Noncustodial Parents Rights:
Their Stories Interacting with Alaskan Legislators and the Fledgling Voting Bloc
Contributed by David Vesper
As Alaskans made their voices heard in the voting booth this past November, Alaskan noncustodial parents joined them. Noncustodial parents are biological parents of children with limited or no parental rights with their children. As a result of their legal status with the state, noncustodial parents are often with limited time with their children, absorb exorbitant legal costs, and become socially ostracized.
Traditionally, noncustodial parents refused to participate in the democratic process for various reasons. Often, they are too busy to advocate for themselves and their children because they usually work multiple jobs to pay for legal and state costs in addition to their monthly budgetary constraints. Noncustodial parents lack the faith in all three branches of state government in listening to their concerns to make the Family Court system egalitarian. As a socially ostracized and financially strained constituency, noncustodial parents withdraw themselves into physical, emotional, and psychological isolation from the rest of the world with little to no hope of developing a meaningful and fulfilling relationship with their children.
Following years of legal battles and parental alienation from my children, I have been advocating for noncustodial parents and their children since 2016 in seeking shared parenting legislation. I regularly speak to legislative members and candidates around Alaska. Interactions with legislators have certainly exposed apathy and ignorance on the issue of Parental Rights in Child Custody by both Republicans and Democrats.
When I broached the topic with Republican Senator Cathy Giessel at a townhall event in 2017, she cut me off, told me to “talk to” REP Lance Pruitt, and walked away. REP Pruitt, to his credit, listened to the issue and said he would support shared parenting legislation. But he fell short of active support in the legislature, even as the Minority Leader of his caucus, for fear of losing his seat in a “purple district.”
Noncustodial parents in their swing districts voted against them in 2020. REP Pruitt lost to Democratic challenger Liz Snyder by 13 votes in District 27 and SEN Giessel lost both her post as Senate President and her seat in District N.
At another town hall event in House District 16 in 2018, Democratic House Representative Ivy Spohnholz was introduced to a noncustodial parent from her district as a “vulnerable parent.” Research and data placed this father in a vulnerable category of parents more likely to experience diminished legal rights as a parent due to his gender and single marital status. REP Spohnholz disagreed and dismissed this father’s concern by asserting he already had full legal rights as a parent.
Since the Tender Years Doctrine was gradually replaced by the Child’s Best Interest standard in the 1970’s, the principle of Maternal Preference has been the practice in every US state. On average, mothers retain sole or primary custody in 85% of all Child Custody cases despite state law that says “neither parent… is entitled to preference in the awarding of custody.” As an unwed father, REP Spohnholz’s constituent was not presumed to have any legal parental rights as an acknowledged putative parent and, therefore, he must petition the state for those same rights inherited by the mother when their daughter was born. Thus, making him a vulnerable parent.
As word reached other noncustodial parents in House District 16, parental rights groups reached out to 2020 Republican challenger Paul Bauer. He also dismissed the need for shared parenting legislation deeming any legislative action as “redundant.” So, many noncustodial parents threw their support behind Libertarian Scott Kohlhaas. As a result, incumbent Ivy Spohnholz, with 53% of the vote, easily held off Paul Bauer (40.6%) and Scott Kohlhaas, who earned a respectable 6.3% as a third-party candidate. While Spohnholz maintained her 2018 election support, Paul Bauer was unable to make the contest competitive with a surging Kohlhaas siphoning away noncustodial parent votes.
Other legislators such as SEN Elvi Gray-Jackson, SEN Shelley Hughes, REP Harriet Drummond, REP Ken McCarty, and REP Kelly Merrick were just as dismissive. On my second in-person visit to REP Geran Tarr’s office in Anchorage for a follow-up, her staff even refused to let me in the common area of her office.
Former Senator Berta Gardner in 2017 consulted with Legislative Legal and responded by email by stating her opposition to shared parenting legislation as she believed current statutes to already be “egalitarian” despite the child custody disparity between mothers and fathers.
Her House counterpart, lawyer and Representative Andy Josephson, opposed HB 13 Shared Parenting bill because he wrongly believed the bill would “decrease judicial discretion” in Domestic Violence situations. He also dismissed the complaint made by many Alaskan noncustodial parents of false accusations of Domestic Violence to be used against them as leverage to gain Child Custody and Child Support.
As co-chairs of the House HSS Committee in 2020, REP Tiffany Zulkosky and REP Lyz Snyder held a public hearing on REP George Rauscher’s HB 13 Shared Parenting Bill. After my invited testimony was complete, the co-chairs opened the floor to “public testimony.” One-by-one, they allowed a Fairbanks law firm and their associated DV groups to publicly oppose HB 13, place their comments on the record and run the clock out… leaving nearly a dozen noncustodial parents and adult survivors of child parental alienation in the phone queue and unable to use their voice in support of the bill.
There are supporters of shared parenting legislation. House Republican Representative George Rauscher has introduced shared parenting legislation for the past two Legislative Sessions. He was joined by REP David Eastman and former Representative Sharon Jackson as co-sponsors. SEN Shower has vowed to take up the bills should they reach the Senate.
There are other legislators that either support shared parenting or have listened to the noncustodial parents in their district like Representatives DeLena Johnson, Ben Carpenter, Christopher Kurka, Sara Rasmussen, Laddie Shaw, and Senator’s Peter Micciche, Mia Costello, Lora Reinbold, and Josh Revak.
In return, many noncustodial parents in their districts either voted for them or gave what little money they had to their campaigns. As noncustodial parents came up empty after each Legislative Session over the past 6 years, they remain resilient and hopeful as they endure an oppressive and broken legal system.
Parental Rights in Education may have taken center stage on child advocacy issues, but Parental Rights in Child Custody is a completely different voting bloc. They consist of mostly noncustodial parents, their loved ones, and their adult children who are survivors of Parental Alienation. And, they deserve to have their voices heard as well. Politicians may not see them line up to the microphone at a townhall event like their fellow child advocates, but they deserve to be heard through legislative action. Believe me… as history has shown, they are turning into single issue voters, and they are beginning to impact Alaskan elections. Unlike many other voting blocs, noncustodial parents are not favoring any political party because no political party has accepted leadership on the basic human right of a parent-child relationship.
