By ALEX GIMARC
As reported by Must Read Alaska, the Anchorage Municipal election is approaching its last full weekend of voting, and the turnout so far has been underwhelming.
While some may argue that this is in line with previous elections, it is still concerning for those who believe that our town can do better with a more engaged and active electorate. It’s important to note that anyone can track their ballot through the Municipal Clerk’s office.
Rather than seeing this low turnout as a problem, we should view it as an opportunity. This opportunity was created by Assemblyman Chris Constant and his Clown Car colleagues, who redistricted the Assembly last year in response to the creation of a second Assembly seat for downtown Anchorage. Unfortunately, Constant made the two downtown seats virtually bulletproof in terms of electing leftist candidates, by taking liberal precincts from surrounding districts and replacing them with more conservative ones. As a result, East Anchorage, West Anchorage, and Midtown have all become more conservative.
However, instead of seeing this as a negative development, we can view it as a gift from the current administration. By recognizing the imbalance in the current Assembly, we have the chance to use our votes to help restore balance and representation to our community. It’s time to take advantage of this opportunity and make our voices heard by casting our ballots in the upcoming election.
Although there are only two Anchorage School Board seats up this time around, recent foolishness from the School Board including the ongoing controversy on Critical Race Theory, equity, sexual grooming of children, and awful testing results give us an opening to replace at least one of Margo Belamy’s merry band of culture warriors — Andy Holleman, who is campaigning against parental rights advocates, calling them noise from a small group of right wingers.
When they hired a new superintendent from a Houston school district that the State of Texas just took over for incompetence, they also presented an opening.
When that unqualified Superintendent arrived, his first act was to ensure the school bus system was broken for the first months of the 2022 – 2023 school year. He then pivoted smartly and attacked one of the few schools in the entire district performing well, the Family Partnership Charter School, much to the distress of parents whose kids go there and are doing well. But at least candidate, incumbent Andy Holleman, got his woke-equity hire bingo card completed.
Funny how when you ignore incompetence and qualifications, you end up with unqualified incompetence. Who knew?
We also have the Trojan Horse that is Prop 14 on the ballot, which is a promise to dedicate marijuana taxes to child care and early education. The carrot here is a decrease in the tax rate from 12 – 10%.
The stick is the dedicated spending, as additional revenue will be needed to cover whatever marijuana tax revenue is being spent on today. Yes, that all but guarantees yet another property tax increase.
Finally, we have the yearly Anchorage School District attempt to pass a school bond for building maintenance. Given the performance of ASD over the year since voters rejected the last school bond, I would suggest they haven’t earned an additional penny, as their priorities have changed from public education to the entire wokester / racialist agenda. There are only so many brain cells and hours of the day available, when you prioritize foolishness, there is not a lot of time or resources left over to teach our kids and grandkids how read, write, and do math, Andy Holleman’s protests notwithstanding.
We have a great opportunity in front of us. All we have to do is get off the dime and turn out to vote. With seven of 12 Assembly seats, two of seven School Board seats, 15 bond and other propositions on the ballot, we have the ability to get the attention of elected politicians who have pointedly chosen not to listen to the public.
This will be fun. Let’s get to work.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
For low information voters, here is some pointers. If you live in Anchorage, don’t vote for any incumbents. Would you continue to take your car to a mechanic who overcharges and doesn’t fix your car? Same difference. And no amount of money is going to fix stupid, so vote no on bonds. And to be safe on issues that you don’t understand, no is harmless. Avoid candidates and issues that are highly advertised. A real candidate can’t afford expensive advertising. Only special interest groups and dirty money. In other words, if the name sounds familiar, don’t vote for them unless you are sure why. Don’t need to feel intimidated about lack of knowledge with these tips. Please vote.
Great tips. Why would anyone vote for an incumbent that is hell bent on destroying Anchorage? You are correct. A no vote on the bonds or initiatives is harmless. Anchorage School District forget their mission to educate the children a long time ago. Hiring an incompetent superintendent proves the school board is also woke, oops incompetent. Hey voters do your research and vote your conscience. That is what I did. If the candidate is endorsed by unions, skip that candidate. Go woke and go broke.
First time I have ever heard a campaign ad from Felix. Literally the first time ever.
I see that as a sign he is wary about his prospects.
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Good.
I heard that smarmy BS radio ad for Reprehensible Rivera as well.
It made me feel like needing to immediately take a shower.
It is interesting though. The ad is not so much for Rivera as it is denigrating to everyone else, especially the public that attends assembly meetings. About the only positive thing it says about Felix is about “keeping his cool.”
While that is an admirable trait, we need more than just that on the Assembly.
Unless he secure, rivera is known by the regulars and travis is unknown . Our district has voter enthusiasm problem, and the majority who do turnout is the liberal minority.
Majority treat those mail-in-ballots as more campaign literature and treated as junk mail. Forgotten.
Already did 😉
You’ll get the government you deserve Anchorage.
How many ballots are in the trunk?
Please people, do you really want Anchorage to be run like all the other democrat run cities in the lower 48??
It’s happening….and that trash will migrate to the valley and farther. Get off your ass and vote for conservative
moral leaders.
Ries, mark anthony cox and NO on all. It’s a small start but it’s a start. Can’t wait till we can get rid of LA France, pretty sure Face Riviera will win again no reason to believe otherwise especially with such low turnout or Mail-in
It doesn’t matter how many people vote. Anchorage is blue now. Has been for quite some time. I don’t understand how people tout that if we could only get more people to vote, we could get rid of some of the liberals. 2 truths; Generally speaking, uninformed people tend to vote more liberal; Generally, uninformed people tend to not vote as often. If we get more people to vote, these are the people who are voting. A bigger turnout will come from more uninformed people voting and they will more likely vote from what they hear in the media…. The liberal media. I speak in general terms of course. Anchorage is lost to big city liberal progressives. It is the fault of no one but parents not teaching the next generation and letting the indoctrination from the liberal left public school system do it for them. Our politics are nothing more than a mirror of who we are. Sad but true….
Do you know what Liberal means regarding information? I don’t think so.
Maureen, you know damned well that the word “liberal” has NOTHING to do with contemporary radical leftists, who are not only NOT liberal, in any sense whatsoever, but who are actually purely authoritarian, as well as neo-puritanical and neo-Bolshevik cultists, pushing a dogma that has little if any relationship to reality.
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I am always trying to decide if you are more insane than evil, or vice versa.
Within my generational and intellectual understanding of the term ‘Liberal’, Maureen, it means that one is more prevalent to believe within a more libertarian aspect of social aspects, that is individual freedom, and more supportive of governmental overseeing of various aspects of life, such as libertarian supported ideas of equality of opportunity and availability no matter the ‘base’ of the individual.
As unto the classic Liberal definition of fiscal issues, it was determined that the wealthy, whatever or whoever those were, and were determined to be, should pay a higher percentage of their wealth so as to somehow be more within alignment with those that did not make as much, and yet did not pay the same percentage of their wealth.
Flat tax, anyone?
And then there became the leftists, such as you, Maureen.
The Liberals of days gone by would not recognize what has become of what you and yours support.
John F. Kennedy would be considered a radical right-wing nut. He had the audacity to support tax cuts, after all.
There are few actual ‘Liberals’ left, Maureen, as they have been voted out within many races…
There are now leftists, which is something completely different, as they are actually communists, socialists, anarchists, antifa, racist bating and supporting groups, or trans population promoting groups, which are all dedicated unto the denigration of lawful civilization and proper upbringing of children by parents, rather than governmental and educational institutions.
Your obvious support of the leftist narrative control rather than true Liberal ideology is not only questionable, Maureen, it is within fact, disgusting.
The problem is we need to have more votes than the unions. Most all union members and their clan vote for libs so they can get more money and benefits. We need 25 thousand votes just to make it close.
Do not call them liberals, call them leftists. There is nothing liberal about them.
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However, your point is valid. This mail in voting is getting the uninformed, and uninterested voting. And, when you are not interested in local politics, odds are you will vote for the person you see the most signs for, or hear the most ads for.
Amen!
Please get out and vote everyone. Please!
Concerning that voter turnout so far is dismal. WE MUST get the vote out. DO IT!
If the 35,000+ MRA subscribers all voted in this election it would be HUGE! It would probably change the outcome!
It sure would, but not the way you think. Rather because folks from out of Anchorage, heck-from out of state would be voting Ed. THAT’s illegal.
Nothing illegal about voting from out of state. Request an absentee ballot. Perfectly legal.
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Oh… you are assuming the folks on the right side of the political aisle will cheat and vote illegally? Nope, that is just the folks on the left, with their win at any cost attitude.
I have had an astounding number of people under 30 ask me how they should vote in this election. When I point out the differences between the candidates they are simply in shock as to what the information is about each opposing candidate and what each one represents. After providing them with the agenda each one represents and has been a part of as incumbents their decisions are quick and precise! All I had to do was show them where to find they info needed to make an informed decision. Thank you Suzanne for accurate reporting and also thanks to ADN for the inaccurate biased litter box liners. I will be glad when this is over so the flyers will stop clogging the mailbox!
Thanks for doing that Andy.
We need more people who do exactly what you have done. Especially since this mail in voting is not going away any time soon.
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I do not want more people voting, I want more INFORMED people voting. Casting a vote because a candidate has more signs on the road gets us the government we have. Informed people vote on issues, uninformed vote on advertising.
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