A history of Alaska coups and coalitions
With a bipartisan coalition in the Alaska State Senate this year, some members of the Legislature are reviving the practice of bringing Democrats and Republicans together to work on important issues.
Since statehood, the Alaska State Legislature has had a long history of bipartisan coalitions in both the House and Senate. Republicans and Democrats worked together to build the oil pipeline, establish the Alaska Permanent Fund and manage the state's great oil wealth. These accomplishments were all brought about, at least in part, by coalitions.
The first coalition in Alaska came together in the Third Legislature (1963-64), when Speaker Warren Taylor, D-Fairbanks, gave a chairmanship to one Republican in an otherwise all-Democrat majority.
A change of governors gave many Alaskans hope that a North Slope gas line contract, which has been stalled for years, would soon be engineered to open the pipeline for trillions of dollars worth of natural gas from Prudhoe Bay.
While Alaska's oil-funded state government ponders setting aside extra billions in a savings account, smaller communities are struggling to pay for cops and community centers.
