
    Senate S R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R S S S
    House D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R D D S S S S S S S

    Historical Senate control

    Of the 33 Alaska State Senate elections held between 1958 and 2022, 19 left the Democrats and Republicans within four seats of each other. However, control of the chamber was not always determined by the partisan split. For example, from 2007 to 2012, a bipartisan coalition comprised mostly of Democrats controlled the chamber even though either Republicans had the numerical majority or the chamber was split 10-10. Only in the elections after 2012 did Republicans begin holding both numerical and governing majorities until a new bipartisan coalition formed after 2022. The table below shows the partisan history of the Alaska State Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2022. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Alaska State Senate election results: 1992-2022

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06[1] '08[2] '10[3] '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22[4]
    Democrats 9 8 7 5 6 8 8 9 10 10 7 6 6 7 7 9
    Republicans 10 12 13 15 14 11 12 11 10 10 13 14 14 13 13 11
    Independents 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

    From 1992 to 2022, Republicans had numerical majorities in the Alaska Senate after all but two elections that split the chamber 10-10, but they did not necessarily control the chamber whenever they had a numerical majority. Going into the 1990s, Democrats had not held a numerical majority since the 1980 elections. Republicans continued to maintain majorities, with their high point being a 15-5 advantage following the 1998 elections. Their control weakened after that as they saw their majority reduce to 11-9 after the 2006 elections. It was in the aftermath of that election that Republican Lyda Green assembled a bipartisan coalition that included all nine Senate Democrats and six Republicans. The coalition elected Green as president. She did not run for re-election in 2008, in which year the chamber reached a 10-10 split. However, the bipartisan group maintained control of the chamber, sometimes working against the priorities of Republican Gov. Sean Parnell.[5]

    In 2012, Republicans retook control of the Alaska Senate with a 13-7 majority, effectively ending the bipartisan group that Green had established. Although some rural Democrats joined with the new Republican majority, they did not have the same influence over the agenda that Democrats previously had.[6] Republicans expanded their majority in 2014 and 2016 by winning a 14-6 majority, just one seat away from their 1998 high point. In 2018, Democrats regained control of one seat, and the partisan breakdown remained at 13-7 following the 2020 election.[7] After the 2022 election, the nine Democrats and eight of the 11 Republicans joined to create a bipartisan governing coalition.

    Historical House control

    From when Alaska gained statehood in 1959 to the 2022 elections, there were three eras of partisan control in the state House, one for each major party and another marked by multipartisan governing coalitions. From 1960 to 1994, Democrats enjoyed almost uninterrupted control of the chamber, losing their majority in just two elections: 1966 and 1982. 1994 marked the beginning of the next era, with Republicans winning control every year until 2016 when several Republicans joined the chamber's Democrats and independent members to create a multipartisan governing coalition, followed by similar coalitions in 2018, 2020, and 2022. The table below shows the partisan history of the Alaska House of Representatives following every general election from 1992 to 2022. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Alaska House of Representatives election results: 1992-2022

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16[8] '18[9] '20[10] '22[11]
    Democrats 20 17 16 14 13 13 14 17 18 16 15 16 17 16 15 15
    Republicans 18 22 24 26 27 27 26 23 22 24 25 23 21 23 21 21
    Independents 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 4

    The Democratic-controlled era of the Alaska House began to unravel in the 1980s as Republicans closed the long-standing seat gap between the parties. In 1994, Republican gained a five-seat advantage and began their own period of control. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Republicans expanded their seat advantage to double-digits, controlling as many as 27 of the chamber's 40 seats after the 2000 and 2002 elections. The 2006 and 2008 elections gave a boost to the Democrats, putting them just four seats behind the Republicans. However, the elections from 2010 to 2014 widened the gap between the parties.

    In 2016, Republicans lost two seats, bringing their caucus to 21 members — the bare minimum for a majority. However, their majority came apart when three Republicans — Paul Seaton, Louise Stutes, and Gabrielle LeDoux — left the caucus to join 17 Democrats and two independents in a majority coalition. According to Seaton, the majority coalition was constructed around a shared vision of fiscal policy, with members wanting to decrease spending, restructure Alaska's Permanent Fund, and institute a broad-based tax. The coalition elected Democrat Bryce Edgmon as speaker of the house.[12]

    After the 2018 elections, Republicans held 23 seats in the chamber, with 16 Democrats and one independent. On February 11, 2019, Edgmon changed his party affiliation from Democratic to unenrolled. Three days later, Edgmon, the chamber's remaining 15 Democrats, four Republicans, one independent officeholder voted to elect Edgmon speaker again. The parties then split control of key leadership positions in a power-sharing agreement.

    In 2020, two Republicans joined all Democrats and independents to create a 21-member coalition. Two Republicans chose not to caucus with either their party or the coalition.

    After the 2022 elections, Republicans held 21 seats in the chamber, with 15 Democrats, two independents, and one nonpartisan member. A multi partisan governing coalition is expected, but its composition is still pending as of January 2023.

    Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker

    Election tracker site ad.png


    State election laws are changing. Keeping track of the latest developments in all 50 states can seem like an impossible job.

    Here's the solution: Ballotpedia's Election Administration Legislation Tracker.

    Ballotpedia's Election Administration Tracker sets the industry standard for ease of use, flexibility, and raw power. But that's just the beginning of what it can do:

    • Ballotpedia's election experts provide daily updates on bills and other relevant political developments
    • We translate complex bill text into easy-to-understand summaries written in everyday language
    • And because it's from Ballotpedia, our Tracker is guaranteed to be neutral, unbiased, and nonpartisan

    See also

    Elections Alaska State Government State Legislatures State Politics
    Ballotpedia Elections Badge-VOTE-no shadow-Square.jpg
    Alaska State Flag-Close Up.jpg
    State Houses-Tile image.png
    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Nine Democrats and six Republicans formed a 15-member governing coalition.
    2. ↑ Ten Democrats and six Republicans formed a 16-member governing coalition.
    3. ↑ Ten Democrats and five Republicans formed a 15-member governing coalition.
    4. ↑ Eight Democrats and nine Republicans formed a 17-member governing coalition.
    5. ↑ McClatchy DC, "Tea party goes after Alaska's bipartisan Senate coalition," July 9, 2012
    6. ↑ Alaska Commons, "Day 98: Or, Why I Miss the Bipartisan Working Group," April 26, 2016
    7. ↑ Alaska Dispatch News, "Alaska House will be run by coalition while Senate remains under Republican control," November 10, 2016
    8. ↑ 17 Democrats, three Republicans, and two independents formed a 22-member governing coalition.
    9. ↑ 15 Democrats, six Republicans, and two independents formed a 23-member governing coalition. One independent was Bryce Edgmon who switched his affiliation from Democratic to unenrolled after the election.
    10. ↑ 15 Democrats, two Republicans, and four independents formed a 21-member governing coalition. Two Republicans did not join either caucus.
    11. ↑ Coalition control pending.
    12. ↑ Alaska Dispatch News, "Alaska House will be run by coalition while Senate remains under Republican control," November 10, 2016
    v • e
    State legislatures
    Legislatures
    Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S)
    SLP badge.png
    2025
    2024
    2023
    Historical elections
    2022 •  2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004 • 2003 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000
    Features of
    state legislatures
    State senates
    State houses
    Leadership positions
    Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=2023_Alaska_legislative_session&oldid=9946922"