UPDATE: The House Judiciary Committee hearing is on Friday April 10, and they will take public testimony at 5 p.m. 1-800-295-4546. Listen live on Gavel to Gavel. The full Legislature is scheduled to hold a confirmation vote on April 16.

UPDATE 2: Read Leah Burton’s testimony on WAR’s family values: “There wouldn’t be an issue with domestic violence if women would learn to keep their mouths shut.”

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The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking public testimony for the Attorney General Confirmation Hearings for Wayne Anthony Ross on Wednesday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m.

The call in number is: 1-888-295-4546. You can also walk in to your local Legislative Information Office to testify. The Anchorage office is on 4th Ave.

“Does he have the qualifications, ethical standards and temperament to be the state’s top law enforcement official and run such an important, politically sensitive department?” asked an ADN editorial.

Qualifications

• Ross has been up for two separate Judicial advancements in the past two years, for the Alaska Supreme Court in 2007 and the Alaska Court of Appeals in 2008. He was not nominated by the Alaska Judicial Council either time. His mediocre Alaska Bar Association scores were cited as the reason he did not receive a nomination.
• In response, he wrote a letter to the Bar Association newsletter complaining about the judicial selection process and the negative comments made about him in the anonymous Bar Survey used to rate the applicants.

Ethics and Temperament

There is an extensive written record on Ross from his two unsuccessful runs for governor and his long history of political activism. His zealous support for a host of controversial causes and his insulting public statements about those who believe differently show intolerance, bad judgement and the inability to seek common ground. He has a long list of enemies, and even his attorney peers and NRA buddies don’t want him in positions of power.

• He called on the governor to fire an Assistant Attorney General for her participation in a peaceful animal rights demonstration. (“Animal Activists Real Enemy”)
• He threatened to sue the Permanent Fund Dividend division because they denied a check to his son Brian, who had not lived in Alaska for 14 years.
• During a talk on domestic violence, he said that the women’s movement emasculated men and was the cause of domestic abuse.
• He promised to fight the federal law requiring rural subsistence, and opposes tribal sovereignty saying, “If the state wants to deal with tribes, it should treat them as it treats fraternal organizations rather than as governments.”
• He did not support Mayor Wuerch for re-election because Wuerch refused to help Ross’ friend get into the Anchorage Fire Department after the friend failed a required psychological test.
• He publicly stated that pro-choice people are “baby killers,” and called gays and lesbians “degenerates” in an open letter to the state Bar Association.
• He endorsed Rick Mystrom for mayor in 2003 “because he fights the unions.”
• He represented without fee, and personally supported, a man who twice poured buckets of water from a passing pickup onto anti-war demonstrators.
• He was a founder of Alaska Right to Life and has provided free legal services to anti-abortion activists since 1972.
• He blamed moderate Republicans for the state’s fiscal problems saying, “Moderates are mush.”
• He is a former vice president of the National Rifle Association and was in line to become president, but was voted out of office by his peers.
• He is frequently described as “arrogant,” uncompromising and attention-seeking.

Do we trust an arrogant political activist with mediocre professional ratings, zealous positions on sensitive state issues, and openly expressed prejudice against groups of Alaskan citizens to be “the state’s top law enforcement official and run such an important, politically sensitive department?”

Give your public testimony on Wednesday, April 8 at 5:30 p.m. The call in number is: 1-888-295-4546.