By REP. JAMIE ALLARD
“The people have spoken!”
It’s always interesting to hear who shouts that first and loudest after an election. The statement implies a fundamental truth about our democratic republic: Unlike dictatorships, we have a direct say in who writes our laws and makes the calls on how our government is run. But politics is, unfortunately, more based on optics and power than truth.
Case in point: the opinion piece written by the supposedly incoming leadership (Bryce Edgmon, Chuck Kopp, Louise Stutes, Neal Foster, Calvin Schrage, Andy Josephson and Zack Fields) of the state House.
The whole thing was likely ghostwritten by Democrat political operatives, and we congratulate the Democratic Party for “flipping the House,” as they are now taking credit for it everywhere. Let’s give credit where it’s due:
The Democrats’ Tuesday op-ed is a bit “TLDR,” so let me save you the trouble and the clicks to the ADN and give a quick summary of what was said: “the people voted for us (Dems and friends) to oppose a conservative Governor and legislature, to ram budget busting pensions through, look at taxes, and jack up spending. We can prove it because we are here and in charge. And we are ready to get to work.”
Hold those horses people, especially what comes out of them.
The people of Alaska, like our country, did vote overwhelmingly in a clear voice for some things. They voted to change out the White House leadership, which is run either by an elderly mentally incompetent guy or a network of unelected advisors carrying out a shadow government, with our former and now incoming President Trump, who has been slandered, vilified, persecuted, and literally shot at. The people voted to send Mary Peltola, a nice, photogenic Democrat clone for the D.C. special interests, away from Congress and put a real conservative in.
Here in Alaska, the people voted in waves for Trump, Nick Begich for Congress, and for Republicans in the House and Senate. Let me say that again: We have a majority of lawmakers in both bodies registered as Republicans. So the head scratcher to many folks is this: Why are four Republicans in the Senate and two in the House putting Democrats in power?
To be crystal clear, in the state House, of which I and my fellow conservatives are members, there are 21 Republicans, exactly enough to lead in that chamber.
Instead, two Republicans have crossed over, and given power to 19 Democrats and “Independents,” those people who do not affiliate as Democrats and yet the Democrat party funds their campaigns and celebrates their wins.
Why?
There are two reasons. One is good old fashioned power. When you are in the majority, you get to be in charge of everything, from what bills get heard in committees and put on the floor, to what size the budget is, to whether the Permanent Fund Dividend is honored, to the petty issues of office sizes, travel allowances, and other perks. Members of the “big office caucus” like the trappings of power as much as what power can do.
The other reason is more important, and Alaskans should make no mistake about why this majority got put together. Special interests want to gut the finances of this state and make you pay for it. I don’t have to say anything except what some of these people have said on the record and in their own opinion pieces. What is their number one priority: more education funding, and returning Alaska government employees to a pension system that nearly bankrupted us twenty years ago.
Alaskans need to know how serious this will be. If pensions are returned for state workers, local governments get to bring them back too. That means property taxes, and local sales taxes will certainly go up to cover those costs just at the city level.
At the state…that’s a whole other story. What is left of the PFD will be on the chopping block. But don’t worry: The majority will try finding a way to pay for it by bringing back statewide taxes. Don’t believe me? Just look at the current leadership coming in. They did it before, when the original PFD raider, Bill Walker, was governor. We were lucky we had conservatives in the Senate who killed those bad ideas. But we don’t anymore.
And we haven’t touched one of the major issues Alaskans and Americans voted this year: declaring a war on woke. We have fought for years to make commonsense changes to our laws, like preventing biological boys from competing against our girls in school sports, and not pushing gender mutilation through government policy. I guarantee you the folks in charge do not care one bit about your concerns on these issues; in fact, they relish being against you on it.
The silver lining is this: Alaskans voted for really good conservatives throughout the state, and the House cannot run wild with such a thin margin of Democrats and supposed Republicans. Your conservatives will be in every room where your wallet, your families interest, and your rights are going to be threatened. But this is will take a team effort. Those in power think they can steamroll you, but working together, conservatives in Juneau and back in regular Alaska can shine the light of common sense and truth on them.
Enjoy Thanksgiving — and be thankful change is coming to D.C., and be ready to roll in January. The people HAVE spoken; let’s remind those who cling to power about that.
Rep. Jamie Allard represents District 23, Eagle River, in the Alaska Legislature.
How many times has this happened? Of the years Republican won, it seems like there has been one congessional organization in line with the voters in the past 10 years.
JAMIE ALLARD is a Patriot!!!
Thank you Jamie for all that you do for all of us!
Politics has its own leaching system (also called leach field)!! Remember, the guy that is affected is at the bottom of the leaching system and is the one that took the time to vote!! So, to the legislative body, be careful so you don’t slip on the downhill slide of the leaching system!!!
Thank you Jamie Allard for your insightful article … It’s refreshing to see that there’s a voice of reason in the House … let’s hope that the “Republicans” who have deaf ears, get their hearing back and pay attention to what the rest of us Alaskans voted for! And enough of this woke bullsh*t already.
“Edgmon’s doom loop of spending” was coined on the Michael Dukes Show, shortly after “King” Edgmon announced he would be the next speaker…..which was just breaths before he announced that the legislature would be going back in session with a deficit from the drop in price of oil. They need $75 a barrel through June 31, 2025 to break even….well that’s not happening. What is happening is the Supplemental Budget is by most estimates way north of $200 Million…maybe even a half billion. That’s the dimwits first hurdle to solve. The next problem is the promises of a socialist Nirvana for state workers, with an estimated 8 to 900 million a year to fund a
defined benefit program, which has absolutely no funding short of stealing the last of the PFD.
Then the dimwit majority will really have to hit hard on the pipe to fantasize having enough to pay for a $1,460 base student allocation increase. Maybe another $6-800 Million into perpetuity???
Then just when they think they have enough votes for the organized theft of whats left in the CBR to cover the funding, someone will come out of the opiate haze and point out that the Governor’s Ten Year plan shows over a Billion Dollar Deficit starting in 2026…. probably into perpetuity.
This is an easy one to win for Governor Dunleavy, just throw away the Red Veto Pens and start handing out more crack pipes too the majority, they’ll smoke themselves under the table in no time flat.
My two Representatives in the Alaska House — Jamie Allard and Dan Saddler — are in align with my thought process. Unfortunately the voters in Eagle River/Chugiak area voted in an abomination of Merrick in the Senate. I cannot understand why since she is not a Republican and controlled by her own interest that is the Union which her derelict Husband is high in the food chain. Public Service Unions are the scourge of the taxpayer and should be outlawed Private sector unions are between the companies and the unions and should be looked at very warily since the cost will be passed on to the consumer.