REDO IT

Lt. Gov. Leman's Bias Is Costly

That was an expensive bit of editorializing Lt. Gov. Loren Leman performed
when he wrote up the November election ballot. Reprinting ballots with a
more neutral description of the Senate vacancy ballot initiative, as
required by a state court ruling Wednesday, will cost about $295,000.

That would be pricey enough if it were his only misstep with the
initiative. But this is the fourth time a court has overturned one of his
decisions handling the matter. The total cost of his legally misguided
resistance is much higher.

That avoidable expense is a disservice to Alaskans who live with
less-than-stellar public services due to already tight state budgets. The
lieutenant governor's subtle resistance also drove up the already
considerable cost for citizens who want to exercise their constitutional
rights to write a law by initiative.

As he works up acceptable language for the Senate vacancy initiative, Lt.
Gov. Leman should take another look at the wording he chose for two other
citizen initiatives on the November ballot. With both the bear-baiting ban
and the decriminalization of marijuana, he made subtle wording changes that
tilt toward the "vote no" side of the debate.

The simplest, most straightforward approach is to use the 100-word-or-less
description of the measure printed in petition booklets. That language
already has been approved by the lieutenant governor's office in
consultation with the sponsors. It's the language people saw when they
agreed to sign in support of putting the measure on the ballot. The only
reason to change that wording is if subsequent events have rendered part of
it inaccurate.

Supervising elections is the single most important job assigned to Alaska's
lieutenant governor. It's a delicate job for an elected politician. It
requires setting aside the political impulses that propel him into the
office. Instead, the lieutenant governor should strive to handle election
matters in the most upright, apolitical, objective manner humanly possible.
That would be a difficult standard for any politician to uphold -- but in
handling this year's citizen initiatives, Lt. Gov. Leman hasn't come close
to meeting it.

BOTTOM LINE: Alaskans would save a lot of money if Lt. Gov. Leman had
played the ballot language absolutely straight.