Alaska Senate says yes, but House officially cancels honor for conservative political writer

Four days after the Alaska House of Representatives declined to honor conservative political writer Suzanne Downing with a legislative citation, the Alaska Senate narrowly voted to allow the citation to go forward.

Hours later, the House declined to reconsider its decision, effectively killing the citation.

Downing, the founder of the website Must Read Alaska, is a controversial figure in Alaska politics. A former newspaper journalist, she turned to conservative political writing in 2016 after serving as Gov. Sean Parnell’s speechwriter and communications director of the Alaska Republican Party.

It is extraordinarily unusual for the Legislature to deny a citation, which must be proposed by at least one of the Legislature’s 60 members. Downing’s was proposed by Reps. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River, and George Rauscher, R-Sutton.

On Tuesday, Sen. Forrest Dunbar, D-Anchorage, asked to split Downing’s citation from a list awaiting senators that morning.

That vote would have been a first step toward tabling the citation, just as the House did. Instead, only eight senators joined Dunbar. Because 11 votes are needed to pass a motion in the Senate, Dunbar’s attempt failed, and the Senate approved the citation.

Dunbar said he believes the Senate’s vote against Downing’s citation failed because senators didn’t want to spend time debating it. If the House had approved the citation, he said that he believes the Senate would have voted it down instead.

Later in the day, members of the state House who support Downing attempted to bring her citation to a vote again. That procedural motion failed, with 21 votes against. 

Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said he was disappointed by the failed vote.

“It’s really a shame that we couldn’t provide a citation for her,” he said.

Allard said she also was disappointed and felt that the vote was a little bit weaponized.

Afterward, Allard and Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, had a heated argument in the House hallways about whether it was appropriate for Downing to repost a picture of Gray’s child that had been on social media.

Speaking on the House floor, McCabe said, “Was her writing always correct? Probably not … but I will say she is an amazing person, and most of all, that lady works from sunrise to sunset.”