Legislative Aide Resigns After Ethics Violation

A legislative aide resigned today because of ethics violations involving an anti-Islam organization. The Legislative Ethics Committee ruled that Karen Sawyer, an aide to Representative Shelly Hughes of Palmer, had failed to disclose that she was a board member of the organization “Stop Islamization of America,” and that she allowed the director of that organization to use state facilities when she was a staffer for the late Carl Gatto, who died while in office and was replaced by Hughes.

The committee recommended that Sawyer not be employed by the Legislature in the future. Representative Hughes had a talk with Sawyer this morning, at which she accepted her recommendation. In a press release, Hughes called the violations a “lapse in judgement.”

Gatto introduced House Bill 88, which, had it passed, would have banned Islamic Sharia Law in Alaska.

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