The state’s largest Alaska Native organization declared its opposition to a constitutional convention on Saturday, saying rural Alaska could have the most to lose if a convention is called.
The Alaska Federation of Natives also called for a potential reduction in the amount of fish caught in Area M, a state-managed fishery off the Alaska Peninsula, in order to protect salmon runs that have crashed on the state’s two largest rivers, the Yukon and Kuskokwim.
And, after passing several other measures, the organization voted in executive session to endorse Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the U.S. Senate race and Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola for reelection to the U.S. House. Peltola in a special election in September became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.
The Alaska Federation of Natives took those stances as part of the resolution process that wrapped up its annual three-day convention on Saturday at Anchorage’s Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center. It was AFN’s first in-person conference since the pandemic curtailed large physical gatherings more than two years ago.
The organization’s vote to oppose a constitutional convention passed without opposition.
It puts the politically powerful group into the debate over whether the public should approve a convention in the November election. The question comes before Alaska voters every 10 years, and has been soundly defeated in recent decades. The outcome is expected to be closer this year.
“A constitutional convention would be expensive and dangerous,” the AFN measure said. “It would open the entire constitution for revision on a wide range of critical issues and pose risks to tribal/Alaska Native interests that are embedded in the constitution with the likelihood of delegates with views that are antagonistic to those interests.”
The Native federation, in its measure, said that if a convention is held, the negative impacts could include reduced funding for rural public schools, threats to subsistence benefits and tribal sovereignty, and the potential loss of the Power Cost Equalization program that provides help with high rural power costs for residents.
Republican former Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell, chair of Convention YES, said in an interview Saturday that a convention could lead to constitutional changes that benefit rural Alaska, such as increasing the Alaska Permanent Fund dividend by reinstating a full statutory formula for its payment.
Conservative groups have led support for holding a constitutional convention, saying it’s time for a new look at Alaska’s governing structures to improve areas like the process of determining the Permanent Fund dividend amount and education. Opponents have said the PFD issue is being used to mask other priorities that conservative groups would like to act on, including opposition to abortion and school choice.
Also, following a tense debate, AFN on Saturday decided to ask the state Board of Fisheries to take steps that could reduce salmon fishing opportunities in Area M, a state management fishing area near the end of the Alaska Peninsula.
Specifically, AFN wants the state to reduce the “intercept” by fishermen of chum and king salmon in the June fishery there that may be headed to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.
The emotional issue underscores the anxiety over collapsed salmon stocks in Western Alaska and the Interior, threatening a fish that for eons has fed many villages in the state, even as salmon runs in the Bristol Bay region to the south continue to thrive.
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