In a rarely seen turn of events, the Alaska House failed to pass a bill sponsored by a majority member — laying bare the disagreements within the Republican-dominated House majority caucus in the final days of the legislative session.
who are deemed unfit to stand trial. It was introduced by Sen. Matt Claman, an Anchorage Democrat, after a known offender suffering from mental illness stabbed an Anchorage woman last year while she was in a public library.
Sumner withdrew his discharge motion after a flurry of discussions with majority members, which appeared to culminate in an agreement from Vance that she would again give the bill a hearing immediately after the floor session concluded. “I understand that today you commented that you would do what I preferred,” Harris wrote in an email Friday afternoon to Vance’s office obtained by the Anchorage Daily News. “If that is the case, I wanted you to know that I would appreciate you passing the current version of the bill through to the finance committee today.”After the floor session, the House Judiciary Committee spent most of its meeting discussing an all-but-doomed bill to repeal ranked choice voting and open primaries.
Vance’s office door at the Capitol was kept locked Friday afternoon, making her unavailable for an interview after the committee hearing.
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