GOP legislator who missed 168 votes failed to heed good advice on COVID travel

The Anchorage Daily News has a story today on how a poor attendance record has become a big issue in an Anchorage legislative race between incumbent Republican Rep. Sara Rasmussen and independent challenger Stephen Trimble.

The gist of the story is that Rasmussen missed 168 votes this year, more than 100 of them in March.

She left Juneau on March 11 for her great-grandfather’s 100th birthday.

Rasmussen should have known by then, the day that Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a public health disaster, that she should not have made the trip.

Within days, the Legislature had established a two-week quarantine for those who had traveled Outside. Rasmussen, while she was gone, asked for a legal opinion on whether she had to abide by the quarantine and stay out of the building, which meant missing nearly every key vote of the 2020 session.

“I was asked to self isolate after going out of state for my great grandpa’s 100th birthday in Utah,” she tweeted on March 28. “The decision to keep members out of the building was made after I had left. I think we need to follow the isolation rules we are asking Alaskans to follow.”

Her two-week isolation ended March 31, two days after the Legislature stopped meeting because of the pandemic.

The Republican legislators quoted by the Anchorage Daily News are now claiming that March 11 was too early for anyone to know what was about to happen, that a quarantine might be put into effect or that Rasmussen made a bad decision.

They wouldn’t be saying any of that if they didn’t want her to win and help them gain a legislative majority.

On March 10, the day before she left on her trip, the Associated Press reported that “legislative leaders announced restrictions on out-of-state travel for lawmakers and staff, and they suggested against personal travel outside Alaska by members.”

A day earlier, March 9, the Anchorage Daily News reported the anti-travel advice.

“It is strongly suggested that personal travel outside of Alaska also be curtailed,” House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said in a letter to legislators.

Rasmussen ignored that advice. She missed the most important part of the legislative session as a result. The criticism of her for missing votes is not a smear campaign. It is a legitimate issue, one that voters have a right to know about.