PAMPHLET STATEMENT YIELDS LAWSUIT

ELECTION: Lt. Gov. Leman and Staff Were Not Impartial, Pro-Marijuana
Group Says.

A group pushing for marijuana legalization sued the state and Lt. Gov.
Loren Leman on Tuesday for his office's part in writing a statement
against legalization that appeared in the Official Election Pamphlet.

The lawsuit asks the court to declare that what Leman's office did was
wrong and direct the state to notify voters about that.

"It's outrageous that Leman and his staff have ghost-written the
opposition statement," said Tim Hinterberger of Yes on 2 in a written
statement.

"It's clear to us that he has crossed the line of neutrality and, if
he has not directly violated his oath of office, he most certainly has
violated the spirit of his elected office. The only significant duty
of the Lt. Governor is to run impartial elections, and he can't even
do that."

Leman could not be reached for comment. His chief of staff, Annette
Kreitzer, called the lawsuit a publicity stunt.

"I think this is about Ken Jacobus wanting more promotion for the
legalization of marijuana," Kreitzer said, referring to the attorney
and Yes On 2 treasurer who filed the suit. "For these guys to attack
the lieutenant governor; it's unfortunate and they're just wrong about
how this happened."

In 2003, Leman disputed the validity of signatures gathered to put
legalization on the 2004 ballot but was overruled by a Superior Court
judge.

He was also sued last month over the initiative to hold elections to
fill vacant U.S. Senate seats. A judge found the language Leman used
to describe Ballot Measure 4 was unfair, biased and incorrect and
ordered the state to reprint about 500,000 ballots.

At issue now is the opposition statement to Ballot Measure 2, in the
election pamphlet mailed to voters in advance of the Nov. 2 election.

The statement was initially written by Kreitzer and e-mailed by Leman
to Dr. Charles Herndon, who made minor changes, signed his name and
turned it in. The anti-legalization statement that appears in the
Official Election Pamphlet under Herndon's name is nearly identical to
the one written by Leman's chief of staff.

Before those details came to light, Leman said at an Oct. 12 press
conference, "I did not write any of the statements either for or
against (the ballot initiatives); those were done by proponents and
opponents of the issues."

Kreitzer said Tuesday that that's true. "He didn't," she said. "I
did."

Kreitzer said Leman did not ask her to write the opposition statement.
She said she took it upon herself to cobble together some notes
because there was a deadline looming for the election pamphlet and she
figured whoever was finally found to write it would probably need some
information.

She said her work was not aimed at swaying the election but at making
sure voters got both viewpoints on the marijuana question. "If it had
been the other side of the issue, I would have done the same thing,"
she said.

Leman wanted a doctor to pen the opposition, according to Kreitzer.
Herndon, medical director of Providence Breakthrough, a drug and
alcohol disorder treatment center, agreed, and on Aug. 16, Leman
e-mailed him Kreitzer's notes.

"This is a proposed draft statement in opposition to the proposed
initiative to legalize marijuana possession and use in Alaska," Leman
wrote to Herndon, according to the Anchorage Press, which published a
copy of the e-mail last week. "Thank you for considering my request
for you to sign this statement, revise it, or write a statement of
your own."

Herndon added one line to Kreitzer's draft and made a few other
changes.

"Nobody is more surprised than I am that that compilation of facts
survived Dr. Herndon's scrutiny," Kreit-zer said Tuesday.

Herndon told the Daily News last week that if he had it to do over
again, he would write the letter from scratch. "I wouldn't change my
position," he said. "My error in judgment was letting someone else do
the writing."

Jacobus wrote in the lawsuit that preparation of the opposition
statement by Leman's office violates the law and the duty of the
lieutenant governor's office to "act neutrally and impartially with
respect to the conduct of elections." It also violated his group's
state constitutional rights to due process and equal protection, he
wrote.

In regard to ballot initiatives, state law says the Official Election
Pamphlet must include "statements submitted that advocate voter
approval or rejection."

Jacobus argued that in previous elections where a ballot opposition
statement was not submitted, the Official Election Pamphlet simply
stated that such a statement was not received.

"I would personally feel like we were not doing our job if we could
not find someone to write both sides of the statements like the law
requires us to do," Kreitzer said.

Kreitzer noted that Herndon was told that he could disregard the
information from the lieutenant governor's office but that he signed
it and essentially made it his own.

The suit also said that the pro-legalization statement was turned in
eight days before Leman e-mailed Herndon about the opposition. In the
past, the lieutenant governor's office was very careful that the
opposing sides didn't see each other's statements in advance of
preparing their own, Jacobus wrote.

"In this case, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor had access to the
Statement in Support prior to writing the Statement in Opposition and
was able to adjust its presentation," the suit says.

Kreitzer said Yes On 2's statement was submitted to the election
pamphlet coordinator, not her. "He's accusing me of having seen his
statement," she said. "That is absolutely not true."

Yes On 2 asks the courts to direct the state to issue a letter to
voters that essentially says no statement was submitted in opposition
to Ballot Measure 2 and the one in the election pamphlet was prepared
by the lieutenant governor's office.

Yes On 2 wants the letter given to each voter at the polls and posted
prominently at voting places and on the lieutenant governor's and
Division of Elections' Web sites. The suit also asks that the letter
be included with all absentee ballots mailed to voters.

Pro and con statements for ballot initiatives do not appear on the
actual ballot voters mark.

A hearing on the lawsuit filed Tuesday has not yet been scheduled,
according to officials on both sides.