Senate had time for a proposed law creating 'Truck Driver Day.' It certainly has time to create campaign donation limits

You may have missed this, but the Alaska State Senate had time enough this year to act on a bill to name the second Monday of every September as “Truck Driver Appreciation Day.”

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert Myers of North Pole, is the kind of feel-good meaningless measure that no one should confuse with real legislative work. The bill calls for “suitable observances and exercises by civic groups and the public” to honor truck drivers.

Myers, who works as a truck driver, wrote that truck drivers are the “unsung backbone of our modern economy.”

Myers defeated Sen. John Coghill in 2020, claiming that Coghill, a fiscal and social conservative from way back, was not conservative enough. Myers ran for office promising that education spending could be cut by $300 million without reducing the quality of education.

He didn’t run promising that he would spend money creating a ceremonial day in the law books to honor people who happen to have the same job he does.

Before the vote Feb. 23, Myers joked that he had a “conflict of interest as I am a truck driver and stand to be appreciated by this bill.” The Senate approved it 18-0.

If Myers really wants to be appreciated for the state job he now has, he should pressure other senators to act on setting reasonable campaign donation limits, which is part of the real work of the Legislature.

Sen. Mike Shower announced in January that he didn’t have time to deal with campaign donation limits this year.

Shower was lying. There was plenty of time. The truck driver bill demonstrates that.

Now there is no time to waste. The 2022 campaigns are moving quickly and Alaska politics is open to the highest bidder.

“Without action, individuals and special interests from anywhere in the country can now give unlimited amounts of money directly to political candidates in Alaska,” Anchorage Rep. Calvin Schrage wrote in a press release in early March.

This means that wealthy people in Alaska or elsewhere can spend whatever they want to buy political influence this year.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy and his right-wing allies in the Legislature want no limits on how much individuals can give to campaigns. But they don’t necessarily want to go on the record about it.

For many months Dunleavy claimed to be neutral on this issue, concealing from the public that he had decided to drop a key court case.

Dunleavy and his GOP allies will get their wish if they can continue to block bills such as House Bill 234, which is in the state affairs committee of the Senate, where Shower and fellow Republicans would like it to be buried.

The House had already approved the bill, despite opposition by nearly all Republicans to set a $2,000 limit on individual campaign donations.

As Schrage wrote, “with the governor and 59 legislative races on the ballot in November, we cannot wait for a citizens’ initiative. If we are to remain a government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people,’ the governor and Legislature must act to protect the people’s voice in our elections.”

HB 234 should become law, but the entrenched GOP opposition in the Senate will try to keep that from happening.

The only clear supporter of the measure in Shower’s committee is Democratic Sen. Scott Kawasaki. The other members, likely opponents with Shower, are GOP Sens. Lora Reinbold, Mia Costello and Roger Holland.

The state affairs committee has agreed to hold a hearing on the bill April 7 at 3:30 p.m. That doesn’t mean the committee will act on it or send it to the floor of the Senate, requiring members to take a stand on this critical matter.

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