capital focus

JUNEAU — Fairbanks Reps. Jay Ramras and Scott Kawasaki both said Thursday it was too early to even think about running for the Senate seat held by Sen. Gary Wilken, who told the News-Miner on Wednesday he will not run again this fall.

“I think Gary Wilken is great,” Ramras said. “I want to persuade him to run. He’s awesome.”

Ramras said it never occurred to him that Wilken wouldn’t run and he hadn’t given any thought to going after Wilken’s seat.

It would be like trying to replace Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, he said. “I just can’t even contemplate it.”

Kawasaki said he was so busy just doing his job now — studying energy issues, helping constituents — he wasn’t even thinking about it.

“It would be premature for me to look into it,” he said. “Right now, I have to stay focused on this job.”

Ramras and Kawasaki serve from the two House districts covered by Wilken’s Senate district. Wilken and Ramras are Republicans and Kawasaki is a Democrat.

Susan Butcher bill

A bill sponsored by Fairbanks Rep. David Guttenberg honoring champion dog musher Susan Butcher is moving again.

Guttenberg, a Democrat, filed the bill before the start of last year’s legislative session. It moved quickly through the House and passed without opposition, but was held up in the Senate Resources Committee.

On Wednesday, the chair of the Senate Resources Committee asked that the referral to his committee be waived. The referral was waived, and the bill was sent to the State Affairs Committee instead.

Guttenberg said he thought the new committee referral gave the bill a better chance of making it through the Senate.

The bill, HB 37, would establish the first Saturday in March each year — the traditional start date of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race — as Susan Butcher Day.