Former Alaska Senate president Lyda Green dies at 85

JUNEAU — Former Republican Senate President Lyda Green, who served in the state Legislature for 14 years starting in the mid-1990s, died Tuesday. She was 85.

Green, a business owner and educator, was first elected to the Alaska Senate to represent Wasilla in 1994. She unseated the then-longest serving state legislator — Democrat Jalmar “Jay” Kerttula — signaling an electoral shift in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to Republicans.

Green, the third Alaska woman to serve as Senate president, led that legislative chamber for her last two years in office. She headed a bipartisan majority coalition in the Senate, similar to the makeup of the current Senate majority caucus.

“She was just such an institution in the Senate,” said current Republican Senate President Gary Stevens, who served with Green. Stevens said that she was firm in her beliefs, but that she was willing to compromise.

Green spent five years on the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Stevens said Green knew how to work with any administration to write and pass a budget.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a fellow Wasilla Republican, said that the Alaska and U.S. flags will fly at half-staff to honor Green at a date to be determined after consulting with her family. Dunleavy said in a prepared statement that “Lyda was more than a colleague and a neighbor, she was a family friend and I counted on her for sound advice, experience and wisdom throughout my time in public office.”

The governor’s office said that a public memorial service for Green will be scheduled at a later date.