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Four members of the 14-member Senate Majority are in the doghouse with their Republican leadership because of their votes favoring a stimulus dividend during the final hours of the legislative session that ended last week.
Before the session came to a close in Juneau, Senators Mia Costello, Shelley Hughes, Mike Shower, and Lora Reinbold did not vote the way the Republican majority leadership wanted them to vote regarding a COVID-19 relief check for all Alaskans.
It was a procedural vote and involved parliamentary maneuvers that most readers will skip over:
The votes came after Sen. Reinbold proposed four amendments to the COVID-19 relief money appropriation.
Senate President Cathy Giessel ruled those amendments out of order, and Reinbold objected and challenged the ruling of the chair.
Votes were then taken on whether Reinbold’s amendments could be voted on. Ten Republicans voted one way, but the four conservative Republicans were more varied in their votes on the amendments, voting for some but not others. They did not vote as a bloc.