By CRAIG E. CAMPBELL
Some of you may remember the 1960’s television ads for RiceARoni, with the cute jingle, “Rice A Roni – The San Francisco Treat.”
That was then, this is now. The San Francisco treat for Anchorage consists of a group of politicos bent on destroying civil liberties and our free market system, replacing them with neo-socialist principles. And one of them is in the run-off to possibly become our next mayor.
Just to refresh – socialism is the economic system of social, not individual, ownership and management of the economy. Government controls the who, how, when, and where. Some bureaucratic central planner, who probably never ran a business, knows best how to manage the economy for society.
Socialism hasn’t worked so well in the past. Here in America, San Francisco, arguably one of the most once-beautiful and prosperous cities of the 20th Century, is now a socialist Mecca, a miserable mess overrun by vagrants, drug addicts, class inequality, and crime, all caused by socialists under the pretext of social equity. The 21st Century jingle should be: “San Francisco – The Socialistic Treat.”
This brings me to our mayoral election run-off between Dave Bronson and Forrest Dunbar on May 11. The April 6 election will be certified April 20 and ballot will be in the mail shortly after that. The two are within a couple of percentage points of each other.
The choice cannot be more stark: Do we elect Dave Bronson, who believes in individual responsibility and an economic free market system, or Dunbar, who has embraced the draconian mandates that suffocated business by government manifesto, taxation and regulations, and snuffs out individual freedom with laws, rules, and regulations?
Do we elect Dave Bronson, who will tackle the homeless and vagrancy problem with treatment and compassion, or do we elect Dunbar who will continue enabling and warehousing these people?
Do we really want Anchorage to look like that cesspool San Francisco with homeless tents on public sidewalks, defecation on the street, pandering at every street corner, trash in our parks, and a general uncompassionate neglect?
How about crime? During the time Dunbar has been on the Assembly, Anchorage has continued to have one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, while he and his colleagues made direct attempts to undermine law enforcement and pass resolutions to “oversee” police policies and procedures.
Don’t forget Dunbar supported his sister and cousin as they joined the Portland Wall of Mom’s to block police from stopping Antifa and Black Lives Matter from burning buildings during the “peaceful” protests of 2020.
“Peaceful” protesters are at it again in Minnesota, this time burning the federal ICE building while agents were blockaded inside, laying siege to police buildings, and instigating anarchy.
Is this what we want Anchorage to become from more liberal leadership in City Hall?
It’s time we elect a mayor who will support law enforcement and confront the crime in our city. Dave Bronson will provide the police protection necessary to reduce crime and support healthy neighborhoods. Dunbar does not support strong law enforcement, no matter what his campaign propaganda may say.
The current devastation of Anchorage is being fueled by elitists. Ethan Berkowitz, the mayor who resigned in disgrace, came from San Francisco. Acting Mayor Quinn-Davidson, also from California, clearly has played politics with the Covid pandemic to keep government control over our lives and businesses. The downward spiral of our city rests directly from their actions.
What a waste. Businesses closed forever. They really needed CARES Act money to survive, yet received very little by these highbrow despots. This central planning of our economy by government bureaucrats to reward their friends and punish their enemies has got to stop.
Back to our current mayor’s race. To be fair, not all radical socialists come from San Francisco. Dunbar was born and raised in Alaska, but he cultivated his radical socialist ideas while studying at privileged liberal Ivy League institutions like Harvard University and Yale College. Dunbar is the sweetheart candidate of the uber-liberal Left, emboldened with an arrogant attitude exhibited by his openly coercive actions of picking and choosing winners and losers. That is not the role of government or any mayor.
To Dunbar, government must prop-up the arts, build trails, fund non-essential activities, accommodate the burgeoning vagrancy problem in Anchorage that he helped create, and heavily tax and regulate the private sector. He supported using CARES Act funds to provide free housing for his favorite social justice entrepreneurs and to fund privately owned ventures that advance his agenda. That’s not capitalism, that’s government control straight out of the book on Marxism. What a perfect formula for destroying Anchorage.
If mayor, Dunbar will increase the size and cost of government, increase taxes, create more regulations and rules to limit private sector success, handcuff our police, attempt to limit our Second Amendment rights, continue enabling the homeless population for political gain, infringe on our property rights, and take us down the road to become just another failed San Francisco. I, for one, have had enough of this socialistic garbage.
I do not believe Anchorage has embraced government central control over our lives. The combined number of votes for Dave Bronson, Bill Evans, and Mike Robbins exceeded the total liberal vote. This is not the time for people to stay home. Whether you supported Bronson, Evans, or Robbins, you must vote in this run-off election to save our city from permanent destruction at the hands of the progressive Left.
On May 11th we must elect Dave Bronson mayor. While he will have to confront a hostile Assembly, he will be able to rein in city bureaucracy, submit a conservative budget, veto bad ordinances and resolutions passed by the Assembly lunatics, and lead an economic recovery for Anchorage. Changing the political landscape takes time, but we can make a huge difference in the future of Anchorage by electing Dave Bronson mayor. Are you with me?
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).
YES!! Definitely with you Craig. You are spot on! I have lived in this city for 60 years and am sad, angry and frustrated at the way Anchorage is going. Although I don’t personally know Dave Bronson, I am willing to trust he will make choices to make our city a place we want to live in again. Please vote and encourage people you know to vote for Bronson!!
Dunbar is a fool who both serves in the military yet hates the Constitution.
Thanks for the piece Craig…we all indeed need to put our shoulder to the wheel and get Dave Bronson elected and make a large step in the right direction to bringing a level of sanity back to the halls of government in Anchorage…
Yes I am!
Vote for Dave Bronson for all the Anchorage single parents and single grandparents you know. Under Dunbar single parents, especially the single working mothers will bare the brute impact, they be ignored and stepped all over by a liberal cartel controlling the city.
Well said! I hope Anchorage’s legal voters will show up and vote wisely with the complete understanding of who they are voting for and the consequences of their vote.
It’s time to FREE ANCHORAGE!
Couldn’t agree more. These days, I dread driving from the free state of Matanuska-Susitna into the democratic republic of Anchorage. it’s draining to see masks on people, the closed businesses and the rights of Americans being trampled on. I count my blessings of being able to move freely without a mask on after I cross the border known as the Knik River Bridge.
For the love of God, Anchorage needs to make up their minds to what they want. You have all lived under fear, depression and oppression for over a year. Either side with the communists and continue your bleak gray existence, or side with Freedom.
Yes a vote for Mr goodbar is a vote for Seattle and Portland. If you want all of that mess permanently embedded in Anchorage and Alaskan politics then vote for Goodbar. The rainbow coalition will be proud of you.
Absolutely. Attend and testify. The Assembly Chambers are our soapbox and public square. Businesslike communication available for all who wish to advocate for items and instruct willing, subordinate public servants. Assembly Chambers are not a private, elitist club for unsociable, dislikeable rulers and tyrants. Tyrants must be removed by the people per the US Constitution.
I see Mike Robbins is supporting Dave Bronson, but Bill Evans seems to be MIA. This is not the time to sit on the sidelines and watch as the Marxists are closing in on their goal of permanent control of Anchorage.
There’s a dentist office at Dimond and Old Seward that is hoping that Forrest loses. Their electronic sign today read “Dumb-Bar …. arrogant Ass”
God help them if that jerk wins.. He will shut them down somehow
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