Alaska Legislature and scandal

[socaldem]

What have the reprecussions of the ongoing FBI investigation into Alaskan legislators and their relationship with oil contractors like VECO?

From what I understood, a few legislators have resigned and more may resign or be indicted in the future, etc.

Is it a purely GOP scandal or are some Dems also involved?

What's the breakdown of the resignations so far (if any) and how are successors to be chosen?

The Alaskan state senate is actually fairly closely divided.  If two serving GOP state senators are implicated, Dems would have a de facto majority...

[Verily]

Actually, the Democrats are already in power in the Alaska State Senate in coalition with some of the Republicans. The rest of the Republicans sit in opposition. Both the majority and minority leaders are Republicans.

[socaldem]

Actually, the Democrats are already in power in the Alaska State Senate in coalition with some of the Republicans. The rest of the Republicans sit in opposition. Both the majority and minority leaders are Republicans.

Oh, cool. 

When did this happen?  At the organization right after the election or more recently?  If you have more details or articles you could direct interested parties to, that'd be great...

Meanwhile, here's hoping that Senator Stevens is driven from office...

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Meanwhile, here's hoping that Senator Stevens is driven from office...

Not to disappoint, but more likely than not, you'll have to wait for nature to drive him from office for you.

[socaldem]

For those interested, information on the Alaskan legislature governing coaltion is available on wikipedia and in a few helpful articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25th_Alaska_State_Legislature
http://www.adn.com/front/story/8451289p-8345508c.html

The GOP has an 11-9 majority in the AK senate, but the senate is organized around a bipartisan coalition with all 9 Democrats and, initially 5 and later 6 Republicans.  So there's a huge super-majority bi-partisan grouping and a 5-person minority of super-conservative GOPers.

The majority leader is Wasila Republican Lyda Green (Gov. Palin is also from Wasila).  Apparently Green had her sights set on the senate presidency and was offered support from Democrats for the position first. 

But what I find most striking about the coalition is that it now contains a majority of the Republican caucus! 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Considering how rare grand coalitions are in the US that's very interesting. Pennsylvania has a similar thing too.

I'm also surprised the Republicans have only a 2 seat advantage.

[Keystone Phil]

Considering how rare grand coalitions are in the US that's very interesting. Pennsylvania has a similar thing too.

No, we just have a Speaker of the opposite party. The Dems still run the committees.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Our last election for Speaker of the House was between two Republicans who had to dicker for Democratic votes, which is why we have a Democrat chairing one of the 11 committees in that house of the General Assembly and several of the subcommittees.  Our State Senate, until the GOP took control in the 1990's, ran on a strict non-partisan seniority system when it came to assigning committee chairs, but that got scrapped once the Republicans had the majority.

[AndrewTX]

Sarah Palin is hot.  I realize this isn't the subject of the thread, but I thought I'd interject it anyway.

Seconded

[StateBoiler]

I once saw a write-up of her when she was still running for election on I think politics1.com. It talked about how she was a very pretty candidate, but being pretty is sometimes not a plus in politics. So she tried to make herself look bookish. The article then put up the picture and said her trying to make herself look less pretty had the effect of turning her into the stereotypical librarian from a porn movie.

[minionofmidas]

the stereotypical librarian from a porn movie.

that's fairly apt, yeah.

[CPT MikeyMike]

Sarah Palin is hot.  I realize this isn't the subject of the thread, but I thought I'd interject it anyway.

Seconded

I've been meaning to mention that. She is a knock out.

I guess a G-I-L-F. (G meaning Governor!)