Unit Five:  Who Counts?

A fully recognized political party is an organized group of voters who share similar political beliefs and ideals, goals and objectives. To become a fully recognized party, the group must nominate a candidate for a specific statewide office and have that candidate receive at least 3 percent of the votes cast in that race. As an alternative, the group may register voters equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for the statewide office it would have otherwise been required to nominate a candidate. If the office of governor is on the general election ballot, then it is the race used to determine the 3 percent qualification. If the office of governor is not on the ballot, then the qualifying race is for U.S. senator. If neither governor nor U.S. senator are on the ballot, then the office is for U.S. representative is used.

In Alaska, a fully recognized political party remains a party unless their required candidate fails to receive at least 3 percent of the votes cast or its member registration drops below the required number.

There are now just two fully recognized political parties who have met the required number of votes for their candidate for U.S. Senator in the 2004 election. They are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. To retain status as a fully recognized party, other parties must have at least 9,250 registered voters (3 percent of the 308,315 votes cast in the U.S. Senate race in 2004).

The Libertarian and Alaska Independence parties have retained a ballot spot, however, because they have enough registered voters to meet the 3 percent requirement.

A limited political party is organized only for the purposes of nominating candidates for the office of president and vice president. These parties are formed in a slightly different way. A group of voters who only want to nominate candidates for these offices circulates a petition to organize its limited political party. The signers of this type of petition indicate that they want to organize their group but do not name their candidate yet. If their petition is signed by at least 1 percent of the number of voters who voted for president in the last presidential election, their limited political party is officially formed.

The deadline for filing is 90 days before the election. For the next presidential election, this date is Wednesday, August 6, 2004. The number of ballots cast for President in Alaska in 2004 was 312,598. Therefore, the number of signatures required on the petition is 3,126.

The group then has a convention or meeting to determine who they want their candidates to be. Those names are submitted by the group to be placed on the official ballot. The limited political party also submits its chosen delegates who will represent the group for the electoral college. Since the group is only organized for the purpose of selecting candidates for president and vice president, any other candidate who wants to run for any other office as a representative of the limited political party must submit a nominating petition signed by voters, in order to be placed on the ballot for the office.

A limited political party ceases to be a limited political party if its presidential candidate fails to receive at least three percent of the votes cast in a presidential election. Currently in Alaska, there are no recognized limited political parties. In the past, the New Alliance Party, Democrats for Economic Recovery and the Libertarian Party have been limited political parties.

• searching out candidates to run for the various offices
• developing a platform – that is, a statement of principles and policies
• raising money to promote and advertise their candidates
• supplying people to work at the polls as state inspectors, moderators, clerks, and supervisors
• assisting candidates in political campaigns
• serving as watchdogs for the public when out of power
• offering applicants to serve on boards and commissions

The Libertarian Party in Alaska is organized with a state executive committee and has chapters on the community level. The Libertarians conduct an annual convention at which they adopt their platform.

The organizations of the Democratic and Republican political parties are similar.

The Republican Party plan of organization includes the State Central Committee, District Committees, precinct leaders and auxiliaries.

The State Central Committee is the governing body and policy-making body of each party. In the Republican Party, the Central Committee membership varies, but it always included the chair of each legislative district. The Central Committee also includes the state party chair, state vice chair, state secretary, state treasurer, state finance chair, and national committeewoman and national committeeman. The State Central Committee acts as the governing body of the party when the party is not in convention.

The state chair is responsible for the call of the biennial state convention, at which the party platform and party rules are formulated by the convention delegates. In presidential election years, delegates and alternates to the national party convention are elected at the state convention. The state chair directs candidate recruitment, candidate and volunteer training and statewide campaign operations.

The District Committee is the next in line of the party organization. This group has a chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer and a varying number of persons to serve on the district committee.

Generally, it is composed of all precinct leaders, but may be small and more select. The duties of the District Committee chair include calling conventions, organizing precincts and supervising the election of delegates to the state convention and members of the State Central Committee. The District Committee organizes volunteer grassroots efforts, including voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts for all elections.

The precinct is the smallest political unit. Republican precinct membership is open to anyone declaring party. Precinct caucuses or rallies provide an opportunity for members of the same political party to express themselves in a meaningful way on party issues and in party activities.

Republican auxiliaries such as Women’s Clubs, Young Republicans, College Republicans and other groups function independently of the state party. Each auxiliary is invited to have a permanent seat on the State Central Committee.

Legally, a lobbyist is a petitioner of the government exercising his/her rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution -- freedom of speech. Although often accused of manipulating lawmakers for the benefit of "special interests" (that is, somebody else’s interests other than your own), lobbyists become ineffective if they can’t be trusted for truthful counsel, including detailed information that legislators otherwise wouldn’t be able to take into account while deliberating.

Lobbyists have a responsibility to protect the legitimate interests of their employers and to keep them informed.

Generally, lobbyists can be categorized into two groups: paid professionals and volunteers. Paid professional lobbyists are usually business representatives, trade association representatives, freelancers who have a mix of clients, public interest representatives, or staff for governmental agencies, such as school districts.

Volunteer lobbyists are persons who believe so strongly in a cause that they are willing to commit personal time to lobby legislators.

The Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC) is the state agency responsible for the regulation of lobbying. Since 1976 lobbyists and their employers have been required to register and report their income and expenditures and for activities associated with influencing legislative and administrative decisions.

Minority members are given opportunities to present their views as members of the standing committees, although they can never prevail without votes from majority members. A bill sponsored by a member of the majority is much more likely to get full consideration in the legislative process than one offered by a member of the minority.

Members of the press are organized as the Alaska Capital Correspondents Association. This group negotiates with legislators on issues such as the protocol for weekly briefing sessions.