The Alaska House has a new speaker and can officially begin its work. Representative Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham will again be the speaker. This ends a 31-day stalemate that blocked work.
Edgmon says there’s a lot of work to do.
“I think we can pick up where we left off and make up for lost time, and really focus on what truly is the responsibility in front of us, which is a fiscally sustainable budget and a budget that Alaskans will not only be proud of, but a budget that also accommodates all of the needs and essentially services that important to our constituencies, but to the state as a whole,” Edgmon said.
Edgmon recently changed his party affiliation from Democratic to undeclared.
Anchorage Republican Chuck Kopp and Jennifer Johnston joined all 19 members of the mostly Democratic coalition in voting for Edgmon. They said they took the vote to allow the House to move forward.
This story is developing.
Andrew Kitchenman is the state government and politics reporter for Alaska Public Media and KTOO in Juneau. Reach him at akitchenman@alaskapublic.org.
