Sen. Loki Tobin, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, may have worn out her welcome in her own caucus of Democrats when she rose to speak agains the confirmation of Kristine Resler to the University of Alaska Board of Regents.
At issue for Tobin was the Regents’ decision earlier this year to comply with the executive order from President Donald Trump, which said any school that continues to push the “diversity-equity-inclusion” agenda of bias and discrimination would lose federal funding.
“After listening to her testimony in Senate Education,” Tobin said, “the entire UA community was caught off-guard about this motion. There is real fear happening amongst our students, our faculty, our staff, our alumni, the diverse peoples of Alaska right now. And instead of ameliorating that fear with transparency and with public discourse, Ms. Resler chose to affirm the motion.”
Tobin went on to personalize it and say that Resler would erase people like her.
“When she was asked in the Senate Education Committee if she would defend the independent integrity of our state’s institutions of higher learning, she said she would do nothing different in the future. Mr. President, I cannot in good conscience vote for somebody who would be willing to violate the public trust so blatantly and willing to erase people like me from the university.”
It was clearly playing the race card. Ironically what she was calling for would jeopardize the higher education funding of the university system, which is a curious move for an “education advocate” like Tobin.
But for the quick action of the Board of Regents, the university might have millions of dollars less than it has today.
Resler’s nomination passed, with several Democrats, including hard-left Rep. Zack Fields, voting in the affirmative. The vote was 40-19, with Rep. Neal Foster not voting.
A continuation of the hearing on the penalty phase of former Fairbanks Assembly woman Savannah Fletcher’s ethics hearings will take place on Friday, May 16 at 6 pm at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly Chambers.
The earlier hearing was full of irregular events, from the nullification of the proper succession of the gavel and uses of conflicts to deny quorum. The continuation of the hearing allows member Kristen Kelly an opportunity to participate. This is a meeting that all conservatives should watch, as there is nothing like a room full of eyes to serve as a check on shenanigans and maintain balance.
During the April 29 meeting, Fletcher was found by the board of ethics to have violated the ethics rules three times by running a series of radio spots on KFAR as a member of the FNSB Assembly.
The hearing, to be continued on the 16th, began with a nullification of the rules regarding the gavel.
Presiding Officer Mindy O’Neal walked the gavel over to member Brett Rotermund for the declaration of conflicts. The rules of succession regarding gavel handoff are that the gavel should go to the deputy presiding officer, who currently is Scott Crass, and next to the Chair of Finance, Kristen Kelly. Kelly was absent due to a medical reason. By handing the gavel directly to Rotermund, O’Neal nullified the procedures. The only way to reclaim the gavel from Rotermund is a vote of those who were not conflicted out.
The events of the April 29 meeting seemed pre-planned before the meeting in an effort to deny a quorum. O’Neal declared a conflict in that she was too good of friends with Fletcher to rule.
While Rotermund ruled she had a conflict, there is nothing about having an affection for a member in the rules — they are not blood relatives, spouses, or even business partners. However, Fletcher did implicate O’Neal in the wording of one of the radio spots. If O’Neal participated in the radio spots, then she would have a legitimate conflict.
Scott Crass declared he had too much animus against Rita Trometer, the complainant against Fletcher, to rule impartially, because School Board Member Bobby Burgess, with his own scandals, was an uncle to his children.
While Rotermund ruled that Crass had a conflict, this puts Crass in a very difficult situation.
If Crass’ family ties to Burgess are too strong to rule on this matter, then he should not have been able to participate in the censorship of Assemblywoman Barbara Haney, because the complainant was the wife of Bobby Burgess.
In addition, Assembly members are expected to put aside their animus and rule on law, and he clearly stated he could not perform his duties in this case. As Scott Crass has so aptly pointed out repeatedly at assembly meetings when threatening other Assembly members over votes, failure to perform duties is a basis for recall.
David Guttenberg and Liz Reeves Ramos are the only two with potentially legitimate conflicts on the record thus far.
Guttenberg certainly has a conflict, as he declared that he helped pay for the radio spots. He presented no proof and the statement conflicts with Fletcher’s statements in the record that she paid for the radio spots.
Perhaps David Guttenberg created an issue in an attempt to deny quorum and something upon which to base a recall. However, there might be proof or receipts of some kind to verify his conflict. If he did help pay for the radio spots and can prove it, it could save him from a recall.
Fletcher was, and may still be Reeves Ramos’s attorney. That is a disqualification under borough code and she cannot participate. Strangely, this conflict also protects her from a recall from failure to perform her duties.
While Fletcher tried to argue Assemblywoman Haney had a conflict on her Superior Court appeal, that matter is fully briefed and ripe for decision after oral arguments. The cases are also quite different. Haney’s editorial in the newspaper was a letter to the editor, signed by herself and was clearly an opinion column.
Fletcher’s case involves radio spots that were paid for and designed to sound like she was a spokesman for the Assembly when she was just an assembly member.
These paid radio spots had no disclaimer. Because the radio spots were purchased on broadcast media, it does not have the same first amendment protection as a letter to the editor in a newspaper.
Furthermore, Fletcher failed to identify her voice on the radio ads, and she did not have authorization to even place the ads. Since Fletcher is also a licensed attorney, and an appointed member of the Alaska Judicial Council, so her ethical violations as determined by the FNSB Board of Ethics now presents a greater concern at the state level.
Alaska’s North Slope natural gas is a sought-after resource for our state and for the world. Here in Alaska, our gas can reliably and affordably meet the energy needs of the Railbelt and help move the Interior off of heating sources like wood and fuel oil with high particulate emissions that caused the American Lung Association to label Fairbanks the “most polluted city in the nation.” In Asia, Alaska’s gas can help markets meet rapidly growing energy demand while moving away from coal. Alaska’s large North Slope gas supply can play an important role in global energy.
Internationally, markets, including Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, India and more, are all negotiating hard for access to LNG from Alaska. Long-term LNG agreements take time, and Glenfarne has only been in the driver’s seat for Alaska LNG for about six weeks. Shortly, Glenfarne will commence the final engineering work needed to produce definitive cost estimates, likely to increase Alaska LNG’s commercial tempo.
While project opponents dismiss preliminary agreements, they are a necessary step towards binding commitments. LNG contracts last for 20 or 30 years and much like buying a house, buying LNG is a multi-step process. In real estate, you have to find a listing, make an offer, perform inspections, and arrange financing, all before you go to closing. LNG buyers need non-binding agreements like a letter of intent or memorandum of understanding before reaching final deals.
Alaska LNG will produce 20 million tonnes of LNG a year. Taiwan interests have already signed a preliminary agreement for 6 tonnes and Thailand’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Energy just directed state energy companies to negotiate up to 5 million tonnes from Alaska LNG. These two agreements, plus two agreements previously in hand, mean that about 65% of Alaska LNG’s export volume now has identified customers.
It is important to note what changed with Alaska LNG to spark so much interest. In addition to bringing in Glenfarne to lead the project forward, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) developed the option to phase construction of the project to tackle the Cook Inlet gas supply shortage. AGDC, which provides oversight of Alaska LNG for the State of Alaska, determined that Alaska LNG’s overall size and complexity was an impediment to development. AGDC broke Alaska LNG into two phases. Phase 1 prioritizes the pipeline infrastructure to bring gas down from the North Slope to Interior and Southcentral Alaskans. Phase 2 is the export infrastructure.
Focusing on the pipeline first provides long-term energy security for Alaska’s largest population centers. Without Alaska LNG, we’ll need to commit to long-term imports, which will double our energy bills and shred budgets for our families, our schools, and our government. Renewables can help address the problem and help diversify Alaska’s energy sources, but the large gas resources from the North Slope bring reliability and affordability. Imagine gas prices less than half what we pay today for decades to come.
The benefits of phasing the project were also quickly obvious to the LNG market because of the increased likelihood of success, helping accelerate talks with Glenfarne, and intensifying interest among Asian buyers.
Add to that the strong support of our federal government. President Biden gave Alaska LNG an environmental green light and signed into law more than $30 billion in federal loan guarantees, thanks to our Alaska Congressional Delegation. President Trump, who authorized Alaska LNG in his first term, has recognized the geostrategic importance of Alaska LNG across the Pacific and made this project a national priority. This support is incredibly helpful in commercial discussions with potential buyers.
I’ve watched Alaska LNG progress forward since it started just over a decade ago. My husband and I moved to Alaska in 1986 to work for Arco, and I became president of BP Alaska on February 15, 2013. I remember it very well because one of the first things I did that day was to sign an agreement with the State of Alaska and the other owners of Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson to advance the concept that became Alaska LNG. Today, I am incredibly proud to serve as the vice chair of the AGDC board of directors. I’ve been involved with Alaska LNG for 12 years from two different front-row seats, and there has never been more momentum behind this project than we have today.
Janet Weiss, former president of BP Alaska and vice chair of the board of directors for the Alaska Gasline Development Corp.
City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) residents hear a lot from city leaders about the importance keeping their community affordable. However, far too often, the actions and priorities of elected officials instead make Juneau less affordable.
Taxpayers have taken notice and a local citizen’s group is gathering signatures for three initiatives designed to rein in Assembly spending and make Juneau more affordable. The three initiatives filed are:
In my two previous columns, I explained why repealing mail-in voting and implementing a sales tax exemption on basic necessitiespromote community affordability. This column will discuss how a property tax cap, in combination with the other two initiatives, can lower the cost-of-living and make Juneau more affordable.
To be fair, affordability hasn’t been completely ignored. Affordable housing and childcare have been among CBJ municipal priority lists for years. Both programs receive millions of dollars each year. But it remains to be seen whether these sizable expenditures have significantly moved the needle by permanently lowering housing and childcare costs and increasing availability
What businesses and homeowners have seen is unchecked spending by the city assembly for discretionary projects and initiatives, some having been rejected by voters, which will make Juneau less affordable.
Millions every year are handed out via “Assembly grants” with no accountability measures attached.
Millions of dollars have also been sequestered or spent for mail-in voting, proposed city offices and a massive new arts and culture “civic” center. Questionable tax exemptions remain on the books while basic necessities like groceries and utilities are fully taxed.
If investing in these priorities resulted in meaningful private sector growth and more affordable outcomes, that would be laudable. But that hasn’t happened, and it is unlikely to happen in the future.
Juneau’s cost-of-living is negatively impacted by a variety of factors. But the two most significant are lack of economic growth and rising municipal taxes. Yet, government entities seem ill-equipped to recognize that economic expansion and lowering taxes are the two most powerful strategies that can significantly enhance a community’s affordability.
The CBJ Assembly’s most recent approval of the Aak’w Landing cruise dock project is a long overdue and most welcome step in promoting economic growth in the community.
But the other half of the equation, equally as important, is controlling property taxes that fuel municipal spending. Moderating taxes, particularly property taxes, directly reduces the financial burden on business owners, homeowners, and families, making it easier for them to manage their finances.
The combined effect of economic expansion and lower taxes is particularly potent. As businesses expand, adding to the tax base, more jobs are created, wages increase, and more housing is built to meet demand, all of which helps keep prices in check and increases the supply of housing.
A cap on spending is necessary for this to happen. No doubt, city officials will respond to the initiative with predictions of dire consequences, should this pass. We will hear that city services will be cut (not grants or discretionary projects), and everything from schools to parks will suffer. Nonsense.
The existing basic property mill rate is 8.96 plus 1.08 mills for debt service equaling a total of 10.04. The proposed 9 mill rate cap is above the current mill rate and will not affect current expenditures. Debt service is not limited by a property tax cap. The city may still float additional bond issues as necessary for worthy projects when needed, but they must be approved by voters.
Tax revenues will rise organically with inflation since they are tied to property tax assessments. If the economy grows, tax assessments increase, as will total property taxes. If the economy is contracting, the tax base will decrease, constraining expenditures and limiting budget increases.
Essentially, a tax cap acts as an automatic control on discretionary spending and gives voters say in how their tax dollars are spent.
Juneau voters who believe community affordability is a priority should sign these petitions and then make an informed choice on election day in October.
After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.
A well-known political figure and a competitive figure skater. A policy advisor and a business owner. A talk-show host and a mother of three. Bernadette Wilson is all those things … and now she is a candidate for governor.
Over the weekend, Bernadette quietly filed a letter of intent to run for governor in 2026, joining two other Republicans who have already announced — Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and former state Sen. Click Bishop.
On the steps of the Alaska Capitol building in Juneau, Bernadette made it clear that she’s in it to win it: “America’s Strength Starts with Alaska!” Watch the live announcement here.
She then made a quick tour of a few offices in the Capitol before heading back to the airport to fly home and begin campaigning.
Bernadette Wilson was recently the executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum, and before that was state director for Americans for Prosperity Alaska. She started her political activism in 2010, working to get the “parental notification” ballot initiative passed, and she worked on several campaigns, including Joe Miller for Senate, winning the primary against Lisa Murkowski; Mead Treadwell for Governor; and Nick Begich for Congress. Currently, she is one of the sponsors of the RepealNow ballot initiative to repeal ranked-choice voting. The initiative aims to gather signatures to revisit the issue after a narrow defeat in 2024.
She is the great-niece of the late Gov. Walter J. Hickel and Ermalee Hickel, which takes her roots in Alaska to before Statehood. Many members of her family have been in the construction and trucking businesses. But the roots go deeper: Bernadette is a member of the Naknek Native Village tribe.
The longtime political activist and founder of Denali Disposal was identified last month as the favorite candidate among conservative voters for the Alaska gubernatorial race, according to reader surveys conducted by Must Read Alaska. Polls indicated strong support for Wilson over other potential candidates.
With an announcement that caused the cell phone of many of us baseball fans to light up, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred made a decision that the game’s permanently ineligible list ends upon the banned person’s death. That means that two deceased legends of the game – Pete Rose and Joe Jackson – may soon be eligible for entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rose, nicknamed Charlie Hustle, is the all-time leader in hits (4,256) and games played (3,562) but has been banned from any activity in the game since 1989, when an investigation revealed he bet on games in which his team, the Cincinnati Reds for whom he played and managed, were involved.
“Shoeless” Joe Jackson, whose .356 lifetime average places him third on the all-time career batting average leader list, was banned after Commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, ruled that Jackson and seven of his 1919 White Sox teammates who conspired to throw the World Series would no longer be allowed in the game.
For decades, Rose adamantly denied he bet on baseball, despite having agreed with the Commissioner’s office to accept a ban. At the time of his ban, the Hall of Fame did not have a ruling that permanently ineligible personnel could not be voted into the Hall of Fame, but the Hall changed that within a couple years of Rose’s ban, asserting that all personnel considered ineligible to participate in Major League Baseball are also not eligible for Hall of Fame induction. (The rule applies to all ineligible personnel, but the ruling was clearly directed toward Rose.)
Rose finally admitted to having bet on games in which his team played, and some of his former teammates – including Hall of Famers Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt – and detractors came to his side and appealed to the Commissioner’s office to argue for his induction. It did not come during Pete’s lifetime, as he predicted ten days prior to his September 2024 passing.
Jackson’s ban took him out of the game and the limelight. There were rumors of him playing in third rate leagues in the South, clinging desperately to stay in the game he loved and a profession that provided the outfielder a decent living for 13 years. Baseball legend and Jackson contemporary Ty Cobb told a story of seeing Shoeless Joe working in a liquor store years after his playing days were over. “Don’t you recognize me Joe?” asked Cobb as he purchased a bottle of booze. “Sure I do, Ty, I just didn’t think you’d recognize me,” replied an embarrassed Jackson.
Shoeless Joe became known to a new generation of baseball fans almost four decades after his death, thanks to a couple of movies that came out in the late 1980s. Eight Men Out told the story of that 1919 World Series scandal that led to Commissioner Landis’ fateful decision, and Field of Dreams provided a fantastical story in which a farmer plows under his corn crop to allow Shoeless Joe’s ghost to come to the Iowa farm so he could once again play the game he loved.
Shoeless Joe was a likeable, illiterate country hick, traits the movies emphasized and brought him sympathy, especially since his performance in the tainted World Series was spectacular.
Pete Rose, on the other hand, was both hated and loved, often by the same people, this author included.
Pete was aggressive and brash, and he rubbed many people the wrong way. Fans booed him in every visiting ballpark . . . and he embraced it. These traits, along with his decades long inability to admit the truth about his gambling, made it difficult for many of us to want to see him attain the highest accolades in the game. A four part HBO documentary that aired just a month or two before his 2024 death, softened those feelings for some but amplified them for others. That’s the way everything was with Pete.
Commissioner Manfred’s decision to rule that permanent ineligibility ends with the end of the ineligible person’s life means that come December 2007, the Hall of Fame’s Classic Baseball Era Committee can vote to induct Pete and Joe (and 14 others on the ineligible list) into the Hall of Fame. It is very likely that they will both get the needed votes.
There will be few detractors for Shoeless Joe, but the arguments for or against Charlie Hustle will continue forever. Perhaps in 35 years a movie will premiere in which Pete Rose’s ghost comes back to play in farmer’s field and sentiment will turn more favorable . . . but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Tim Barto is a regular contributor to Must Read Alaska, and is a lifelong fan of Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine, of which Pete Rose was captain. Tim loved Pete as a kid, hated him when Pete left Cincinnati for Philadelphia, loved him when Pete returned to Cincinnati and broke Ty Cobb’s hit record, hated Pete again when he gambled on baseball and lied about it, and finally succumbed to allowing Pete into the Hall after baseball allowed gambling companies to advertise and take bets inside stadiums. When not agonizing over the state of the game, Tim serves as vice president of Alaska Family Council.
Just 101 days into his tenure as the Democratic Party’s youngest vice chair – and the first “Zoomer” to hold that office – party elites have already declared David Hogg’s election null and void, a complaint that sounds suspiciously like “election fraud.” It’s the latest embarrassment from a spent political party that pales in comparison to President Trump’s incredibly successful first 100 days. If Republicans are wise, they’ll take advantage of the chaos ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The complaint centers on broken parliamentary procedures – the preferred excuse of weasels and dictators alike to undermine democratic elections – specifically, DNC rules mandating “gender parity” to tip the scales in favor of female candidates running against men.
In other words, DEI did Hogg in.
Hogg, who was elected to help Democrats win back young male voters, complained that “the DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.” Party elites, he believes, want to “defend an indefensible status quo.”
The DNC’s procedural revelation comes just two days after Hogg blasted his party for driving away young men who “feel like they have to walk on eggshells … constantly because they’re going to be judged or ostracized or excommunicated.”
Oh, the irony. More importantly, will conservatives capitalize on the blunder?
For years, Democrat politicians have told Americans that elections couldn’t be more trustworthy, that only they could safeguard democracy from MAGA Republicans, and that their party represents everyday people over ultra-wealthy special interests.
None of that is true, as this latest CCP-style election nullification reminds us.
Democrats routinely meddle with their internal elections to manufacture “victories” for party insiders, voters be damned. Remember the superdelegates in 2016 and 2020? Bernie Sanders sure does – the “oligarchs and billionaires” he complains about cost him the Democratic nomination twice by rigging obscure parliamentary rules against him.
Congressional Democrats haven’t accepted a Republican presidential victory as legitimate since 1988. House Democrats tried to nullify Republican election victories in 2016 and 2024 as illegitimate, yet called allegations of a stolen election in the extremely questionable COVID election results in 2020 “misinformation.”
As for protecting democracy, leftists tried to turn 2024 into a one-party election in many states by removing Donald Trump from the ballot. That was an inside job by D.C. operatives to thwart the will of voters, who delivered Trump a landslide victory anyway.
Don’t forget Democrats’ effort to nullify the Constitution with a “national popular vote” scheme to award all Electoral College votes to whichever candidate wins the most popular votes nationwide. In 2016, that would’ve meant awarding all 538 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton – even in states she lost or didn’t bother to visit, like Wisconsin.
Amazingly, Democrats suddenly went mute about the national popular vote after November 2024, with Michigan Democrats quietly abandoning their national popular vote bill mere weeks after Trump won a popular vote majority.
This from a party controlled by a small constellation of ultra-partisan activists, agitators, lobbyists, and political operatives in the Beltway. Recall that Kamala Harris never won a primary vote anywhere – not in two presidential elections.
Massive dark money donors with strong ties to Big Business and Wall Street magnates bankrolled Harris’ campaign from the start. Even in California, she was the ultimate product of one-party machine politics: a mediocre prosecutor who failed upward at every turn by collecting enough party IOUs to earn a political promotion. Her promise was to govern as a figurehead for the faceless Deep State cabal that the Left no longer tries to hide.
It was only after Harris came into contact with real, flesh-and-blood Americans in places like – shudder – Nevada and Pennsylvania that she fell to pieces. Normal people, it turns out, don’t consider mindless babbling and cackling substitutes for ideas and leadership.
There’s a common thread here: Democratic politicians and their allies attack the system as “rigged” and “unfair” when they lose. They’re champions of the system until the system doesn’t work for them, even a single time; then they reveal themselves for the lying opportunists they’ve been all along. Hogg, for all his inanity and gun control bona fides, was honest enough to criticize his party’s toxic obeisance to the radical feminists and trans nazis who’ve made the world’s oldest political party repulsive to young men (and most everyone else).
Hogg just proved that democracy cannot be tolerated in the Democratic Party. Dissent will be crushed with extreme prejudice. He’ll shortly be replaced by a gay black woman who pledges to enforce the party line, no questions asked.
Republicans should thank God for this gift. We have an opportunity to further expose and permanently defeat the woke mob while it’s distracted by infighting, but that window is quickly closing. If this is how the Democratic Party treats its own “democracy,” America, how will it treat yours?
Alaska Senate Bill 64, an overhaul of the state’s election laws, is racing through the Legislature, with provisions that could open the door to voter fraud, registration errors, and weakened oversight. The bill is now in House Finance after the Senate Democrat-led majority passed it.
While the bill is framed as a modernization effort to increase voter access and streamline registration, it invites trouble for Alaska’s already-troubled election system.
The bill expands the list of acceptable IDs to include tribal identification cards and to exclude previously accepted hunting and fishing licenses. It mandates that documents like utility bills or bank statements used as ID are valid within 60 days.
While the inclusion of tribal IDs is intended to improve access, there are widely varying standards among tribal-issued documents, with some prone to forgery or falsification. The 60-day document rule, if not strictly verified, could be exploited with falsified documents.
SB 64defines voter residency as a place the voter intends to return to, creating a “rebuttable presumption” that the address on file is valid.
This looser standard invites ambiguity, especially for transient populations or individuals who spend significant time out-of-state. The subjective nature of a “reasonable and articulable plan” to return to a specific precinct makes enforcement difficult, allowing non-residents to vote unlawfully and skew voter rolls.
There is not a “fiscal note” on the bill at this time, but there are costs. The bill has added more staff in the way of “rural liaisons” to help rural voters.
The bill eliminates the witness signature for absentee ballots. Supporters like Sen. Bill Wielechowski say it reduces voting barriers. However, it strips away a key safeguard used to verify voter identity and intent, and it increases the risk of absentee ballot fraud or coercion, particularly in unsupervised environments, such as rural Alaska, where ballots often can be harvested from Post Office trash cans.
Under the new proposed law, absentee ballots received after election day may be counted if USPS tracking shows they were sent on or before election day, even without a postmark.
The bill creates a new system for absentee ballot tracking and curing. Voters can now fix issues such as missing signatures or ID mismatches. While well-intentioned, experts caution that a lax curing process might allow improperly cast ballots to be counted. The security of the digital tracking system is also vital—any breach could compromise sensitive voter information or election results.
The bill adds unlimited drop boxes and absentee ballots in perpetuity, which means after a person registers and qualifies they don’t have to ever request it again, so long as they vote at least once every four years or their ballot is not returned as undeliverable.
The Democrats added interesting language about “true source” funding. An Independent Expenditure group that gives money to a ballot initiative does not have to reveal the true source of its funds. The bill decreases transparency on campaign finance laws as applies to donors Outside Alaska. The Democrats have redefined what “true source” means, as it applies to ballot measures.
As SB 64 moves toward passage in the Democrat-led House, it’s unclear if the governor will veto the bill or allow it to go into law.
“Yes” votes in the Senate were Jesse Bjorkman, Claman, Forrest Dunbar, Cathy Giessel, Elvie Gray-Jackson, Lyman Hoffman, Scott Kawasaki, Jesse Kiehl, Kelly Merrick, Donny Olson, Bert Stedman, Gary Stevens, Loki Tobin, and Bill Wielechowski.
“No” votes on the bill were Sens. Mike Cronk, Shelley Hughes, James Kaufman, Robert Myers, Mike Shower and Rob Yundt, all Republicans in the minority.
Rep. Chuck Kopp makes bank as a private consultant with his Winfluence Strategies political consulting company that he co-owns. In fact, his biggest check comes from the AFL-CIO — up to $200,000 in the past year.
So it’s no surprise that he is also carrying water of the same union that has been pushing for the restoration of defined pensions for State of Alaska and other government workers.
Kopp’s Public Officer Financial Disclosure shows:
House Bill 78 is Kopp’s passion. It’s why he got elected over fiscal conservative Craig Johnson for the south Anchorage House seat. HB 78 would recreate a set pension for public employees — similar but not exactly like the one that the state discontinued in 2006, after it began bankrupting the state. This time, he promised it will not.
Kopp himself is a beneficiary of the former pension plan, as he is a 100% vested recipient of the Tier 2 Public Employee Retirement System.
On the floor of the House on Monday, he spoke at length about how this time, it will be different and it won’t lead the state to insolvency.
His House campaign accountis filled with donations from Democrat donors like Mark Begich, Zack Fields, and soft Republicans like Sen. Lisa Murkowski, as well as major donations from unions.
