JUNEAU, Alaska - During her first year as Alaska Senate president, Cathy Giessel won over one-time political adversaries and angered some within her own party for her willingness to buck Gov. Tuckerman Babcock, a former state GOP chair and former Dunleavy chief of staff, said Giessel’s position on the dividend changed. In 2016, as she faced re-election, Giessel supported then-Sen. Dunleavy’s call to restore the portion of the dividend cut by Gov. Dunleavy has supported using a decades-old dividend formula that many lawmakers see as unsustainable and haven’t followed in recent years. Giessel became Senate Resources Committee chair in 2013, after Republicans wrested control of the Senate from a bipartisan majority.

Source: thestar January 01, 2020 15:22 UTC