Alaska governor calls special session on same-sex rights

ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski on Friday called state lawmakers back to Juneau for a special session starting on Nov. 13 to pass legislation to allow the state to provide gay-partner employment benefits as ordered by the Alaska Supreme Court.

It will be the third special session this year, and lawmakers from both parties immediately questioned its motive and timing.

State Sen. Ralph Seekins, a Fairbanks Republican who chairs a legislative committee reviewing Murkowski's proposed natural-gas pipeline contract with Exxon Mobil, BP and Conoco Phillips, said he's worried that the governor might expand the special session to try to push the contract through before leaving office on Dec. 4.

"I would hope that isn't the real purpose of this special session," Seekins said. "That contract was just totally unacceptable to the Legislature. It's going to take some major changes before it could be acceptable, and I haven't seen any progress toward that."

State Rep. Les Gara, an Anchorage Democrat, said calling a special session on gay-partner benefits just before the Nov. 7 election smacks of campaign politics. He said it is likely part of a national Republican strategy to bring the gay-rights issue into the public spotlight to distract attention from other issues that might be politically harmful to them.

"It's a way to cover up their record of the last four years right before the election," Gara said.

John Manly, Murkowski's spokesman, said he didn't know whether Murkowski would add the gas pipeline issue to the special-session agenda.

Scott Nordstrand, commissioner of the state Department of Administration, denied that the special session was politically motivated. Nordstrand said he asked the governor to call lawmakers back because it was unclear whether he has the authority to enact the new benefits program.

In October 2005, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that denying gay couples the same public-employee benefits as married couples is unconstitutional and ordered the state to begin providing the benefits by Jan. 1, 2007.

The case dates to 1999, when the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state and the Municipality of Anchorage for their failure to provide benefits to their gay employees' partners.

The Department of Administration, which is in charge of state benefits programs, has been fighting in court with the ACLU since last summer over the proposed rules about how a person would qualify for the benefits.

The state proposed, among other things, that gay couples annually sign a sworn statement that they are in a committed relationship and show a range of documents proving that they have shared assets such as a checking or investment account, a car or a house.

The ACLU challenged the state in Superior Court, saying that the state's initial proposal was too onerous.

The judge is expected to rule on that request as early as this week, said Michael Macleod-Ball, the ACLU's Alaska director.