By SUZANNE DOWNING
Partying going on in Juneau? None of this is new.
What spilled out of the bars and into public view this week on a political blog and then on the Amy Demboski Show on KENI didn’t shock anyone who’s spent time around the Capitol. It just said out loud what everyone already knows, and what too many people pretend not to see.
The so-called “party house,” now the worst-kept secret in Juneau, is only the latest chapter in a book as old as statehood. Affairs between married legislators and staff. Drinking that starts in committees and continues long after work. Drugs and drag shows. Secrets that are whispered but in reality are common knowledge. And the wink-and-a-nod understanding that as long as everyone keeps their mouths shut, the behavior can continue.
The culture is one of mutually assured destruction if anyone blows the whistle.
Here’s what Demboski said in an especially candid segment of her show:
As she says in the clip above, “You better not slip in the hallways of the Capitol because you might pick up gonorrhea.”
This Capitol Culture goes back. To review …
Back in the pipeline boom years, when money flowed like water and the state budget doubled almost overnight, the Capitol became a playground. I know because I saw it. I worked briefly in the Capitol during those years. Legislators, staff, and even executive branch officials partied hard. Cocaine wasn’t a rare sight. Sometimes it was on desks in lines, ready to snort … yes, even on the upper floors of the Department of Law. Women orbited the power brokers like fine accessories. The excess was shrugged off as part of the era. Boys being boys, politics being politics.
Fast forward a few decades, and the names and personal preferences or pronouns have changed, but the behavior hasn’t.
There was the Love Caucus a few years back. There was the one (or more) legislator who fathered a child with a direct report. There have been endless late nights fueled by alcohol at places like the Triangle, long known as a legislative watering hole. Everyone in Juneau knows which bars, which houses, which doors are revolving. Oh if the walls could talk.
Now it’s the “Animal House,” owned by a legislator already notorious for bad behavior, that’s become the focal point. The talk of the town. The place where lines blur and reputations and marriages go to die quietly.
They think it’s under wraps. It isn’t.
What makes this worse isn’t just the behavior itself. It’s the hypocrisy. This is a Legislature that lectures Alaskans about ethics, accountability, and trust in government. A Legislature that passes rules for everyone else while quietly exempting itself from basic standards of conduct. A Legislature that wonders why public confidence is collapsing, while behaving like the Capitol is a frat house with better suits.
Not every legislator or staffer is involved. Not even close. Many come to Juneau to work, serve, and go home. There are many that do their jobs, who call constituents back, and toil late into the nights. But the tolerance of this behavior stains everyone. Silence becomes complicity. Looking the other way becomes endorsement. And it gives the entire Legislature a bad name.
Yes, we know, power corrupts. When lawmakers carry on affairs with staff, when alcohol and drugs become normalized, when secrets are traded like currency, the public interest always comes last. Decisions get compromised, people get protected who shouldn’t be. Everything has a price in those halls, including silence.
They think we don’t know. But many of us do know who is doing who, where they’re doing it, and how many more are in line. As they say in Juneau, you don’t lose your girlfriend, you just lose your turn.
The party has spun out of control. Those involved, you know who you are. We do too.
Suzanne Downing is founder of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.
28 thoughts on “Juneau’s open secret: The Capitol culture of mutually assured destruction”
Hmmm(?) … Maybe this ‘sordid’ and ‘unbecoming’ behavior – conduct is a reflection of our current society where there is a clear “lack of” morality – honor – integrity – consequences – etc. throughout our communities, cities, regions, and industries. While these types of behaviors and ‘party lifestyle’ sets a bad example for our expectations of elected leaders, there’s likely not much that can be done to rein it in. Unless of course … it becomes public knowledge, the overall constituency abhors // condones it (ie: garnering public outrage), and ultimately decide to take appropriate action by showing up to vote them out.
I’m guessing this will simply continue until we (ie: the constituency) demand something better.
Juneau appears to be a microcosm of our U.S. Congress! They both spend too much money on wasteful programs. Moral standards are compromised by these politicians. Accountability is greatly needed for both groups!
Seems this article could be paired with Kevin McCabe’s article also this morning. Too many in Juneau have been elected on false promises and ‘popularity’ and not for any leadership ability. If one does not have a solid moral foundation, courage and conviction to stand on it, they are going to have problems. Yes we have had successful leaders who lacked personal moral compass, yet somehow by God’s grace were able to make decisions good for those they serve, but I don’t think it is the norm. This seems yet another illustration of why the legislature really needs to be more physically accessible to the population base.
Same problem in Delta Junction ! A greatly conservative community who puts it liberal friends on the local City Council . They dont vote over the best person to do the job they vote for their buddy. Then they wonder why spending gets out of control then they sit around and talk about taxes….
Good reportage SD. I think this is a potential silver mine. Keep at it.
Also, further confirmation of the morally bankrupt and deeply corrupt nature of most Alaskan politicians. A pox on them.
Why is it so hard to say the names? I was told by a politically connected friend everyone knows it’s sen yundt with the party house. If he’s married thats a recipe for disaster and why would any legislator put themselves in that position? Terrible judgement which begs the question if they make poor decisions outside the workplace how bad are they in the workplace?
I named a name in a post (on this thread) that was 100% true. But Suzanne declined to publish it. I have asked her why but she seems unwilling to say.
We’ve known this since I moved to Alaska in 70’s . Nothing new, the people voted to move the Capital 3-4 times. But somehow the Politicians always circumvented the will of the people till we just gave up trying to bust up their “Party”! Good luck getting it done with the thieves and Leftist there now.
What I remember about moving the capitol out of Juneau was that after voting to move the capitol, Alaskans were given the dollar figure of 1 billion to move the capitol to the Willow area, then the voters turned it down.
It is not a surprised because None of the leaders we elect are Christians while the residents who DO vote none of them even open the bibles to study God’s Word.
If the people who Do vote want better leaders then change of direction starts with the voters themselves and that is opening up those “Dusty Bibles” and reading God’s Word.
If this debauchery is happening IN the Capitol building, I would think legislators have no choice but to fire the staffers. If they don’t, HR should. if your legislator is doing the same, we have a choice to make! I know some names, and I for one hope someone runs against my legislator since she is a name I have heard. This is OUR building, Alaskans building. I don’t approve. So embarrassing.
I’m glad I don’t live there anymore Eventhough I was raised there. I would rather been raised in Fairbanks or Anchorage in the nineties.
Now! The only way to get me back to Juneau is if God sent me. The only reason He’d send me back to Juneau and Southeast would be to Evangelize.
If Juneau and Southeast had ANY fear of God they should be scared Why God has not sent any Real time Evangelists/Missionaries to live in their communities. It’s like they are forgotten not even bothered with like they are not even the Lord’s family. I’m talking straight and real.
Well, whose house is it? Anybody wanna spill the beans?
I posted above. I have asked more questions since this broke and from what I can gather it’s clear sen yundt of the matsu bought and owns that party house. Apparently it’s right by the legislature building.
As a former legislator I saw this behavior firsthand and worse. I’m sure not much has changed in the 20 plus years since I left the corrupted effects of that place. Call me naive but when the speaker of the house and rules chair have to be carried into the chambers to conduct the people’s business, because their drunk from lobbyist indulging them with booze in order to influence their vote. I lost all faith in the system of our government. I committed to my family to have an all married male staff and got labeled as a wildcard. Because I refused to be influenced by lobbyists. No wonder senator Geisel thinks the LNG line would be bad for Alaska. Because she sees prostitution and drugs everyday in Juneau during session.
Lived in Juneau and worked in the Legislature throughout most of the 80’s. Suzanne isn’t kidding. It was a big incestuous playground and gambling parlor for many. One female legislator in particular was passed around like candy by her male peers. She went on to several high positions in state government. Drinking at the Baranof Hotel was required in order to get bills
passed out of committees. Lobbyists furnished the best drugs in Juneau, fresh off the fishing boats. And the homosexual elements were some of the racier stories. Gay male legislators didn’t even try to hide their proclivities. One of the more hilarious occurances was when Senator Fahrenkamp caught two of them in the middle of their negotiations in a committee room thinking the door was locked. Yes, staff often got sexually involved with each other, but the best stories were when married legislators from out of town didn’t even try to hide their affairs. One married legislator from Anchorage had so many lady friends on the side, most days he was too tired to show up for work. And the coke kingpin, was a well-known lobbyist who worked his trade in the committee rooms with legislators during recess. It was hard to keep secrets in Juneau, and I don’t think many tried.
Ah yes…. The 80’s in the Capital City! On Friday nights legislators would bring booze into the Capitol building stacked on hand trucks. Caseloads of beer and booze. Blow everywhere. And the old hot tubs in the basement of the Alaskan Hotel? That’s where some interesting sh*t went down. Naked stuff you can’t unsee!
You remember!
A part of the 80’s I’d like to forget. 🤣
That might’ve happened in some offices in the 80’s, but it never happened in my Dad’s Capital House office. Obviously, the ‘party’ times have morphed further into a “morally challenged” abyss. If this trajectory doesn’t change for the better, just imagine what it’ll be like in a few decades … “if” our Republic, Freedom & Liberty even exist then!
These are true stories. The 80’s were a free-for-all in Juneau. With the exception of one Republican senate president, most of the graft was run out of the Democrat Causus. A Finance Committee Chair built several mansions for himself and took his buddies to Hawaii on free spending junckets. State money. The stupid Republican minorites were handed fringe sub-committee assignments thinking they had some power while the Democrat leadership laughed at them in the back rooms. One Democrat legislator was such a hard partier he ended up with a peg leg and a broke d*ck.
$9,000 a month in per diem goes a long way in dope and booze. Ever think their is the personal reason they dont want the capital moved ?
Why did to delete my comment, Suzanne? What I wrote is 100% correct.
Dunleavy is chief party dick
This reads as pure fantasy coming from a woman who was never invited to parties. A shame because you’re smart just not fun.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see even more debauchery after gas line construction starts.
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This article could be consequential, to say the least. Forget mutually assured destruction, what if someone gets federal immunity to spill his guts, or use this as an opportunity to file an epic false-claims lawsuit?
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What if citizen journalists, tech whizzes equipped with modern technology, see it as an open invitation to tug on hanging threads, pull out big rotten chunks of what props up Alaska’s lobbyist-legislator racket, or federal investigators see it as an opportunity to do what they did twenty years ago in Suite 604 of Juneau’s Baranof Hotel? Ten percent of Alaska’s legislators went down in that one. What if more than that go down in this one?
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Might be worth saving for a future headline: “No Quorum, Clink’s Full”
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Okay, not every legislator or staffer is involved, but those who are, …are they numerous and influential enough to make, and sustain, a difference because pimps, drug pushers, and their bosses now own them, their connections, and their votes?
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What, these are basically decent dopers and drunks who’d never, ever consort with, much less be caught copulating with, underage girls and boys? Might be fun, shake up their supply chain, see who squeals, no?
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All this while chattering about stiffing productive residents with sales and income taxes.
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Let the games begin.
But the Capitol “can’t” be moved, it will make us too vulnerable to the people! Names, please.
The end of session party is legendary. Back when Al Adams ran the Senate finance Committee, the party was in his office on the 4 th floor. Lobbyist bought the booze and food. It was crazy the last year security cameras were installed. Then people woke up with hangovers realizing it was all on tape. Capitol security had a shakeup because one whistle blower wanted to release the tapes. It got quashed. The Knowles Admin were the biggest end of session partiers. The neighbors called the cops and they raided the 3rd floor. It was always a good time for me to soberly observe and take notes or pictures for future leverage! LOL!
Get that cess pool legislature out of Juneau. Suzanne is right, it’s a small percentage, but as long as they can hide in Liberal Juneau, liberals are generally hard wired “anything goes.” They don’t care who is screwing who, as long as their money train is preserved. Collective memories are short. It was not too long ago a rising star Anchorage mayor got caught with their britches down. That person came from the legislative culture. A Nick Shirley type video blogger could clean up by going into the triangle and being in the halls at midnight on the last day of session. Landfill won’t do it, he’s real proud of his disgusting picture in a speedo with a bunch of bikini babes.