19 Republicans form House minority, choosing Anchorage member as leader

Alaska House Republicans announced late Saturday night the formation of a minority caucus that is expected to serve as a counterweight to the bipartisan majority coalition.

Barring any changes ahead of the beginning of the legislative session, the Republican minority caucus is set to be the largest possible size, at 19 out 40 House members, according to an announcement made by email Saturday close to 11 p.m.

Leaders of the 21-member majority coalition, made up of two Republicans along with mostly Democrats and independent members, had initially indicated they had hoped to persuade additional Republican lawmakers to join their ranks in order to expand the majority coalition’s size. But Saturday’s announcement from Republicans quelled those hopes — at least temporarily.

“I just believe that foundationally, the conservative values that our caucus represents are ones that people feel strongly about, so they weren’t interested in joining the Democrats,” said Anchorage Republican Rep.-elect Mia Costello, who was chosen Saturday to serve as minority leader.

The Legislature will convene in January. Coalition configurations could change before then, affecting leadership and committee positions.

“It wouldn’t be the first time there was a change in a caucus makeup as a session neared and we get underway,” said Dillingham independent Rep. Bryce Edgmon, who is expected to serve as House Speaker beginning next year. “And my hope is that we’ll be able to continue those conversations and see where it goes.”

Both the majority and the minority in the House indicated they planned to focus this year on education, energy and the budget. But their approaches could be vastly different. The minority named meeting Alaska’s energy demands from Alaska-based sources as its top priority. The bipartisan coalition has indicated it plans to focus on a substantial increase to the state’s education budget, along with changes to the state’s pension options for public employees. Both caucuses’ plans will be constrained by what is set to be a tight revenue year amid stagnant oil prices.

Costello, the newly chosen minority leader, previously served two terms in the House and two terms in the Senate. In 2022, she lost a reelection bid to Democratic Sen. Matt Claman, after she became a key figure in blocking the progress of a pension reform bill in that year’s legislative session. She then joined the cabinet of former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson before again running for the Legislature.

In becoming minority leader, Costello beat out House Speaker Cathy Tilton of Wasilla, who also put her name forward for the position. Tilton will instead serve as minority whip. Tilton, who did not respond to an interview request, had served as House Speaker since 2023 and previously served as minority leader.

Minority Republicans also chose the members who will represent the caucus on the Finance Committee, which crafts the state budget. As long as it remains at 19 members, the minority will be allotted five members on the 11-member Finance Committee.

Those members are set to include Rep. Will Stapp of Fairbanks; Rep. Frank Tomaszewski of Fairbanks; Rep. Jamie Allard of Eagle River; Rep. DeLena Johnson of Palmer and Rep.-elect Jeremy Bynum of Ketchikan. Johnson has served as co-chair of the committee while Tomaszewski and Stapp have been members for the past two years. Allard and Bynum would be new to the committee.

Soldotna Republican Rep. Justin Ruffridge said he was one of nine minority Republicans members who put their names forward as candidates for the five minority Finance Committee seats. He was not ultimately selected by his Republican colleagues during a meeting to determine committee assignments, which was held Saturday afternoon.

“The Kenai Peninsula has not had a representative on the Finance Committee for two years, and I thought it would be a bad decision for us to have no representation for another two years. Ultimately, that argument must not have won the day,” Ruffridge said Monday.

Ruffridge was largely snubbed in the committee assignment process. He was given only a seat on the Community and Regional Affairs Committee, while many of his colleagues in the minority were given three committee assignments each.

Ruffridge attributed that to political ramifications for his willingness to vote across party lines, including in one high-profile occasion when he was one of four House Republicans to vote in favor of overriding Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of a bipartisan education bill.

“It’s no secret that I don’t always follow the 100% direction of the caucus as a whole. Last session I took a couple of votes that were different than other folks’, but I also think that they represented my community well,” Ruffridge said Monday.

“Those things, I think, do end up having political results,” he added.

Ruffridge said that though each caucus has already announced its provisional committee assignments, he thought majority and minority composition could change in the coming weeks.

“It’s early in the process. As we saw two years ago, I think there was a thought about what was going to happen, and then an entirely different thing happened,” he said. At the beginning of the 2023 legislative session, two Democrats and two independent lawmakers joined Republicans to form a majority caucus after the legislative session began, marking a shift in the leadership of the chamber.

“Politics has a way of surprising you, sometimes, with what the eventual outcome is,” said Ruffridge. “Some of these structures we put in place — majority, minority — they come with real consequences. But at the same time, if you’re a person that values relationships and can build those connections about what is important, you ultimately always have a seat at the table.”