SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON STATE'S INITIATIVE PROCESS

The citizen initiative is an important part of Alaska's political system.
It allows people to write and approve certain laws without going through
the Legislature.

As lieutenant governor, it is my responsibility to oversee the processing
of initiatives from the time applications are filed until they appear, if
qualified, on the ballot. I believe it is very important that Alaskans
understand the process, especially because of charges that have recently
been made.

I forward initiative applications to the De-partment of Law for a legal
review of their form and subject. An application in "proper form" is one
that meets the requirements of the law. If the subject is consistent with
our Constitution, the Department of Law will recommend that I approve the
application. The legal analysis of the proposed law may be fairly simple or
lengthy and complex, depending on the subject.

On Sept. 23, Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock released his
decision in Hinterberger v. State of Alaska, and soon headlines like "Pot
Prop may appear on '04 ballot" were on the front page of many newspapers.
Judge Suddock ruled that my denial of some signatures in support of the
petition to legalize marijuana based on "reporting glitches" was in error
and ordered the Division of Elections to count many of the disqualified
signatures.

I based my decision on Alaska statutes and regulations, as recommended by
the Department of Law. I do not have the luxury of being able to decide
which laws are important and which ones are not. Reasonable people can
disagree on the facts, but Judge Suddock's comment about the actions of the
division in not pointing out earlier errors that petition circulators were
making should be put in context.

The last signatures for this initiative were submitted on Nov. 14, 2002. I
took office on Dec. 2, after which I named a new director of the Division
of Elections, Laura Glaiser. She is carrying out my vision for elections:
impartial, secure, efficient and accurate.

In another development, on Oct. 2, Rep. Harry Crawford's piece appeared
with the headline "Voters should fill vacant Senate seats." He and Reps.
Eric Croft and David Guttenberg filed their second application on that
subject Sept. 4. He states that the application has been referred to
Attorney General Gregg Renkes' office, "where it now lies in peril of being
delayed to death." He did not mention that he and the other representatives
filed an earlier application on Aug. 6 for a similar initiative petition.
Then, as now, he and his supporters were calling on me publicly to approve
their application quickly, because "the initiative is simple and obviously
legal."

The attorney general's review found that their initiative did not include a
vital ingredient -- it did not repeal existing law that provides for
appointment of a Senate replacement by the governor. A shallow, rushed
review and approval of the initiative application might have let a flawed
proposal appear on the ballot. I advised the sponsors of this, they
withdrew their application and resubmitted a corrected version.

On Oct. 5, another widely distributed editorial contributed to the
confusion with the opinion that initiative review under this administration
has a "case of the slows." One of the examples cited is that an initiative
on protecting your permanent fund dividend took 137 days for legal review.

The fact is, this application was submitted to former Attorney General
Bruce Bothelo on Sept. 12, 2002. He held it for 81 days and left it for the
new administration to make a decision. Other reviews under his tenure as
attorney general took 91 days (marijuana legalization, 2001), 105 days
(family land entitlement, 1999) and 108 days (election of governor by
majority, 2000).

The citizen initiative is your tool to use. I have acted promptly on all of
the initiative applications I have received since becoming lieutenant
governor. I promise to continue to do so, with wise counsel from the
Division of Elections and Department of Law.