While a few haggard-looking protesters were outside the Alaska Capitol protesting President Trump, the real fireworks were inside on Wednesday.
On the fourth floor of the Capitol, five burly men descended on the office of Rep. Jamie Allard to try to convince her it would be wise of her to support the planned Eklutna casino that Las Vegas developers are trying to build on a small parcel of Native land adjacent to her district, Eagle River.
The five thuggish men, led by Anthony Marnell III, were not immediately persuasive and so soon started yelling at Allard, loudly dropping F-bombs on her. She dished it right back at them, and the shouting could be heard in the hallway of the Capitol, until she finally threw them out of her office after about a 20-minute exchange of unpleasantries.
The intimidation of an elected official clearly did not work. Allard has said publicly that half of her community supports a casino, and the other half does not. She is not the type of lawmaker who will be bullied by anyone.
Marnell, a former boxer, is an imposing figure and talks a tough game. He traveled Juneau on his Lear jet for the occasion of using his Las Vegas tactics against Alaska lawmakers.
At one point during the meeting, Marnell flew into a rage and shouted that Attorney General Treg Taylor is a “f—ing idiot.” Taylor has filed a lawsuit in D.C. District Court over the National Indian Gaming Commission’s approval of the casino.
This ramrod approach is the same kind of tactic that Marnell used last month in Anchorage, when over a three-day weekend, when the courts were closed for Martin Luther Kind Jr. Day, his crew pushed together some trailers onto the muddy Eklutna property the tribe has been clearing, and set up a few gaming machines inside. He and the tribe got a little bit of gaming going that weekend in the mudhole casino before any court action could be taken. They hoped this would grandfather in the casino.
It was an in-your-face tactic not unlike the one he used at the Capitol on Wednesday.
Allard said that while they were in her office, Marnell disclosed to her that Eklutna Tribe CEO Aaron Leggett had been essentially paying off the Chugiak Fire Department.
Marnell called it a donation but made it clear it was quid pro quo for the services that his casino expected to get from the fire hall, which does not actually serve the land where the casino is planned.
As Marnell and his entourage, including lobbyist Kris Knauss of Juneau, strode away from Allard’s office toward the stairs, Marnell could be heard throughout the halls loudly cursing her to his posse of bullies.
It was about as close to a mafia-like encounter as has been seen in Alaska’s capitol since perhaps the pipeline days. When the squad of men didn’t get their way with the representative from Eagle River, they upped the intensity until the foul language punctuated their every sentence.
So intense and so loud were the intimidation tactics they used, that word quickly spread throughout the building. Capitol security sought Allard out, stood near her office, and for her safety walked her to her car as she was leaving the building.
Read about how Marnell and the Eklutna Tribe rushed to open the casino as a makeshift operation, without so much as a permit or fire safety plan on file, at this link:
Boot the thugs out of Alaska…or better yet, introduce them to a polar bear.
I like your idea better than mine below. 👍Any kind of bear. As long as it’s hungry.
Well, I no longer feel sorry for those poor Eklutna natives in their so-called Indian Country, whom we are always compelled to ‘gratefully acknowledge as the original stewards of these lands, etc, etc.’ Nope, that’s over!
My heartiest congratulations go to representative Allard and Alaska’s attorney general. Stand fast! Casino gambling is a corruption and a curse wherever it is conducted, and that residential neighborhood is opposed to it. Injunction!
They picked the wrong person to try and intimidate. Rookies! One would think that the lobbyist would’ve given them the heads up.
Where’s the video evidence? If it lasted 20 minutes someone would be filming.
Not that she can’t handle herslf just fine, but they’re lucky her husband wasn’t there. It’s time for someone to have a talk with those goons in the only language they understand. This simply cannot be allowed to go unaddressed. At a minimum they should have a no tresspass order put on them. At the other end of the scale, well I already said it above.
LOL Allard has no problem confronting people normally on her side. Jerks from Vegas probably won’t get anywhere.
Good for Jamie for standing up to gross intimidation! And this move by the reprehensible and greedy Eklutna natives surprises me not at all — it is right in line with most of their other anti-community, bad-neighbor actions and proposals for quite a few years now.
But Jamie is very wrong in stating that “half of her community supports the casino”. I know of NO ONE in that area, which is also my immediate area, who supports that casino, aside from the Eklutna natives themselves. I do not know why she would even make such a claim.
I’m fine with the casino but threats are not cool especially to women legislators.
He has a gulfstream 550 not a Lear jet. Gulfstream 550 is worth about $35 mill. Learjet is worth $5 mill.
Guess what – Marnell is also heavily in a California to Vegas rail project that recently received a $3 billion federal grant. These guys are swamp creatures.
Coupla jugs of Ultimate Bear Lure and a Super Cub ought to do it.