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.
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1 comment:
Where's the love for Sister Sarah. Sarah can't get a break first Levi now this. Looks like Uncle Ted might just think about running for Govenor. Look Alaska might not care about having another lying criminal as Govenor.
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