How Cronk and Kaufman Hand Delivered HB 195 -

Cronk & Kaufman

Hand Deliver HB 195 to Abortion Lobby

Just days after the House passed HB 195, with only 12 hours remaining in the 34th Legislature, Senate Democrats needed a procedural vote to advance HB 195 from second to third reading.

Without that procedural vote, the bill would have died.

We would have already had our pro-life pizza party.

Advancing to third reading requires a three-fourths vote.

That means 15 votes advance the bill to a final passage vote, where only 11 votes are needed for final passage and sending the bill to the Governor’s desk.

When Senator Giessel made the motion to advance the bill to third reading, an objection was raised.

That moved the Senate to an immediate vote.

No discussion.

No debate.

But Giessel called for an at-ease.

The off-the-record wheeling and dealing started.

The Democrat Majority Caucus had the 11 votes to pass the bill.

But those 11 votes were meaningless if they did not have the 15 votes to advance immediately to third reading.

They had only one chance to get 15 votes for third reading.

If Giessel allowed the vote to happen without 15 votes, she would not get a second chance.

The bill would be defeated.

Tensions were high.

There was weeping and gnashing of teeth, tearing garments, and wearing sackcloth and ashes.

They came back later, and instead of returning to the vote — the only option on the table — Giessel tried again.

She asked for unanimous consent to advance HB 195 to third reading.

There was an objection.

Sackcloth tore.

Ashes flew.

Giessel called for another at-ease before the vote could be called.

The Senate went through this process twice on May 20.

At one point, Senate President Gary Stevens came down from on high to get the Senate back on track.

Why all the off-the-record debates and dealmaking?

Because the Republican Minority Caucus had six members.

With six NAY votes, they could defeat HB 195.

We had them.

The bill was defeated.

As long as the Republican Minority voted as a block, HB 195 would fall in defeat.

I was drafting the celebration invitations, ordering pro-life pizzas, and all the non-alcoholic beer I could find.

But then Republican Minority Leader Mike Cronk and Republican James Kaufman broke from their caucus.

They crossed the aisle.

They voted with the Democrats.

They advanced the bill to the final passage vote.

The Democrats did not need Cronk and Kaufman to pass the bill – they had 14 votes – 3 more than the 11 needed to pass the bill after it reached the 3rd Reading.

But they needed 15 votes to get over the 3rd Reading hurdle.

Cronk and Kaufman delivered votes 15 and 16 to get over the 3rd Reading hurdle and advance to the Final Passage vote.

After hours of political theater, debating, closed-door and backroom dealing, Cronk and Kaufman left their caucus, crossed party lines, voted with the Democrats, and gave them the victory they so desperately wanted.

So when we count the votes, Cronk and Kaufman pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory are the votes that matter.

However Cronk and Kaufman voted on final passage, the Democrats had the 11 votes needed to pass the bill.

They could have gone back to the pub for drinks.

Their votes did not matter either way on final passage.

But Republicans Cronk and Kaufman cast the deciding votes that ultimately put HB 195 on Governor Dunleavy’s desk.

Hoping you wouldn’t notice – as many in the Republican Party and ‘conservative media’ have not, Cronk crossed back over and voted against HB 195 for final passage.

Remember: some votes are more equal than others – and had Cronk not crossed over for the 3rd Reading vote, there never would have been a Final Passage vote.

The Democrats did not need Cronk and Kaufman’s vote to reach 11 – they had 14 in the bag without Cronk and Kaufman.

The Democrats DID need Cronk and Kaufman’s votes to reach 15 on the 3rd Reading.