The staff list for the 32nd Alaska Legislature has been published by the Legislative Affairs Agency, and is available in a printable format at this link.
Not all staff members have been included, as authorizations had not been attained by the publication date. For example, Tom Wright, the longest-serving staff member in the Capitol, is working for Rep. Steve Thompson, although he is not listed on the staff directory. And Laura Stidolph is no longer working for Rep. Bryce Edgmon and Amory Lelake, (whose name is spelled wrong on the directory.)
Want to make sense of the “woke culture” that’s infected our nation like a cancer?
The key is to understand purveyors of wokeness are forever looking for new people to crown as victims. Without victims, the joyless “woke” can’t get their holier-than-thou fix as the hero for the severely oppressed.
Most members of the woke cult are unhappy, and miserable. Without new, fresh woke victims to brag about helping, their lives are meaningless.
Case in point. Republican Rep. Sara Rasmussen was all giddy and smiling ear to ear when Democrat Rep. Zack Fields complimented her body on the House floor.
The video shows Rasmussen not the least bit annoyed but instead woozy over Fields’ flattery.
Fields said Rasmussen created a traffic hazard in her district when she wears short skirts. He then offered to buy her a pair of sweatpants to make the streets of her district safer.
The idea is Rasmussen’s body is so smoking hot, drivers will take their eyes off the road and crash.
“When you watch Ms. Rasmussen’s reaction to Fields in the heat of the moment, she smiles, she’s giggling,” conservative activist and never afraid to speak her mind, Bernadette Wilson observed. “She’s just, oh thank you, oh my goodness, and she takes it as a compliment.”
After the woke crowd made a big deal of Fields’ comments, Rasmussen went from giddy and all flush to aggrieved and oppressed.
“There’s still a lot that needs to be done to change our culture and respect women at the same level that men are already respected naturally,” said Rasmussen about Fields’ remarks.
The beauty of Fields’ comments is they came following Rasmussen giving an “I am woman, hear me roar” speech quoting none other than the queen of wokeness and abortion, former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Rasmussen’s speech also announced the leggy legislator was forming a women’s caucus with uber leftist and fellow House member Ivy Spohnholz.
Wilson says Rasmussen got it right the first time when Fields’ remarks clearly didn’t offend her.
Wilson, like Rasmussen, is easy on the eyes and obviously gets her fair share of compliments and not just about her giant brain.
“The question I have for women is this,” asks Wilson. “Get over yourself when someone makes a comment about how pretty you are, or you look nice in that outfit. Quit thinking there is some sexist motive behind it.”
Wilson argues a man complimenting a woman on her appearance does not mean he thinks she’s stupid.
“Why is it when someone comments on your appearance you suddenly get so self-conscience to think they now don’t value their brain,” asked Wilson.
But this is where we are now. The Leftist steeped in wokeness continually manufacture new victims. Compliment women? You sexist pig!
“I’m sorry, ladies, but there is something very admirable about the feminine side of you, “said Wilson. “You don’t need to disown it. You don’t need to think the feminine side of you is not as worthy as the intellectual side of you.”
In the big picture, Fields’ innocuous comments about the attractiveness of Rasmussen’s legs is nothing more than a distraction and yet another example of how humorless and judgmental members of the woke cult can be.
The real story here is Rasmussen’s full turn to the dark side joining and enabling Democrats.
Offended or fake offended, Rasmussen has betrayed her constituents after running as a conservative. She has become anything but.
Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive talk show on Newsradio 650, KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.
Former President Donald Trump, in an address to Conservative Political Action Conference, said his political action committee will back Republicans to take back the House and Senate in 2022.
He has already started endorsing Republicans in advance of the 2022 midterm elections, including Sara Huckabee Sanders for governor of Arkansas, Sen. Jerry Moran for Senate in Kansas, and Max Miller for Congress in Ohio.
He didn’t say during his speech that he would take on Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, but he did mention her with a list of other Republican senators, including Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, and Liz Cheney — as Republicans who voted to convict him in the Senate. Of those, only Murkowski faces reelection in 2022.
The speech was a broad overview of usual Trump topics, including border security, the importance of fair elections, and bringing jobs back from China. He spent much of the speech talking about security along the southern border with Mexico and the nearly 500 miles of wall that was built during his presidency.
“Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history,” Trump said, as he spoke at length about the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants now flooding toward the border.
His speech came on the heels of a CPAC poll that showed 95 percent of those in attendance want the Republican Party to continue with Trump’s agenda and policies. If Trump were to throw his name in the hat for 2024, 55 percent of the attendees of the conference said would support him. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second.
Trump’s speech was interrupted several times, with chants of “USA,” “You Won,” and “We Love You.”
CPAC is a bellwether event for the Republican Party, although it is not associated with the formal party. Outside the convention, hundreds gathered to wave flags and parade with their trucks.
On YouTube, more than 369,000 were watching the speech, which was the closing event of the three-day conference that featured many well-known conservative thought leaders.
Jim Acosta of CNN said that CPAC is “a Liar-Palooza.”
“Former President Donald Trump repeated his election lies on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, Sunday, looking to reclaim his role as the Republican Party’s kingmaker as he positions himself to play a major role in the 2022 midterm elections,” CNN reported in its coverage of the event.
“Lying about the November election, which President Joe Biden won resoundingly with 306 to Trump’s 232 electoral votes, Trump teased a possible run in 2024: ‘I may even decide to beat them for a third time,'” the news organization reported.
Two Alaskans were in Orlando, Fla. for the event — Ryan McKee of Americans for Prosperity Alaska, and Nick Begich. They were photographed with with Rep. Darryl Issa of California:
Nick Begich, Rep. Darryl Issa, and Ryan McKee at CPAC in Orlando.
Alaska and America face an unprecedented period of conflict between ideologies, which is polarizing our national politics.
Challenges to our Second Amendment rights; excessive limitations on our freedom of speech by both social media and government; concerns about election integrity; the rapid push to pass the Equality Act which will nullify a generations long fight for women’s rights; the voracious thirst for more and more tax dollars to fund a bloated and inefficient government; and an unbridled drive to expand the control of government over our personal lives are leaving conservatives rightfully concerned that we are fast becoming a nation without a moral compass, one dependent on a big federal government to manage our very existence.
With a Democrat executive branch, a Democrat House of Representatives, and a Democrat-controlled Senate, conservatives have a right to be alarmed.
It’s not much better in Alaska where a state House, with a numerical Republican majority, is now under the control of the minority Democrats, thanks to a few Republicans who would rather achieve personal gain than represent the constituents who elected them to office.
All is not lost. The political pendulum swings both ways and a resurgence in conservatism is bound to occur. Just give these liberals a little more rope to hang themselves by destroying America with taxes, the Green New Deal, wild social programs, and a foreign policy of appeasement, and we will see a swing back to reality. America is not the socialist, teetering toward communist, nation that the liberal elites are attempting to create.
Sen. Dan Sullivan
As the pendulum swings back to the right, we are very fortunate to have Dan Sullivan representing Alaska in the United States Senate. I have known and worked with Dan for over fifteen years.
As Alaska’s Attorney General, he worked to protect individual rights. He resolved a long-standing voters rights dispute concerning disenfranchisement of voters due to language barriers.
As the Alaska Department of Natural Resources commissioner, he was instrumental in pursuing natural resource development in our state, which is financially highly dependent on productive natural resource development.
Elected to the United States Senate in 2014, Sullivan has been a workaholic for Alaska. Really, his staff will tell you that Sen. Sullivan is like the energizer bunny, always actively working on behalf of our great state.
Sen. Sullivan faced a highly charged re-election in 2020. Liberal outside interests flooded our state with money against Dan, in a focused effort to oust our conservative senator and create a solid Democrat-controlled US Senate.
The re-election of Dan Sullivan was the single most important vote to block Democrat domination of the federal bureaucracy and for that, Alaskans and all Americans, should be thankful he was victorious.
This past year has been challenging. Violent riots in cities across our great nation; an Antifa-driven hyper-charged occupation of the U.S. Capitol; two politically driven “impeachment charges” against President Donald J. Trump; and mainstream media blatantly distorting news coverage toward a liberal perspective on a daily basis — all this has made America frustrated with the constant drumbeat of the progressive Left and tone-deaf politicians.
Alaska is lucky we have a US senator who has not been sucked into this vortex of political destruction and has not lost touch with his constituents.
Dan Sullivan’s actions as senator reflect the values he brings to Washington, the values that most of us in Alaska share. He has a strong moral compass. While he can effectively work both sides of the political isle in DC, he does not compromise his principles simply to gain votes or leverage his reputation for political gain. He is a conservative Republican who respects the party platform and stays focused on advancing traditional constitutional governance.
His unwavering votes for Supreme Court nominees Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett demonstrates his fundamental understanding and commitment to a conventional rule of law.
Tirelessly working to improve our state’s economy by opening ANWR, increasing oil and gas production, securing a strong national defense with additional military capabilities in Alaska, protecting our oceans and bolstering our fisheries, and opening the Tongass to more logging opportunities are just a few examples of his determination to provide for our state’s prosperity.
As we look to the future, it is reassuring to know Alaska has Sen. Sullivan defending our state interests in DC. From the politically motivated impeachment proceedings against President Trump, for which Senator Sullivan saw through the political shenanigans being orchestrated by the Democrats and voted to acquit, to the current assault on Alaska by both a Democrat-controlled congress and executive branch, Sen. Sullivan is a stalwart against partisan and toxic federalism and he is a resilient defender of our personal liberties.
I, for one, want to thank Sen. Sullivan for his hard work on behalf of our state and for his dedication to preserving the foundation of our Constitutional Republic. Keep holding the torch of liberty high as you continue representing the freedom loving citizens of the Last Frontier.
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).
Andy Teuber beat a hasty retreat from his mega job leading Alaska’s largest Native health organization, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Little is known about why he quit the organization, which he has led since 2008, or why he also suddenly resigned from the University of Alaska Board of Regents, all at the same time, without reason. The mainstream media has not revealed the cause for Teuber’s unexpected departure.
Teuber may be the highest paid health administrator in the state. In 2017, the latest MRAK could determine, he was awarded a $1.2 million salary and benefits package from ANTHC.
In 2019, the organization had 3,485 employees, $707 million in revenue, and $949 million in assets, much of it the sprawling medical campus in east Anchorage.
Teuber is also the CEO of the Kodiak Area Native Association. At last discovery, he was earning $540,000 a year at KANA, a salary that was, like his salary at ANTHC, largely paid for by tax dollars.
KANA, which is a Native health organization, has revenues of $35,067,111 and expenses of about $30 million.
Between the two organizations, Teuber was pulling down nearly $2 million a year running Medicaid programs for Alaska Natives. He didn’t make nearly as much until Gov. Bill Walker delivered Medicaid expansion to Native health groups in Alaska.
Although no further information has been released officially from the ANTHC organization, sources say there are computer hard drives that may have been physically destroyed at the ANTHC, and they may be related to Teuber’s departure.
The new CEO for ANTHC is Garvin Federenko, who was chief financial officer of the organization and who has been with ANTHC since 1998. The fact that the organization quickly promoted Federenko indicates the scandal may not be related to Medicaid fiscal malpractice.
In fact, there may be very little need for Medicaid fraud, since Medicaid money is flowing so freely there’s hardly a need for fraud. Native health organizations bill both Indian Health Service and Medicaid, but Medicaid is billed more freely, as there is no cap on spending.
Others who are on the executive team at ANTHC include former Commissioner of Health and Social Services Valerie Nurr’araaluk Davidson, who is also is president of Alaska Pacific University. Davidson, who pushed for Medicaid expansion under Gov. Walker, oversees the ANTHC educational programs, including the Community Health Aide program, the Dental Health Aide Therapy program and the Behavioral Health Aide program. Davidson briefly became lieutenant governor in late 2018 after the scandalous resignation of Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott.
Ethan Schutt is also one of the high-profile executives at ANTHC. Schutt served in leadership positions with Cook Inlet Region Inc. (CIRI) in Anchorage, Tanana Chiefs Conference in Fairbanks, and on the Doyon, Limited board of directors from 2003 to 2006. He serves on a number of local boards, including the boards of Covenant House, Alaska and the Resource Development Council.
Just six months ago, Roald Helgesen left ANTHC, where he had headed up the Alaska Native Medical Center. He has moved on to become chief operating officer for Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indians of Alaska.
Unrelated to troubles at ANTHC, Katherine Gottlieb left as the CEO of Southcentral Foundation in August, after her husband was fired from the organization. The two of them had worked at the foundation for over 30 years.
The Eagle River town hall meeting with legislators was a technical challenge on Saturday for those tuning in, but the crowd that was present at the Lion’s Club had plenty to say to Rep. Kelly Merrick.
They pilloried Merrick for abandoning the Republican caucus to get the powerful seat co-chairing House Finance Committee, and membership in the Democrats’ binding caucus. They told her to resign.
Although Merrick appeared on a screen for the town hall, she said she could not hear the people in the room. It’s unclear if that was the case, because at one point, people in the room said they could not hear her, and she responded, “I’m sorry?” and “OK.” And she also paused reading her script while people booed her.
Merrick, in her statement to her constituents, said she joined the Democrat caucus because she felt it would best represent Eagle River, and not because she wanted a bigger office or more staff. She said she was representing Eagle River values, but that she was not sent to Juneau to just represent Republicans. She also said she hoped other conservatives would come over to join her, but unfortunately they did not. She said that Speaker Louise Stutes had offered the chairmanship of Rules Committee to four of the most conservative members of the House. They refused, and Dillingham’s Bryce Edgmon is now chair of Rules.
It was the first time Merrick has made public statement about her controversial move to join the Democrat-led caucus. She has kept radio silence and has not returned calls from constituents in her district or District 14 Republican Party officers.
“Thank you to the overwhelming number of people who supported my decision,” she said. She laughed off those who have been “concocting these conspiracy theories” as to why she jumped to the majority — that she plans to run for Congress or governor.
“I can assure you it’s not that glamorous,” Merrick said.
Rep. Kelly Merrick’s campaign photo from 2018.
Joelle Hall, the new head of AFL-CIO in Alaska, chimed in on Facebook, “We support you, Kelly!”
Others were not so kind, and she took no questions during the town hall.
Although since 2016, Republicans have held the majority of House seats, the House remains governed by a non-majority of Democrats. This session, it’s a governing body of 20 that includes two Republicans: Speaker Louise Stutes and Finance Co-Chair Merrick. Stutes has caucused with Democrats since 2016, but this is the first year that Merrick has jumped over.
Sen. Lora Reinbold spoke to the attendees about her dispute with the governor over emergency orders during the past year, and said he had overstepped his authority in writing a letter to her refusing to cooperate with her Judiciary Committee. She said she will be writing a letter back to him soon, and will be producing another video response.
Reinbold and Rep. Ken McCarty were present in the room, while Merrick toughed it out on screen, to the frustration of those attending. about 75 people showed up for the meeting.
The public had much on their minds — Permanent Fund dividends, school closures, critical race theory being taught in schools, election security, and the perceived treachery of Rep. Merrick.
At the end of the meeting, a recall petition application was passed around on a clipboard for those in District 14 to sign, starting the process for recalling Merrick. Over 50 people from the district signed the application for a recall petition.
“They couldn’t sign fast enough,” said one person in the room. “They were grabbing pens, saying where do I sign?”
Mike Bradner, who was Speaker of the House in 1975 and 1976, and who was a member of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1966-1976, representing Fairbanks, has passed.
After a decade of serving in the House, he lost to Rep. Glenn Hackney, a Republican, for the Fairbanks Senate seat in 1976. Mike and his brother Tim Bradner published the Legislative Digest and Alaska Economic Report, subscription newsletters, for many years.
As a legislator, Bradner was a Democrat and member of Legislative Council. He was instrumental in development of state and local revenue-sharing, state petroleum tax, and pipeline regulation policy developed in the 1970s. He fought for higher severance taxes.
The Alaska Permanent Fund was created in 1976, while Bradner was Speaker of the House.
Among those he served with in the House are Thelma Buchholdt, Sam Cotten, Steve Cowper (later Gov. Cowper), Larry Davis, Jim Duncan, Richard Eliason, Tom Fink, Helen Fischer, Oral Freeman, Terry Gardiner, Clark Gruening, Phillip Guy, Glenn Hackney, Mike Miller, and Rick Urion.
During the Ninth Legislative session, Bradner’s last, work had commenced on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, and in April of 1976, the first live coverage of legislative floor sessions began with one-hour broadcast from the House and Senate each day. Later that year, voters would approve a constitutional amendment establishing the Alaska Permanent Fund.
He was the litigant in Bradner vs. Hammond, a seminal case that determined lines of authority between the Legislature and the Executive Branch, as they pertained to Boards and Commissions, as well as appointment authority for numerous state positions beneath the commissioner level.
Born in 1937 in Washington, D.C, he attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks between 1957 and 1966, according to his LinkedIn profile. He worked as a journalist, researcher, writer, and as a pilot of freight barges on the Yukon River.
He was the executive director of the Redistricting Board under Gov. Tony Knowles. When Gov. Hickel was elected in 1990, Hickel replaced the entire board and staff, and Tuckerman Babcock became the executive director.
Bradner also worked with Northwest Energy on the Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline project, and on projects related to processing of state royalty crude oil.
For many years, and up through 2020’s legislative session, he had been an interviewer for Gavel Alaska, hosting conversations with lawmakers and policy officials in state government for Capitol View, a show that was produced by KTOO. One of his daughters, Michaela Bradner, serves as sergeant-of-arms for the Alaska State House.
Bradner lived in Anchorage at the time of his passing. Gov. Mike Dunleavy ordered the Alaska flag lowered on Wednesday in honor of Bradner.
Over the past two weeks, Alaska has lost other Alaskans who lived and made Alaska history, including Katie Hurley, chief clerk of the Alaska Constitutional Convention, and Bud Fate, former lawmaker and father-in-law of U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.
The City and Borough of Juneau recommends residents in Behrends Ave. avalanche path to evacuate; an evacuation center at Centennial Hall opens at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Juneau’s Urban Avalanche Advisory will transition from high to extreme tonight as avalanche danger continues to increase over the next 24-36 hours.
Due to the potential for historic avalanches should the Behrends Avenue avalanche path release at full width at the depth of snow instabilities, the City and Borough of Juneau Emergency Management wants residents residents in paths to evacuate. As the winter storm continues and transitions to rain Saturday, danger levels will increase.
Eagle River and Chugiak residents can hear from their House representatives and senator at a Saturday town hall meeting.
People can either go in person to the Lion’s Club in Eagle River, Eagle River Rd and E. Eagle River Loop, at 4 pm, or attend virtually on Zoom at this link:
