"Jason Grenn"

The proposed change would allow the party to support a candidate without having the word “Democratic” appear on the ballot by the candidate’s name.

Lawmakers who represent areas outside Juneau receive $295 for each day of the special session. Juneau lawmakers receive $221.25 per day.

Drew Phoenix has served on the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights since February. He’s a transgender man and the only appointee of Gov. Bill Walker to be voted down.

The House voted to cut the money to pay for lawmakers’ daily expenses during the legislative session by three-quarters. These per diem allowances are nearly $300 for the first 30 days of the session, then drop to close to $200 a day. They would fall to $50-$75 a day. But the proposal faces a big hurdle in the Senate.

Grenn said Alaska is the only state in the country that makes it so easy for lawmakers with conflicts of interest to vote.

He said the need to address the state’s fiscal crisis brought the caucus together.

There were no changes in the state Senate.

Some Republicans, like incumbent state Rep. Liz Vazquez, sees many of the independents running this cycle as Democrats going by another name.

For the first time since Alaskans began donating in 2009, the Alaska Community Foundation’s Pick.Click.Give. program saw a drop in donations.