Last Thursday night, Feb 18, the Republican District 24 leadership voted on a resolution to censure Senator Lisa Murkowski for her vote to convict President Donald Trump of inciting the Jan 6 riot that breached the capitol building. The resolution:
District 24 votes to censure Lisa Murkowski for her vote on the second Trump impeachment and asks the State Central Committee to express through a statement of censure our collective dissatisfaction with Senator Murkowski’s representation of Republican values and priorities.
The vote was unanimous among the District 24 leadership attending with Representative Tom McKay abstaining. Senator Natasha von Imhof attended the early portion of the meeting and was not present for either the discussion or vote to censure.
This resolution will be presented before the upcoming Republican State Central Committee (SCC) meeting on March 13, combined with similar resolutions passed by a number of other Districts, and presented for approval.
A couple thoughts are in order.
First, censure associated with the second impeachment of President Donald Trump is the first time in my knowledge that a state political party in Alaska is in the process of censuring any member of the congressional delegation. In this, Lisa is uniting the Republican Party, but not in the way she thinks.
Second, it is disappointing that we find ourselves in a period where the only way we figure we can get the attention of our elected representatives is via these sorts of vehicles. Perhaps sticking your finger in the collective eyes of an appreciable number of your party members is something less than a positive lifestyle choice for a continued political career in office. Sadly, I don’t see this ending any time soon.
The discussion leading to the vote was instructive. There were at least three versions of the censure resolution presented. While there was discussion on actual verbiage, there was no discussion on whether or not to proceed, as those of us who voted to do so were unanimous in agreement. In the end, simplest and shortest version was approved.
I hope this does some good, or at least gets Lisa’s attention for a little while.
I write this piece as the sitting Vice Chair of Dist 24 Republicans. I attended the meeting. It is presented with the knowledge of the District 24 leadership.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
