GOVERNOR’S TRIP TO QATAR, PLUS KOREA AND SINGAPORE
Governor Bill Walker and an entourage that includes Alaska Gasline Development Corporation President Keith Meyer will hit Korea and Singapore this month. Meyer’s contract has him flying first class everywhere. The governor? Well, we’ll get that travel doc later.
In November, Walker and Meyer and company will be in Tokyo and Qatar, where they will be courting the Qatar sovereign wealth fund. The Tokyo/Qatar trip is detailed in this story.
As one reader who has worked in Qatar put it, “the governor will be playing checkers with them and they’ll be playing three-dimensional chess.”
The Singapore trip will bring the group from Alaska to the CWC World LNG & Gas Series: Asia Pacific Summit, where they’ll rub Armani elbows with buyers and sellers of LNG from around Asia. It’s Sept. 20-23.
Gov. Walker is on the Singapore agenda to speak for 15 minutes on Sept. 21. Then, a networking break is being sponsored by Alaska Gasline Development Corporation because they are burning through the cash over at AGDC, so why not? Word is they’re gunning for a supplemental budget to get through July 1.
VINNIE, POSER EXTRAORDINAIRE
Vince Beltrami is kind of a big deal to himself.
There he was in Juneau on Monday having a picnic with nice Democrats and raising money for his campaign as a poser-independent.
Where was Cathy Giessel on Monday? Downtown in Anchorage at a shelter, healing the sick and homeless, as she does each week a a volunteer.
Beltrami, in a quest to not only own the governor but the legislature, is carpet bombing District N with his slick literature every Tuesday until Election Day as he runs against nurse-to-the-poor Senator Giessel.
Vinnie’s got help. He’s got the entire organized labor machine behind him. The union guys stop by Vinnie’s headquarters on Tudor Road, pick up their bundles and then hit the neighborhoods like clockwork at 4:30 pm every Tuesday. What with the slowdown in work, they have time on their hands…and regardless, this is required service.
Yes, Vince is a big deal to himself. Cathy is a big deal to some people who probably never vote, and some who are too sick to even thank her. But she just keeps coming back to serve the most needy among us, as she has quietly done for years because it’s the right thing to do.
RECOUNT
Only four votes separate the two Democrats in the race for House District 40. Dean Westlake is up 819 to 815 over Rep. Benjamin Nageak. The Division of Elections has certified the election, warts and all. Another five ballots are wandering their way in from Ambler. The Division of Elections says it can do a recount of that district in one day, and is just waiting for the request. We have every reason to believe that Rep. Ben Nageak will formalize that request soon.
PUSH POLLS DON’T VOTE
Luke Hopkins, running against Sen. John Coghill for District B, is conducting a push poll that focuses on the F-35s. “If you knew that Luke Hopkins singlehandedly brought the F-35s to Fairbanks would you be more likely to support him?” Something like that. If you’re in Fairbanks, expect a big lit-drop in your mailbox that will make it appear that Hopkins built and flew the F-35 squadron in on his own.
FRIDAY IN PALMER – SEE YOU THERE!
