The legislative session is nearly a month in, which means there’s just over three months until the constitutional 121-day limit. The House and Senate finance committees rolled out committee substitutes for the budget this week, with the House taking a much different approach on the dividend than last year. Chief Justice Susan Carney delivered the annual State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the Legislature. Several Republican gubernatorial candidates were in Juneau this week for a Capital City Republicans forum. The first Alaska Public Office Commission (APOC) finance reports for legislative and governor candidates, as well as Anchorage Assembly candidates, are due on Tuesday (2/17/2026). And some more people filed to run for the House. 

If you have not seen the newest feature on the Landmine, make sure to check out “Juneau on the Loose: Juneau’s Unofficial Events Calendar.” If you know about or have an event happening in Juneau, like a reception or fundraiser or party, please send me the info (jeff@alaskalandmine.com) and I will get it added to the calendar. Thanks to the people who have sent events so far. There are already six for the upcoming week! 

A friendly message and reminder to all our readers. The Landmine is made possible by myself and a team of awesome Alaskans. I have been covering the legislative session in Juneau for the last seven years and am now here for my eighth session. We will be covering all the 2026 Alaska elections in-depth. If you enjoy the content we provide, please consider making a one time or recurring monthly donation. You can click here to donate. We have a system that makes it super easy. We would really appreciate it. And thanks to everyone who has been supportive. 

The House majority has a new PFD strategy

The following is an excerpt from this week’s edition of the Alaska Political Report. You can click here for more information about the Political Report. A subscription is $1,299/year per organization. Discounted pricing is available for non-profits and government entities. Our coverage of the budget starts with the governor’s proposed budget, and we track everything in detail through the entire process. If you have any questions or would like to subscribe, please email jeff@akpoliticalreport.com.

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, both the House and Senate Finance Committees released committee substitutes of the FY2027 operating budget. The two committees have taken somewhat different strategies for the bill, with the Senate following a familiar process and the House diverging somewhat from past practices. 

The Senate Finance Committee introduced what is referred to as a “CS-0” or committee substitute zero. CS-0 represents a policy neutral rewrite of the operating budget. It leaves in place all budget increments and decrements proposed by the Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK), but makes changes to the language to match the Legislature’s attorney drafting standards. Comma placement, capitalization, maybe a spelling fix or two.

The House Finance Committee instead introduced CS-1. Rather than being a punctuation-only rewrite, the new version makes material changes from the Governor’s budget. In short, CS-1 strips out all increments and decrements proposed by the Governor, leaving only what is considered to be an adjusted base budget. The only changes from the FY2026 budget that remain in CS-1, with one large exception, are previously negotiated salary adjustments for state employees and other formula changes. 

The one divergence from an adjusted base budget is the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD). Rather than match last year’s $1,000 PFD, the CS-1 omits the PFD entirely. This appears to be the result of lessons learned from the budget process last year. 

Last year the committee left the Governor’s large PFD intact while they worked on the operating needs of state agencies, waiting to address the issue until the rest of their work was done. This caused difficulty when the committee inevitably had to consider amendments to reduce the PFD and make the math work.

This year the committee has again signaled they wish to hold the question of the dividend until they finish work on other needs of the state but, rather than force members to introduce amendments reducing the PFD, they will instead add back the dividend at the end of the process.

It remains to be seen if this change in strategy will smooth over the problems the committee faced last session. Republican minority members on the committee were quick to characterize the CS as a policy proposal to eliminate the PFD rather than a tool to sequence budget decisions through the committee process.

Majority members, however, unanimously voted in support of using CS-1 as the starting point for budget discussions, an initial sign that they might be more organized on the dividend question than they were last year.

Ultimately, controversy over what should be a procedural step – introducing a framing tool for budget discussions – highlights the PFDs continued distraction from conversations about other important problems facing the state. 

If you would like to see the rest of this section, as well as a comprehensive breakdown of the entire budget, please consider subscribing to the Alaska Political Report. Email jeff@akpoliticalreport.com for a copy of the latest special report. 

Other Happenings 

The Capital City Republicans held a Lincoln Day Dinner followed by a Republican gubernatorial forum at the Baranof on Wednesday (2/11/2026) night. Ten Republican candidates attended, making it hard to hear anything substantive from any of them. Responses were limited to 30 seconds and there were several yes or no questions.

One of the funnier moments was when Mat-Su Borough Mayor Edna DeVries, responding to a question about AI and technology, actually said she remembers when televisions came out. Bernadette Wilson continued to provide empty populist soundbites. In one the most untruthful statements, Crooked Adam Crum bragged about “complex organizations” he has ran and said he’s never chased titles. It was particularly funny when they were asked if they favor moving the capital. They definitely all knew their audience! I would love to see the answers if they were asked that question in Anchorage or the Mat-Su Valley. 

Year-start campaign finance reports for legislative, gubernatorial, and Anchorage Assembly candidates are due byTuesday night. These are the first fundraising and spending reports we will see. They cover the start of the campaign to February 1. Several candidates have already filed their reports.

The interesting reports will be for Republican gubernational candidates. The ones who have raised a lot of money and/or contributed large amounts of their own money will stand out. While the ones who have struggled to raise money will be thinking about getting out or possibly making a deal with another candidate in exchange for their support.

After the year-start reports, the next reports for legislative and gubernatorial candidates, the 30-day reports, aren’t due until July 20. The Legislature really needs to fix the reporting deadlines and make campaign reporting more frequent.   

Speaking of the Anchorage Assembly, the field is set for the six Assembly seats and two school board seats up in April. Districts 1 and 4 are open seats as Assembly members Chris Constant and Felix Rivera are termed out. District 2 is an open seat as Assembly member Scott Myers is not seeking re-election. Assembly members Anna Brawley and George Martinez each have a single opponent, while Assembly member Zac Johnson has two opponents. 

The interesting race is District 4. Dave Donley, a conservative who sits on the school board but is termed out, is well known. Janice Park, a progressive and perennial candidate, can’t seem to ever win a race. If Donley wins, conservatives will pick up a seat on the 12-member Assembly, going from three to four. 

School board member Andy Holleman is also termed out, meaning both school board seats will have new members. 

If you did not see this Landmine story, it’s worth a quick read. Only in Juneau! 

Representative Rebecca Schwanke (R – Glenallen) filed a letter of intent for re-election. 

Joy Beth Cottle filed to run against Representative Frank Tomaszewski (R – Fairbanks) again. But this time she appears to be running as in independent instead of a Republican.  

This Week’s Loose Unit 

This week’s designee is a real beauty. This week’s Loose Unit is Representative Sara Hannan (D – Juneau).

For those of you who were subjected to her tyrannical reign as the head of the Legislative Council during Covid, you will especially appreciate this. If you spent any time in Juneau during Covid, you know how nuts Hannan got with the stupid masks. It was truly miserable being in the Capitol during that ridiculous time. 

Well, it seem that Hannan has changed her mind on masks. She actually has a bill to ban masks for law enforcement! Talk about the worst possible messenger. You can’t make this shit up. Classic Loose Unit behavior. 

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.