State Government

Avrum Gross died in May 2018. The East Coast Democrat and lawyer was an unlikely ally of Republican Gov. Jay Hammond. He served as Alaska’s attorney general during the permanent fund’s seminal years.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority violated state statutes by investing $44.4 million in commercial real estate. Those are the findings of a special audit of the Trust released Tuesday by the Alaska Division of Legislative Audit. The audit also says the Trust’s board violated the Opening Meetings Act and the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by purposely trying to keep some board issues out of the public eye.

Trevor Shaw is the Republican candidate and Ghert Abbott is the Democrat. Both are unopposed in their respective primaries, so will face Ortiz, an independent, in the Nov. 6 general election.

Haines Borough Assembly member Tom Morphet wants to step into the state Legislature to tackle issues he doesn’t feel can be dealt with on strictly a local level.

Two of Governor Bill Walker’s challengers in the upcoming election are criticizing his policies toward China and the proposed Alaska LNG project.

Former House Rep. Zach Fansler will plead guilty, though not to assault, almost six months after he was accused of slapping a woman in his hotel room.

That sets up what will ostensibly be a three-way race between incumbent independent Gov. Bill Walker and the winners of the Democratic and Republican primaries.

House Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer has represented House District 31 on the Kenai Peninsula as a Republican since 2002, but he filed Thursday to run as an independent in the Democratic primary.

The state is running short on money for Medicaid. Until the next fiscal year starts in July, hospitals and other health care providers won’t get paid for treating much of Alaska’s low-income population. But the state is trying to funnel what money is left to hospitals that could otherwise shut down.

Free of re-election concerns, the outgoing state senator waded into two major policy issues that have been making knees jerk for years: the Alaska Permanent Fund and a state income tax.