By CRAIG CAMPBELL
It only took one week for our new leftist acting mayor to proclaim her totalitarian control over we plebiscites. Many of us predicted she would be a far worse mayor than was Berkowitz, but she sure showed her stripes early.
It’s unbelievable how quickly Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson announced she was hiring three new code enforcement officers to aggressively go after all you renegade business owners trying to earn a living and make our anemic economy stay viable.
Enforcement and punishment if she found you defying her pompous mandates in protecting society from that deadly COVID-19. Shame on you. Shame, shame, shame.
She’s just what Anchorage needs, bigger government with more gestapo code enforcement agents busting the private sector for trying to make a living and employing Alaskans. In the nanny state that Quinn-Davidson lives, only the intelligentsia know what’s best for society, and you’ll comply, or else.
It is interesting that she finds COVID enforcement more of a problem than the rampant vagrancy epidemic we have in Anchorage. Maybe instead of going after legitimate businesses, she could turn her attention to reducing the exploding homeless problem. Why would she do that when crushing legitimate taxpaying businesses over a virus meets the Socialist objective of making us all more subservient to government? Silly me.
Frankly, I’m tired of this crap. Call it COVID fatigue, or call it being fed up with our idiot local elected officials, and I mean those uber-liberal Assembly members and their accomplice, Comrade Quinn-Davidson.
This out-of-control government power grab has got to stop. COVID-19 is a virus, not the plague, and Quinn-Davidson is only the acting mayor, a caretaker until a real mayor is elected by the people. She was not elected to that seat. She does not represent the people of Anchorage, only the people of District 3E, and if that is what they want for their district, so be it. I’ll wager it is not what the people of Anchorage want. So long as her Majesty is allowed to reign, our city will experience greater hardship and more economic decay.
Now before you claim I’m being a bit too harsh, remember, I didn’t pick this fight, she did when she unilaterally decided to punish our businesses and population with more government enforcement action, to include fines and possible jail time for “violators.”
Here is the job solicitation purpose taken directly from the Muni Job Opportunities web site on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020: “This position was created to enforce Emergency Orders issued to address the COVID-19 Emergency and may not extend beyond this emergency.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Anchorage Assembly has only one option to bring Anchorage back into compliance with the Municipal Charter and allow the people of Anchorage to determine who should represent all of us in the mayor’s office. They must set a special election to fill the mayor’s seat, and it must be set for 90 days from the vacancy created by former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.
We need no excuses that it may cost money; liberty and democratic representation are more important than the bill that will be created by a special election.
I even have a budget solution to pay for the special election – use the funds designated to hire the code enforcement officers. If the Assembly fails to set a special election at their next meeting, Nov. 4, they are subverting the will of the people in order to retain despotic control of our city. Any delay only gives this looney acting mayor more time to inflict more damage on our community.
In the meantime, I am saddened that Anchorage businesses will suffer. I really like eating at the Little Dipper Diner, Kriner’s Diner, Campobello (sorry, that’s already gone), La Mex, Piccolino’s, Garcia’s and many other Anchorage and Eagle River restaurants.
But if Quinn-Davidson forces more closures of these venues than there are other options. Just up the road in the Mat-Su there are some really great restaurants not under the thumb of Quinn-Davidson’s rule. Turkey Red, Noisy Goose, Evangelo’s, Basil Ginger, Everett’s, Windbreak Café, and a host of others I would recommend to my Anchorage friends.
This is not a drill. Anchorage is in a serious leadership crisis. Our former mayor resigns in disgrace and is replaced by a radical Leftist. Far left elitists have taken control of the city and are doing extensive damage to our economy and our freedoms.
We must have a special election to correct our course. It must be held in early February. If Acting Mayor Quinn-Davidson wins, I’ll shut up, but I suspect she doesn’t have a chance in hell of convincing us that her vision for Anchorage is the vision the majority of us want.
Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor. He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation. He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).
