Legislature(2007 - 2008)CAPITOL 106
03/15/2007 08:00 AM House STATE AFFAIRS
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR11 | |
| HB171 | |
| HJR6 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | HJR 11 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 62 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | HB 171 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HJR 6 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HJR 6-CONST. AM: ELECTED ATTORNEY GENERAL 9:21:54 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the last order of business was HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 6, Proposing amendments to the Constitution of the State of Alaska relating to the office of attorney general. The committee took an at-ease from 9:22:20 AM to 9:23:18 AM. 9:23:34 AM REPRESENTATIVE HARRY CRAWFORD, Alaska State Legislature, introduced HJR 6 as prime sponsor. He stated that he does not take making changes to the constitution of the state lightly. He proposed that HJR 6 is based upon the philosophical question of whether or not the attorney general of the state should be the governor's lawyer or the people's top lawyer. He stated his belief that the attorney general should be the top [arbiter] of law in the state for the people. He related that there have been attorneys general whose opinions match that of the governor. Furthermore, he said, there have been times when the same attorney general has served more than one governor and has still changed his/her opinion to match that of the governor. REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD reported that 43 of the United States have elected attorneys general, 5 states have appointed ones, and the supreme court of Maine and Tennessee elect their attorneys general. He stated his belief that the people should have the right to decide who their attorney general should be. 9:26:13 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD, in response to Chair Lynn, indicated that if HJR 6 were to pass, the governor would still turn to the attorney general for advice. If the governor's and attorney general's philosophies differ, he said, the Alaska Supreme Court would be the final [arbiter]. He stated his belief that a governor will be more honest in the policies he/she puts forth when he/she has to get an opinion from an attorney general that is not beholden to them. 9:28:12 AM REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON asked if any states have a system wherein they have two elected attorney generals - one Republican and one Democrat - and when the governor is elected, the attorney general from the political party matching that of the governor gets the position. 9:28:52 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD offered his understanding that that practice has been made illegal. REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSON said he likes the idea of having an elected attorney general, but would like to keep the philosophical bent the same to avoid law suits between a governor and attorney general who are constantly at odds with each other. REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he would like to see some tension between the attorney general and the governor; he would not like to see them in lockstep. CHAIR LYNN remarked, "Nor would we want to see them opposed on every issue in the book." REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he wouldn't want that to happen either. He stated, "An office holder is only as good as that person. I don't know how we set up a system that weeds out people that are just completely partisan for partisan's sake." 9:30:53 AM REPRESENTATIVE ROSES said human error is the same whether made by an appointed attorney general or an elected one. He said he will need more convincing as to how an elected attorney general would serve in a better capacity than one appointed. He stated, "An election is won by somebody that does a better job of campaigning than somebody else; it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be better at the job." 9:32:22 AM CHAIR LYNN said if he were governor, he would want an attorney general who was in his "same philosophical ball park." 9:32:46 AM REPRESENTATIVE ROSES said he thinks electing an attorney general makes the situation more political, not less. 9:33:02 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said if he made that statement, he had not meant to. He clarified that the attorney general would be the people's representative and answerable "more to the people than just to the governor." Currently, the AG is answerable to the governor and can be fired at any moment if he/she doesn't answer to the governor. He said he knows it will be an uphill battle to change the constitution, with a required two-thirds majority vote of the legislature and a popular vote of the people. In response to a question from Representative Roses, he said to his knowledge there has never been a time when the legislature has failed to confirm an attorney general brought forward by the governor. He said it could happen, and under such circumstances "we give the governor his cabinet or her cabinet, whichever the case may be." CHAIR LYNN said, "Well, we do have to confirm it. We're just going through this process now, so we don't have to confirm." 9:35:55 AM REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL stated that the reason to have an appointed attorney general is to give our executive branch as much authority as is practically possible. He said when Alaska became a state, it had to petition federal government to control its state issues, and so, the thinking was there was a need for a strong executive branch in order to impose the state's views. The trade-off was that the attorney general was not accountable to the people. He suggested there are two questions to ask: Whether it has been effective to amalgamate that power in the executive branch; and whether or not the people have been served well. He said he does not know that the people have been ill- served; however, he said he is not convinced that "our authority has been well exerted from the executive branch." He said he can think of one time when there was misuse of authority such that he had thought at the time that the attorney general should be elected. He asked Representative Crawford to convince him of the need for HJR 6. 9:39:18 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he thought long and hard about examples he could bring to the committee; however, the problem is that examples that he thinks show that the state has been totally ill-served may be viewed by others as an example of the state having been well served. He restated his belief that an attorney general popularly elected is more accountable to the people. 9:41:15 AM REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL said the people of Alaska need to be able to voice their complaints. 9:42:14 AM CHAIR LYNN asked Representative Crawford if his arguments would also apply to the United States Supreme Court. In response to Representative Crawford, he clarified that there is a need to take politics "out of it" as much as possible, but those who are elected have to campaign. He questioned whether politics would affect the decision that an elected attorney general would give to the governor or the people. REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said the 43 states that elect their attorneys general seem to be satisfied with that method. He stated that politics is just something that must be dealt with on a daily basis, and he related his belief that an attorney general could deal with the same politics that legislators do. He said there are many people qualified to be an attorney general that may never get appointed by a governor because they might be too independent. In response to Chair Lynn, he said he believes the state superintendent of education should be an elected position, but he said that is another discussion to be held at a later date. 9:46:03 AM REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL said he would get copies of the minutes from the original Alaska Constitutional Convention to share with the committee. 9:46:20 AM REPRESENTATIVE DOLL said she thinks HJR 6 is a good issue to address. She asked if the attorneys general that run for election in the various 43 states run on party lines. 9:46:46 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said attorneys general in those states don't have to politicize their campaigns, but they can if they wish. In response to a follow-up question from Representative Doll, he said the proposed resolution would set up a four-year term for each attorney general. He said he has requested an amendment to set a two-term limit, the same as that of the governor. The attorney general could sit out for a term after two consecutive terms and then once again be eligible to run. 9:48:30 AM REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG directed attention to page 1, line 10, of HJR 6, which proposes to delete "[SECRETARY OF STATE]" and replace it with "lieutenant governor". He said he is wondering if that needs to be done in other parts of the constitution. Representative Gruenberg stated that an important question to ask is: "Whom does the attorney general represent? Does the attorney general represent the governor or the best interest of the state, of people, whoever?" He said the answer to that question is key to deciding whether or not to adopt HJR 6. He suggested that the Alaska Bar Association look at that question. He explained, "Because it's axiomatic in the profession; you can't represent two clients." He offered an example. If the legislature were to decide that there is a conflict, he said, it should pass a specific statute addressing the ethical responsibilities of the attorney general. He mentioned other questions, such as who should make the decision whether or not to litigate or appeal and what the guidelines should be. He said, "... I think this puts the legislature squarely in the role of making that decision, and I would like this committee to consider carefully whether there is a conflict of interest and, if so, how do we best deal with it?" 9:54:36 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD responded: I believe that Representative Gruenberg has ... hit the nail squarely on the head as to what the problem is. ... I perceive there to be a conflict of interest: Whenever the attorney general owes his position to the governor and can be fired at any moment at the pleasure of the governor, then I believe that they are more accountable to the governor than they are to the people and good law. As far as having the bar association look at this, I don't see where their authority to look at this comes from. I believe that this is a question for the legislature and the general public to decide. I believe that there is an inherent conflict the way it's set up today, and I believe that although it doesn't guarantee that you'll get a good attorney general every time, what it does guarantee is that you get an independent attorney general. REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD, regarding the idea that the office of attorney general may be politicized and used as a stepping stone to run for governor or United States Senator or Representative, offered examples of that happening. 9:57:24 AM REPRESENTATIVE ROSES said he agrees with much of what Representative Gruenberg said, with the exception of getting the opinion of the Alaska Bar Association. In terms of addressing some of the conflicts, he said he thinks that needs to be done whether the attorney general is elected or appointed. One conflict, he suggested, may be the need for an elected attorney general to run for re-election while still serving office. He said there may be a potential for ethical conflicts. He said, "We have a confirmation process, and if I'm not mistaken do we not also have a process where if we think somebody's doing a pretty poor job that we could work towards removing them from that office?" 9:59:10 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he would leave it up to the committee's wisdom to determine whether to impose term limits in a way that would not make it necessary for the attorney general to campaign while in office. He said, "The way it's set up right now, the attorney general can be the governor's flunky. I'm not saying that's happened." 10:00:19 AM REPRESENTATIVE ROSES said the Alaska State Constitution very deliberately gives a tremendous amount of power to the governor. He said he is not certain any other state has done the same. He said he thinks the founding fathers made the right decision. CHAIR LYNN questioned whether HJR 6, in combination with the upcoming change to a 90-day session would give extra power to the governor. 10:01:12 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he believes Alaska has outgrown the need for "super powerful governorship." He said he believes in giving more power to the people. 10:02:29 AM REPRESENTATIVE DOLL said she is impressed that 43 states "found this very important and have put it into effect." She asked how much such an election would cost. 10:02:55 AM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD said he would have to get back to Representative Doll with that information. He noted that an election for attorney general would not be held outside other elections, thus "it would be partly borne in the cost of the other elections that are being held at the same time." 10:03:39 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that HJR 6 was heard and held.
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