There’s just over two weeks left until the constitutional 121-day session limit on May 20, and much remains to be done. Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) threw a grenade into the end of session by vetoing Senate Bill 64, the elections bill. A joint session to consider a veto override is scheduled for tomorrow morning. The Legislature passed the pension bill and transmitted it to Dunleavy. The Senate Finance Committee moved out the operating budget from committee after adding nearly $20 million in spending. Several people filed for office, including Shelley Hughes‘ running mate, three people for the Legislature, and a former senator and Campbell Lake royalty for Anchorage mayor. And Dunleavy’s gasline bill appears to be in trouble with the resources committees making big changes with the clock running down until the end of session. 

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.

Check out the third episode of Governor Peninsula! In this episode, there is some real drama between Bernadette and Bronson! Stay tuned for more episode. And make sure to tell us what you think.

End of session grenade 

Governor Dunleavy vetoed the elections bill on Thursday (4/30/2026) – the last day he had to act before the bill automatically went into law. This created a big problem. The bill passed with 39 combined votes, 40 if you count Representative Ashley Carrick (D – Fairbanks), who was absent for the vote. Forty votes are required to override the veto.

This Landmine article, written the day before the veto, “The session endgame could be decided by the elections bill” explains why the veto causes so many problems for the end of session. Basically, the only thing Dunleavy wants is the gasline bill. The majorities, with the help of some minority Republicans, worked hard on this bill for the last two sessions. And lots of people, including Dunleavy and former Senator Mike Shower, spent years trying to get a bill passed to fix Alaska’s broken election system. 

A joint session is scheduled tomorrow morning to consider a veto override. If just one person who voted for the bill votes no on the override, it will fail. If the veto override fails, it will piss off a lot of legislators. If the veto override is successful, it will piss off Dunleavy and make him look foolish. It’s a lose-lose.  

Dunleavy should have just let the bill go into law. It’s 75% of what Republicans want. It was a good compromise considering Republicans do not control the House or Senate. 

Gasline drma

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.

Less than three weeks remain until the Alaska Constitution requires the Legislature to finish its annual session. And Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s high-priority gasline bill is in trouble. 

The two versions of the bill, Senate Bill 280 and House Bill 381, are still in each chamber’s resources committee. The bills were introduced March 20. They propose to reduce the tax burden on the project to make it more palatable to investors — but that idea faces opposition from municipalities that stand to receive some of the tax income and will have to scale up government services to accommodate the project.

Both bills have been heavily amended by the committees — including many changes that raise the tax burden for the project, and which Dunleavy consequently does not want. 

The changes include increasing the tax on gas shipped down the pipeline; applying the tax to S-corporations; adding a per-mile construction fee; and giving boroughs the ability to invest in the project. 

Both bills still need to pass the finance committees. But those committees still have significant work left to do on the state budget, and on a multitude of other bills in play — meaning that it will be very difficult to get a gasline bill passed by the end of session that Dunleavy will agree to. 

Two executives from project developer Glenfarne, Adam Prestidge and Tim Fitzpatrick, as well as Enstar President John Sims, a top state pipeline official, Matt Kissinger, and state consultant Mark Begich are in Juneau meeting with legislators. Dunleavy and Glenfarne are saying the project cannot proceed without the Legislature passing a bill to address property taxes. 

If the Legislature fails to pass what Dunleavy wants, he has the ability to call them back into an immediate special session within one hour of adjournment. But many legislators have travel plans after session. Alternatively, he could call them into a special session later this summer or fall.

We are tracking things closely and will have updates as they become available.

Other Happenings 

After years of debate, the Legislature passed House Bill 78, a bill that, if it survives Dunleavy’s veto pen, will return state and public employees in Alaska to a defined benefit pension system. The bill, which was introduced by the House Finance Committee but carried by Representative Chuck Kopp (R – Anchorage), is very similar to a previous pension bill from Senator Cathy Giessel (R – Anchorage), which passed the Senate but not the House during the last Legislature. If Dunleavy vetoes the bill, the votes for an override are not there. The bill was transmitted to Dunleavy on April 30. He has until May 18 to act. 

Something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark. Unfortunately, NIMBYism is alive and well in the State of Alaska. 

Former Senator Natasha von Imhof (maiden name Rasmuson) filed to run against Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. It’s insane that von Imhof is so entitled she thinks she can run for mayor while the Campbell Lake owners are suing the state over public access to Campbell Lake. The section line public access easement runs directly through von Imhof’s expensive Campbell Lake property. In 2006, she and her husband tried to eliminate the public access easement. The state said no and she agreed not to block public access in exchange for the state vacating a portion of the section line easement to accommodate the building of her lakeside mansion. Here is our 2019 special feature on the whole Campbell Lake saga. Multiple follow up articles can be found at the bottom of the article, including many that show how much public money has been spent on the “private” lake over the decades.  

Republican gubernatorial candidate Shelley Hughes announced her running mate this week – retired Brigadier General Blake Gettys. See this week’s Loose Unit for more on the general. 

The filing deadline is June 1. But according to Alaska law, the declared candidates for governor and lieutenant governor will have just under a month after the June 1 filing deadline to make adjustments before the primary. I am waiting to hear back from the state to confirm this is accurate. If so, lots of deals could end up getting made after the filing deadline. 

Republican Ryan Sheldon filed to run against Senator George Rauscher (R – Sutton). Young Ryan hails from the wealthy Sheldon family, who own the expensive and elite Sheldon Chalet. He worked a session as a staffer last year for Representative Julie Coulombe (R – Anchorage). 

Democrat Denny Wells filed to run against Representative Mia Costello (R – Anchorage). This will be his third time running for the seat. It will be a race to watch.  

Representative Louise Stutes (R – Kodiak) picked up a Republican opponent, Carrie Harris, for the open seat Senator Gary Stevens (R – Kodiak) is retiring from. 

There is a lot more to come in the Lorenz Files! The irony is if Dorene Lorenz had not filed a frivolous defamation lawsuit, I would have never gone to the trouble to get these files. There are thousands of pages! 

Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox had confirmation hearings before the Senate State Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. He got grilled by many of the members, especially Senator Bill Wielechowski (D – Anchorage). Cox kept his cool, but got attacked for giving elections data to the federal government, his position on Alaska’s privacy clause, and abortion. He is going to have a hard time getting the 31 votes required for confirmation. Cox came on my podcast this week! You can listen here. 

Not a good look for the Dave Bronson/Josh Church ticket. They have TDS – trawl derangement syndrome! 

The first cruise ship of the season arrived in Juneau this week!

This Week’s Loose Unit

This might be a first as I don’t think a general has ever been the Loose Unit! This week’s Loose Unit is retired Brigadier General Blake Gettys. 

Gettys was announced as Shelley Hughes‘ running mate this week. It did not take long to realize that Gettys endorsed none other than Dave Bronson in November! 

This alone is very loose. But it gets way looser. Not long after Gettys’ endorsement of Bronson was posted on the Landmine Facebook page, an account “April-Blake Gettys” (those combined couple Facebook accounts are so weird) started mixing it up in the comments! Some real nice mental gymnastics there, general. Did the general not get any media training before the announcement?! 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.