The 2018 election is a year away, but candidates are already starting to file for office.
The ballot measures are coming, too.
According to the records of the Alaska Division of Elections and the Alaska Public Offices Commission, at least four initiatives may soon start gathering signatures to appear on next fall’s primary or general election ballot.
The measures deal with health care, fisheries and “good governance.” The earliest they could show up on the ballot is in the Aug. 21, 2018 statewide primary. Here’s how things stand one year out:
Fisheries
In May, Mike Wood, Brian Kraft and Gayla Hoseth became the first sponsors of a ballot initiative for the 2018 election. That sweeping measure, which promised to improve protections for salmon streams across the state, garnered a cautionary letter from Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, who cautioned that it might violate the Alaska Constitution.
They duly withdrew their initiative, revised it, and resubmitted it.
The new “Act providing for protection of wild salmon and fish and wildlife habitat” is under review by the lieutenant governor’s office. Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has until Sept. 12 to reject it or deem it ready for signature-gathering statewide.
Medicaid expansion
In the first week of August, four Alaska doctors sponsored a pair of initiative petitions dealing with health care. The first, a two-page measure, would enshrine Medicaid expansion in state law. Back in 2015, the Alaska Legislature declined to expand Alaska’s Medicaid coverage by passing a bill. Gov. Bill Walker subsequently expanded the coverage with an executive order. Some lawmakers sued, but a court sided with Walker, and the expanded coverage remains.
A different governor could reverse that decision with another executive order.
The initiative filed by Alan Gross, Graham Glass and George Rhyneer on Aug. 1 would enact a law prohibiting less coverage than was in place on Jan. 1, 2017. That wouldn’t keep the Legislature from reducing coverage, but it would prevent a governor from reducing coverage through executive order.
The lieutenant governor’s office has until Oct. 2 to decide whether the proposal passes constitutional muster.
Alaska’s Obamacare
The second initiative, filed by Gross, Rhyneer and Megan LeMasters Soule, would put the most popular parts of the federal Affordable Care Act into state law. The initiative filed Aug. 4 would prohibit insurers from denying coverage because of “pre-existing conditions,” it would require family insurance plans to cover children until they turn 26, and it would require insurance plans to cover 10 “essential health benefits” including prescription drugs, mental health, and trips to the emergency room.
The lieutenant governor’s office has until Oct. 3 to decide whether this proposal advances.
‘Good governance’
The fourth ballot measure has not yet been filed with the Alaska Division of Elections, but a filing with the Alaska Public Offices Commission indicates a group calling itself Alaskans for Integrity will file a ballot measure addressing “good governance.”
The group was created by Noah Star, a former Legislative staffer for Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka.
Star did not return a call seeking comment.
Others to come?
No groups or individuals have come forward to official file or prepare for ballot measures on oil taxes or the Permanent Fund Dividend. During the legislative session, those two items were mentioned as possible topics for the 2018 election.
What it takes
Each of the four measures under consideration thus far has a substantial distance to travel before reaching the ballot. As stated above, each is being vetted by the lieutenant governor’s office to ensure it is legal.
If the lieutenant governor approves an initiative, its sponsors then have one year to garner enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
Backers need 10 percent of the previous general election tally. In 2016, 321,271 Alaskans voted. That means each ballot initiative needs 32,127 signatures.
Those signatures have to be spread across the state: Signatures have to come from at least three-quarters of the state’s 40 House districts, and in each of those districts, the signatures have to represent at least 7 percent of the people who voted in 2016.
In the Mendenhall Valley, for example, 9,106 people cast ballots. That means ballot-measure supporters would need 637 signatures from House District 34.
With four ballot measures in the works, and possibly more to come, you might see plenty of clipboards outside Mendenhall Mall.
• Contact reporter James Brooks at james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com or call 523-2258.
