What is Government Of Alaska?

The government of Alaska is divided into various departments. Alaska has 246 federally recognized tribal governments and one federal Indian (Native American) reservation.^[1]

Alaska Natives

Alaska Natives, while organized in and around their communities, are often active within the Native corporations which have been given ownership over large tracts of land, and thus need to deliberate resource conservation and development issues.

Politics

Alaska is often characterized as a Republican-leaning state with strong Libertarian tendencies.^[2] Local political communities often work on issues related to land use development, fishing, tourism, and individual rights as many residents are proud of their rough Alaskan heritage.

In recent years, the Alaska Legislature is a 20-member Senate serving 4-year terms and 40-member House serving 2-year terms. It has been dominated by conservatives, generally Republicans. Likewise, recent state governors have been mostly conservatives, although not always elected under the official 'Party' banner. Republican Wally Hickel was elected to the office for a second term in 1990 after jumping the Republican ship and briefly joining the Alaskan Independence Party ticket just long enough to be reelected. He subsequently officially 'rejoined' the Republican fold in 1994.

Alaska's members of the United States Congress are all Republican. Senator Ted Stevens was appointed to the position following the death of Senator Bob Bartlett in December of 1968,^[3] and has never lost a re-election campaign since. As the longest-serving Republican in the Senate (sometimes nicknamed "Senator-For-Life"^[4]), Stevens has been a crucial force in gaining Federal money for his state.

Until his resignation from the U.S. Senate after being elected governor, Republican Frank Murkowski held the state's other senatorial position and, as governor, was allowed to appoint his daughter, Lisa Murkowski as his successor. She won a full six-year term on her own in 2004.

Alaska's sole U.S. Representative, Don Young, was re-elected to his 17th straight term, also in 2004. His seniority in House makes him one of the most influential Republican House members. His position on the House Transportation Committee allowed him to parlay some $450 million to the Gravina Island Bridge and the Knik Arm Bridge, both derided as "bridges to nowhere".

Alaska possesses a pervasively strong independence movement favoring secession from the US, with the Alaska Independence Party labeled one of the "the most significant state-level third parties operating in the 20th century". ^[5]

List of political parties

• Alaska Republican Party
• Alaska Democratic Party
• Alaska Republican Moderate Party
• Alaskan Independence Party
• Alaska Libertarian Party
• Alaska Green Party

Alaska is also the only state in the union to allow legal possession of marijuana. An adult may legally possess four ounces of marijuana for personal use.^[6]

Presidential elections

Presidential elections results

Year	Republican	Democratic
2004	61.07% ''190,889	35.52% ''111,025
2000	58.62% ''167,398	27.67% ''79,004
1996	50.80% ''122,746	33.27% ''80,380
1992	39.46% ''102,000	30.29% 78,294
1988	59.59% ''119,251	36.27% ''72,584
1984	66.65% ''138,377	29.87% ''62,007
1980	54.35% ''86,112	26.41% ''41,842
1976	57.90% ''71,555	35.65% ''44,058
1972	58.13% ''55,349	34.62% ''32,967
1968	45.28% ''37,600	42.65% ''35,411
1964	34.09% ''22,930	65.91% ''44,329
1960	50.94% ''30,953	49.06% ''29,809

In presidential elections, the state's Electoral College votes have been most often won by a Republican nominee. Only once has Alaska supported a Democratic nominee, when it supported Lyndon B. Johnson in the landslide year of 1964, although the 1960 and 1968 elections were close. No state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate fewer times. President George W. Bush won the state's electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 25 percentage points with 61.1% of the vote.

The communities of Juneau, Sitka, downtown and midtown Anchorage, and "the Bush," stand out as Democratic strongholds, while the Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, parts of Anchorage, and Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Wrangell, and Petersburg serve as the GOP electoral base.

History

When the United States Congress, in 1957 and 1958, debated the wisdom of admitting it as the 49th state, much of the political debate centered on whether Alaska would become a Democratic or Republican-leaning state. Conventional wisdom had it that, with its penchant for new ideas and dependence on the Federal Government largess for basic needs, it would become a Democratic stronghold, about which Republicans, and the Republican Administration of Dwight Eisenhower had reservations. Given time, those fears proved unfounded. After an early flirtatious period with liberal politics, the political climate of Alaska changed quickly once petroleum was discovered and the federal government came to be seen as 'meddling' in local affairs. Still, despite its libertarian leanings, the state regularly takes in more federal money than it gives out, a fact that can be attributed at least partially to its equal representation in the United States Senate.

Divisions

Alaska is divided into 16 boroughs (including unified municipalities),^[7] as opposed to "counties." The function is the same, but whereas some states use a three-tiered system of decentralization — state/county/township — most of Alaska only uses two tiers — state/borough. Owing to the state's low population density, most of the land is located in the Unorganized Borough which, as the name implies, has no intermediate borough government of its own, but is administered directly by the state government. Currently (2000 census) 57.71 percent of Alaska's land area has this status; however, its population comprises only 13.05 percent of the state's total. For statistical purposes the United States Census Bureau divides this territory into census areas. Anchorage merged the city government with the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1971 to form the Municipality of Anchorage, containing the city proper, and the bedroom communities of Eagle River, Chugiak, Peters Creek, Girdwood, Bird, and Indian. Fairbanks, on the other hand, has a separate borough (the Fairbanks North Star Borough) and municipality (the City of Fairbanks).

References

See also

• Governor of Alaska
• Alaska State Legislature
• Alaska Court System

External links

• State of Alaska

	•  • [ e] State of Alaska Juneau (capital)
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Regions	Aleutian Islands | Arctic Alaska | Bush Alaska | Interior | Kenai Peninsula | Mat‑Su Valley | North Slope | Panhandle | Seward Peninsula | Southcentral | Southwest | Tanana Valley | Yukon‑Kuskokwim Delta
Largest cities	Anchorage | Barrow | Bethel | Dillingham | Fairbanks | Homer | Juneau | Kenai | Ketchikan | Kodiak | Kotzebue | Nome | Palmer | Petersburg | Seward | Sitka | Unalaska | Valdez | Wasilla
Boroughs	Aleutians East | Anchorage | Bristol Bay | Denali | Fairbanks North Star | Haines | Juneau | Kenai Peninsula | Ketchikan Gateway | Kodiak Island | Lake and Peninsula | Matanuska‑Susitna | North Slope | Northwest Arctic | Sitka | Yakutat
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