newsminer.com

The careful Capitol observer might have noticed that Sen. Joe Thomas, D-Fairbanks, this week voted against an amendment that would have added money to the budget for state-owned shooting ranges, something Thomas supports.

That happens sometimes, and it has to do with majority-minority politics.

In some cases, majority members are “locked down” on votes, like when a budget bill comes to the House or Senate floor. Other times it’s less formal, but in both cases, it’s about the majority maintaining order and control.

“It’s just a process of getting things done,” Thomas said of his vote against the shooting range money, some of which would have gone to the indoor range in Fairbanks.

The amendment was offered by the one minority member on the Senate Finance Committee and wasn’t supported by the majority. Thomas, who’s on the committee, said he didn’t want to hurt any relationships with other members by voting for the amendment when he knew it was going to fail anyway. He added that in this case, he thought the funding would get restored later as part of a bigger plan.

Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Democrat from Bethel and co-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said this morning that Senate leaders are still talking with Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration about the issue.