Jay Ramras living P.T. Barnum legacy

By Myrl Thompson
Phineas T. Barnum once told President Grant that, "advertising made me." The great American showman, businessman and politician dazzled the country with his many outrageous extravaganzas and oddities and coined the famous phrase, "There's a sucker is born every minute." Not to be outdone, Fairbanks Rep. Jay Ramras, who could also claim that advertising made him, seems to believe that Alaska must have its share of suckers, too. Ramras has seemingly become the new front-man and political impresario for the cruise ship industry's assault on the recently passed ballot initiative.

He passed the gavel to his Judiciary Committee vice-chair last week so he could passionately plead the case for the cruise industry on Rep. Kyle Johansen's House Bill 164, one of just a number of bills that, put together, would gut the cruise ship head tax and accompanying industry restrictions passed last August.

The Johansen bill goes after the ocean rangers section of the initiative, which sets aside $4 of the $50 head tax to pay for onboard monitoring of sewage and other related discharges.

However, Ramras doesn't stop there, because he also is sponsoring HB 222, which goes after the remaining $46 of the tax. He is also co-sponsoring HB 217, which is changing a third section of the initiative, although the main sponsor of that bill, Anchorage Rep. Lindsay Holmes, has been working with initiative sponsors to make that bill more palatable.

Ramras, on the other hand, seems to loathe the initiative process and the people's ability to do what he and his fellow legislators were unable to. The Alaska Constitution has made it possible for citizens to make laws when their legislators refuse to do it.

The process is not an easy one, and the Legislature made it even more difficult for citizens just a few short years ago. Ramras was onboard with that effort as well as another, last year, when he tried to make the constitutionally protected recall process harder for citizens to enact. It was a shortsighted attempt that, ultimately, failed.

His disdain for our constitutionally protected right to initiate laws is strange enough, but to go against a recent vote of the people is downright insulting.

But like P.T. Barnum, Ramras had another topper. I was in his Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday, where discussion focused on two ethics bills and a third that proposes to take the environmental permitting process for industry away from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and put it in the control of the industry-friendly state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Ramras managed to change much of that committee hearing into a test run for an upcoming performance on the ocean rangers bill, due for another hearing Monday. During the Wednesday bill hearing, he mentioned ocean rangers and cruise ships by name or reference no fewer than 16 times in less than 40 minutes.

He asked leading questions and tried to glean everything he could from department officials who were there to testify on the permitting bill. It was as if he were preparing for his own Juneau version of "The Greatest Show on Earth." It was the Ramras show, and he did as he pleased.

Quite frankly, it was shameless. Ramras seems to have lost sight of the fact that he is a representative of the people of this state and not the cruise ship industry.

Barnum was a consummate entrepreneur and even lectured on the "art of money-getting." But when it comes to getting cruise industry money, our own legislative entrepreneur may have equaled even P.T. himself. In the last year alone, Ramras has bought and sold cruise industry stocks, done a lucrative private business with industry and received thousands more in campaign contributions.

Where Barnum and Ramras differ is on the scale of the show and the fact that Barnum would debunk and expose hoaxes, whereas Ramras seems to be more inclined to perpetuate them.

What Ramras and some of his fellow legislators don't seem to grasp is that the people of Alaska have spoken loudly and clearly through their vote on the cruise ship initiative. These lawmakers need to quit pandering to an industry that last year expended millions of dollars to convince us of their vision but lost a statewide vote to a populist initiative that required an awareness campaign of merely a few thousand dollars in comparison.

HB 164, the ocean rangers bill, is scheduled again Monday in Ramras' Judiciary Committee, and we can expect another full-scale sales pitch by Ramras and the cruise ship gang. The 15 or so high-dollar professional lobbyists who are on the industry payrolls have been doing their jobs behind the scenes, so don't expect the industry or certain legislators to recapitulate.

What we, as citizens, have to hope for is that enough legislators on his committee come to their senses and respect the will of the people. When big money is involved in politics, though, legislators appear to have a tough time doing what is right.

They will tell you that the money has no influence. But then again, they will tell you many things. In the end, though, actions, as always, speak louder than words.

First published April 15, 2007 by the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman

Myrl Thompson is a veteran Capitol watcher, former candidate for state House, and award-winning free-lance journalist based in Wasilla, Alaska.

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