What could possibly get Attorney General Kevin Clarkson and Alaska State Employees Association Executive Director together in the same room for lunch today?
Oh, maybe a fundraising lunch for Congressman Don Young, Alaska’s iconic U.S. representative, who held a luncheon today in Midtown Anchorage.
Clarkson and Metcalfe may not agree on the implications of the Janus decision, and are now on opposing sides in court over it, but they evidently agree that Don Young is still the congressman for the times we live in.
[Read: State will enforce Janus decision; employees will need to opt in]
Young talked to the group of 90 supporters — mostly from Anchorage — about the importance of bipartisanship in the House, and how he is worried about the current crop of far-left members of Congress, such as “The Squad.” He said of the over 2,000 members of Congress he has worked with since 1973, “This is the strangest set of ducks I have ever worked with, pushing a Socialist agenda.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Nancy Pelosi is practically a moderate,” compared to the growing number of Socialists in the Democratic Party, he said.
Young took the time today to announce that one of his staff members, Truman Reed, is going to head up his reelection campaign starting in January. Reed is a legislative aide to the congressman for foreign policy, government affairs, tax, judiciary, and other matters, and is a growing force in politics in Alaska.
Reed, a registered nonpartisan, is the son of well-known lobbyist and former died-in-the-wool-Democrat Ashley Reed, who today also spoke at the luncheon, and said that when he moved to the state from the East Coast in the 1980s, he was a Democrat, but three years ago registered as a nonpartisan, as he saw the Democratic Party move more and more to the left.
Also attending the lunch was Finance Chair for the Alaska Republican Party Seth Church, Alaska Policy Forum Senior Education Research Fellow Bob Griffin, and longtime Young supporter Ken Maynard, widow of Young’s longtime campaign staff member, the late Myrna Maynard.
Spotted at a table were Senate President Cathy Giessel, Senate Finance Chair Natasha Von Imhof, and Rep. Josh Revak, along with former State House Speaker John Harris and former Sen. Lesil McGuire.
