MORE BALLOT WORDING CHALLENGED

REPRINT: Leman must change language on other initiatives, sponsors say.

As Lt. Gov. Loren Leman and state lawyers negotiated new wording of Ballot
Measure No. 4 with its advocates Thursday under a tight court deadline, the
sponsors of two other initiatives said Leman should remove what they
described as biased language from their ballot language as well.

Leman declined to say Thursday whether he would seek an expedited appeal to
the Alaska Supreme Court of an Anchorage judge's ruling Wednesday ordering
him to reprint a half million ballots. Superior Court Judge Morgan Christen
said that destroying the old ballots was the only way to correct the
misleading, biased and factually inaccurate wording of the Trust the People
initiative to strip the governor's authority to fill a vacated U.S. Senate
seat by appointment.

Jeff Feldman, Trust the People's attorney, said negotiations failed to
reach agreement by the 4:30 p.m. deadline set by Christen.

Leman filed new wording with the court, but Peggy Wilcox, campaign manger
for Trust the People, said it was still objectionable.

Feldman said he expected negotiations to continue today as pressure mounted
to reach a conclusion with the Nov. 2 election inching closer.

Meanwhile, sponsors for the two other citizen initiatives on the November
ballot, one to outlaw bear baiting and the other to decriminalize
marijuana, said they too were unfairly treated on the ballot by Leman. Both
agreed their concerns weren't as serious as Trust the People's, but with
the ballots being reprinted anyway they sought to have their statements
changed.

Leman, the state's chief elections official, said Thursday that he wouldn't
consider other changes.

Like Trust the People, Yes on 2 and Citizens United Against Bear Baiting
said they were not informed when Leman wrote new ballot language rather
than use the same wording that had been used on their petitions.

In her decision Wednesday, Christen noted that the Division of Elections
Web site says that the same language would be used on the ballot as
appeared on the petitions. And in court, an assistant attorney general who
advises Leman said that previous lieutenant governors routinely alerted
ballot sponsors when the ballot language was altered, though she said such
notice isn't required by law.

"They changed the language but we didn't know about it in enough time to
object," said Ken Jacobus, attorney for Yes on 2, the decriminalization
measure.

Jacobus objected to the mention of children in the third sentence on the
ballot: "It removes all existing state restrictions on prescription of
marijuana by a doctor for all patients, including children."

"Medical marijuana isn't prescribed for kids," Jacobus said. "And the
initiative allows municipalities to prohibit marijuana use by people under 21."

Proponents of Ballot Measure No. 3, which would ban bear baiting, also have
requested new ballot wording. They contend that Leman's office subtly but
critically altered the language they had negotiated earlier with the
Department of Law, "rendering (the) summary an unfair and biased misstatement."

Attorney Tom Meachum says two changes in the ballot language could mislead
voters into thinking they could be jailed for a year and fined $10,000 if a
bear happened onto their bird feeder and they photographed it.

The ballot currently says it would be illegal to use any item or substance,
including food, "to entice a bear." The original version said
"intentionally entice," and the ballot should be reprinted to include the
missing word, Meachum said.

He also disputes the inclusion of specific monetary and jail penalties on
the ballot, which he called a scare tactic. The penalties are no different
from most other wildlife offenses, he said.

On Thursday, the group asked Leman to replace the ballot wording with the
same language assistant attorney general Marjorie Vandor approved in June,
and which was used to gather some 30,000 signatures needed to put the
measure on the ballot.

Told that Leman wouldn't change the measure, John Toppenberg, executive
director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, said he wasn't surprised.

"The (Murkowski) administration is obviously opposed to our position and
has acted through Loren Leman to intentionally distort it, even though they
earlier agreed to language that was clear on the issue," he said.

Leman said "it's absurd" to say that he is "somehow Frank Murkowski's
toady." Rather, he said, he followed the law in writing the ballot summaries.

"I believe the treatment for all the other ballot measures followed the
same test about being true and impartial and fair," Leman said. "Just
because we're having to move now to reprint doesn't mean it's going to open
it up for the other measures."