The Daily Alaska empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1926-1964, 1950-10-27

With its to 8 party split, tn
Senate will be the uncertain guam
tity. The House will definitely be IL
Democratic hands. by an apparen
is to margin.
The situation raises the question
what kind Of Senate is it goinf
to be-?
Will it be administrator OF
anti? Evenly split?
Are there enough independents te
break the rigid party alignment?
The Senate was divided 8 to 8 two
years ago, too, but there were
enough 'non-rigid" Republicans te
bring enactment of the basic tar
laws proposed by Governor Gruen-
ing's administration.
The big deadlock was over the
presiding officers for the special and
regular sessions, The stalemated
Senators solved that at the start
by dividing it up.
General Outlook
One thing appears certain at the
coming session. There is likely to he
less Of the bitter. dead-end opposi-
ton to the administration. Three
Senators spearheaded the anti
Gruening Republicans right down to
the last gavel. All are gone now
They were Sen. E. B. Collins OF
Fairbanks and Sens. Charles Jones
and william NUM- of Nome. Collins
retired; NUM- lost out in the pri-
mary; Jones was defeated in the
general election.
Hutfoyich Jr. Cited
Sen. John Butrovichs il. OF Fair.
banks is likely to be the Republican
leader. He was coming to the front
rapidly at the end of his first ses-
sion in 1949. He is young and agrees
sive-and generally respected 10y
other legislators.
He went along with the admin
stration in getting the basic tax law
program on the books, but when he
thought there were enough new ones
he developed an emphatic mo- for
suggestions of more. And as chair
man of the Senate Finance Com
mittee, he carried sharp knife in
his fight for balancing the income
and outgo.
His sharpest criticism of the
Democratic administration came In
his insistence on prompt audit OF
Territorial books.
More Speculation
The two new Republican Senators
w. L. dam Lhamon and A. F
(Joe) Coble-are expected by polit-
ical observers to follow, in general
the Butrovich lead. They are gen.
orally rated as -Gruening. but
not SO bitterly so as Senator Collins
whom one of them succeeds. On the
other hand, they are not likely to
show the cooperative friendship for
the Governor that Andrew Nerland
the other retiring Fairbanks Repub-
lican Senator, did.
To keep the Senate balance, there
appear to be two Republicans who
can be expected to vote with the
Gruening supporters on many issues,
and two leading Democrats who may
join the opposition on some issues.
Deadlocks Likely
Deadlocks may well develop on
many a piece of legislation.
On the Republican side, Gunnard
Engebreth of Anchorage and Percy
Ipalook of Wales have showed in
heir legislative voting records a
willingness to go along on many of
he Democratic administration pro-
posals.
On the Democratic side, James
Nolan, Wrangell business man, and
Sen. Howard Lying of Nome can not
be counted on by the Gruening
camp. Nolan showed his conservative
independence as a House member.
Lying, National Democratic Com
mitteernan, can be counted on nor
mally to go along on legislation
linked to the party platform, but
he broke openly with Governor
Gruening after the election.
Family Situation
1t raises the question of who will
be the leader of the pro-adminis-
tration Democrats in the Senate.
With Vic Rivers defeated for re-
election and Lying jumping the
traces, it might well be Steve Nc
Cutcheon of Anchorage. For new
Senator. he showed himself to be
pretty quick on the parliamentary
draw at the 1949 session. With
brother Stan McCutcheon leading
the Democrats in the House, that
possible development would present
an interesting and unprecedented
family situation.