Cathy Giessel | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Giessel in 2011 | |
| Majority Leader of the Alaska Senate | |
| Assumed office January 17, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Shelley Hughes |
| President of the Alaska Senate | |
| In office January 15, 2019 – January 19, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Pete Kelly |
| Succeeded by | Peter Micciche |
| Member of the Alaska Senate | |
| Assumed office January 17, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Roger Holland |
| Constituency | E |
| In office January 15, 2013 – January 19, 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Lesil McGuire |
| Succeeded by | Roger Holland |
| Constituency | N |
| In office January 18, 2011 – January 15, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Con Bunde |
| Succeeded by | Dennis Egan |
| Constituency | P |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Catherine Andrea Bohms November 9, 1951 Fairbanks, Alaska, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Richard |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (BS) University of Alaska, Anchorage (MS) |
| Website | Official website |
Catherine Andrea Giessel (née Bohms; born November 9, 1951)[1][2] is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Alaska, who has served as a member of the Alaska Senate since 2023 and from 2011 to 2021. From 2013 to 2021, Giessel represented District N in the Alaska Senate, including Northeast Anchorage, Anchorage Hillside and the Turnagain Arm communities of Bird, Girdwood, Indian, and Anchorage, all within the Municipality of Anchorage. First elected in 2010 while identifying with Tea Party values, she has also served as the vice-chair of the state Republican Party and had a career in nursing. Following redistricting, she was elected to a different senate seat in 2012. Giessel serves as chair of the Resources Committee and is a member of the Senate Majority Caucus.[3] After Senate President Pete Kelly was unseated in 2018, Giessel was elected president of the Alaska Senate, a post she held until 2021. Giessel returned to the Alaska Senate in 2023, representing the newly configured District E after defeating incumbent Republican Roger Holland. She will serve as Senate majority leader in the 33rd Legislature, overseeing a coalition caucus of eight Republicans and nine Democrats.
Cathy Giessel was born Catherine Andrea Bohms in Fairbanks, Alaska, on November 9, 1951, the oldest of three daughters (and four children overall) born to Gerald Johnson "Jerry" (1924–2002) and Ruth Odelia (née Bauer, born 1927) Bohms.[4] Jerry Bohms arrived in Alaska in the late 1940s and worked for Wien Alaska Airlines (a predecessor to Wien Air Alaska). Ruth Bohms holds a degree from Gonzaga University School of Law and was admitted before the bars of Alaska and the United States Supreme Court.[5] Ruth Bohms was a candidate for the Alaska Legislature in 1992, running as an Alaskan Independence Party candidate for a Fairbanks-based seat in the Alaska House of Representatives.[4] Giessel graduated from Lathrop High School in Fairbanks[1] and thereafter gained a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Michigan before moving to Anchorage in 1974.[5]
She worked as an advanced nurse practitioner[6] across a variety of clinics in Anchorage and the North Slope Borough and continues to do healthcare consulting, and gained a master's degree in nursing from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2000.[5] She has been on the Alaska Board of Nursing, serving five years as its chairperson, and also on the Alaska Healthcare Strategy Planning Council.[6] In 2010, she was named an 'exceptional leader' by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.[6]
Before gaining her Senate seat, Giessel served on Sean Parnell's campaign team during his race against Don Young during the Republican primary for Alaska's congressional seat in 2008.[7]
Giessel was up for reelection in 2016. Due to all the previous issues resulting from redistricting, this would be the first time Giessel was eligible to have a 4-year term. Giessel's initial Democratic challenger, local non-profit executive and advocate Hilary Morgan, dropped out of the senate race early in 2016. Shortly before the filing deadline, longtime registered Democrat and President of the Alaska AFL-CIO, Vince Beltrami emerged, filing to run as an independent. The race became one of the most expensive state senate races in Alaska history.[8] Giessel won the November general election, defeating challenger Vince Beltrami, 51.90% to 47.57%.[9] Giessel again campaigned on positions strongly supporting natural resource development, diversified economic development, right-sizing Alaska state government, the creation of a comprehensive plan to the state government's budget challenges, and again supported more school choice options for parents of K-12 students. Due to the continued budget shortfall, further reductions in state spending continued as a top priority for the new senate majority caucus. Other priorities of the caucus are plans to implement a state spending limit into law and review of formula driven programs to make additional reforms to the state's most costly programs to get the state budget under control.
Committee assignments
Though elected in 2012 following redistricting, a challenge to the newly drawn districts caused Giessel to be up for reelection again in 2014. Giessel won the November general election, defeating Democratic challenger Harry Crawford Jr., 54.7% to 44.97%.[10] This time Giessel was elected to a 2-year seat that would be up again for reelection in 2016. Giessel campaigned on the position of pro natural resource development, in-state gasline development, diversified economic development and supported more school choice options for parents of K-12 students. Due to the sharp fall of oil prices and Alaska's ensuing fiscal gap in 2015, the budget and curbing state spending became top priorities for the new senate majority caucus. Education funding was another top priority for the caucus as well.[11]
Though elected in 2010 to serve a four-year term, redistricting led to her being up for election again in 2012 for a new senate seat serving District N.[12] In the August Republican primary, Giessel defeated challenger Joe Arness by 67%.[13] She won the November general election, defeating Independent Ron Devon, the husband of Mudflats author Jeanne Devon, 58.8% to 40.7%.[14] She campaigned on the position of pro natural resource development, in-state gasline development, increased economic development, and oil tax reform.[15] Increasing oil production through oil tax reform was a decisive issue during the 2012 election and became top priority for the new senate majority caucus that was formed subsequently.[16]
Giessel was appointed to chair the Senate Resources committee which moved Governor Parnell's oil tax reform legislation and advanced the Alaska Stand-Alone Pipeline project.
Giessel ran for the Senate District P seat in 2010 when Republican incumbent Con Bunde retired after 18 years in the legislature, the last eight in the Senate. She faced two moderates in her party primary: Anchorage assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston and cardiologist Mark Moronell. Taking advantage of the split in the moderate vote she won her party's nomination for the general election – 46% over 28% for Moronell and 25% for Johnston.[7] The Alaska Dispatch, referred to the district election "as [what seems to be] the most important legislative race this year." Giessel identified herself with Tea Party ideals but did not consider herself a Tea Party candidate.[7] In the November election, she beat Democrat Janet Reiser and independent conservative Phil Dziubinski 49% to 39% and 12% respectively.[17] Dziubinski, who had recently retired from a career working for BP, spent over $150,000 of his own money on his campaign.
During her freshman term, Giessel served on the Senate committees on labor & commerce, state affairs, the finance subcommittee on the legislature, and was a member of the Joint In-State Gas Caucus. She aligned herself with the 'Senate Minority' caucus: a grouping of Republican senators who rejected the dominant bipartisan 'Senate Majority' caucus.[6]
In a 2010 response to a questionnaire sent by the Alaska Family Action group, Giessel conveyed pro-life viewpoints, constitutional limits on benefits for same-sex couples and legislative blocks on the expansion of gambling excepting a referendum. Since then however, Senator Giessel has joined democrats in opposition to any policies seaking to reduce or eliminate abortion.[18]
In the 2011 mid-term Alaska Business Report Card (a grading system run by several Alaska business coalitions judging state officials on how favorable they are to the business community) Giessel received an A+, the only senator to receive the highest grade, and only one of five state legislators in both houses. In 2020 Giessel, as Senate President, removed conservative Senator Shelley Hughes from her committees and cut her staff salaries after they were already in Juneau for the legislative session. She additionally voted against protections for girls sports from transgender female competitors and even attempted to end debate on the issue.[19]
In 2013, Giessel was appointed to chair the Energy Producing States Coalition (EPSC), a bipartisan group of legislators across 10 states that focuses on energy and transmission development issues. Following a decision by the Interior Department to withhold $110 million in federal mineral revenue sharing payments because of sequestration, the EPSC issued a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership denouncing the act, which Giessel signed on to.[20]
Giessel is married to Richard and has three children and several grandchildren.[5] She is a member of both the National Rifle Association of America – which has endorsed her run for re-election[21] and the Second Amendment Sisters.[6] She received the Anchorage Republican Woman of the Year award in 2007.[6]
