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Outside group executed stealth writing campaign to turn out Democrat absentees

Suzanne Downing
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Outside group executed stealth writing campaign to turn out Democrat absentees

POSSIBLY ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN OF UNSOURCED POSTCARDS

The Alaska Democrats far outperformed their usual absentee vote turnout, and some politicos wondered what they did to add 9,000 Democrat absentee ballots to the primary tally, when in the past Democrats have not made the effort to get those absentee ballots, preferring the “vote early” method.

There may have been several factors, but one is an unseen that is likely the efforts of a third party like the Lincoln Project. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of handwritten postcards landed in the mailboxes of Alaskans from people out of state, from Connecticut to Hawaii.

Many of the messages were similarly worded: “Vote for Al Gross for Senate”. “Vote for Alyse Galvin for House.” “They’re independent but they’ll caucus with the Democrats.” “They will fight for affordable health care.” “They’ll end the hatred in politics.” And they all gave the web addresses of the campaigns they supported as a way to get an absentee ballot. Many of them use the same postage stamp pattern.

But none of the messages indicated that the letter-writing was paid for by any entity. There was no legal disclaimer, as required by law, even though there is evidence of a coordinated campaign that spent money on stamps, and possibly paid postcard writers: How else would these random people around the country get the addresses of undeclared and Democrat voters?

What group coordinated the campaign is hard to tell, but the Lincoln Project has already said it is going to be active in trying to flip the Alaska U.S. House and Senate seats blue, and is one of the likely suspects.

The bigger reason the Democrats came out, however, is that Democrats are more afraid of the COVID-19 coronavirus, and are choosing to vote absentee in greater numbers, while Republicans are voting absentee in the same general pattern as they have in the past.

Rep. Steve Thompson: I stand with Republicans

Suzanne Downing
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Rep. Steve Thompson: I stand with Republicans

Open Letter from Rep. Steve Thompson:

I appreciate the voters’ support in the Aug. 18 primary, and I’m proud to be the House District 2 Republican candidate in November’s General Election.

I’m already working with my Republican colleagues and over the next two months I will work tirelessly to win the seats we need for a strong Republican majority in the next legislative session.

If we hope to effectively promote our conservative values, then it is imperative that we work to form a solid majority by combining our strengths and setting aside petty issues. I anticipate that we’ll have the numbers for a Republican led House, but as we saw in the 31st legislature, we need more than just numbers.

We need a commitment from all elected Republicans to work together to create the strongest organization we possibly can. Otherwise, we will find ourselves sitting on the sidelines again. Allowing ourselves to fall into the minority is akin to falling on one’s sword unnecessarily; especially when we have the numbers to control the House.

I recognize that there are many competing interests and issues in the Republican party today. It isn’t always easy to work together, even when we start out with the same ideological framework. For the sake of our districts, our state and the citizens of Alaska, we must take the higher ground and agree to a platform and principles we can all live with. As in all things political, we must compromise.

I know the word “compromise” has negative connotations for some. While we may have to concede rigid positions on certain issues, we are not going to compromise our values. We can all agree on that, I’m sure.

I’ve had a number of conversations with Republican Party leadership, Republican candidates, current Republican legislators and other party members on our strategy moving forward.

We all understand the difficult task before us; the necessity to form a Republican Majority to run the House. We are a family and as with any family, we will face disagreements and disappointments. We cannot let this deter us.

Through the difficult process of forming an organization and setting a positive course for our state, we must insist that the obstacles we face do not tear us apart, but rather make us more focused and determined to do the right thing for our constituents and for Alaska. 

I’m honored to have the support of the Republican party and I’m proud to represent my district.  I will do everything in my power to ensure that our conservative values are the driving force when we get to Juneau in January.

Rep. Steve Thompson represents House District 2, Fairbanks.

Is new Juneau debt a good idea?

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Is new Juneau debt a good idea?

By WIN GRUENING

In recent years, Juneau’s Assembly has disregarded voters’ wishes on sales tax and bond issue propositions. One need only look at the approved funding for Centennial Hall repairs and upgrades which has not been utilized and remains unspent today.

With the city now facing an estimated $18 million in needed Centennial Hall renovations, $4.5 million in sales tax money was approved by voters for improvements in 2017. Last year an additional $7 million in bonds for our convention center were approved.

In that same election, a measure to re-direct the $4.5 million of sales tax for Centennial Hall to fund the New JACC project was soundly defeated, even though the Assembly had voted unanimously to put the request on the ballot.

Now the Assembly seeks voter approval for a “bundled” bond proposition of up to $15 million with roughly one-third of the money going to each of three areas: fix school roofs; capital improvements to parks; and repairs to streets and buildings, and energy efficiency projects.

Use of bond proceeds are typically delineated in more detail so voters can decide whether the expense and resulting property tax increase is warranted. Roof repairs for specific schools may be worthy of support, but two-thirds of the $15 million are not specifically defined.

This does not provide the kind of transparent information for voters to decide if these projects are indeed “critical.”

Part of the rationale for taking on new debt is to get people working by putting $15 million in projects on the street. The Assembly foresees significant economic benefits – with direct and indirect impacts of over $21 million (based on an estimate from McDowell Associates).  This, however, assumes that most labor and materials could be locally sourced – a issue that hasn’t been researched.

If getting people to work is so imperative, why hasn’t the $11.5 million for Centennial Hall (approved in 2017 and 2019) been utilized? What is the hold-up?  

As to timing and the possibility of alternative funding, there are some important issues to be considered. 

As outlined by city staff during budget deliberations, Juneau initially faced an estimated $35 million shortfall caused by the pandemic and cancellation of the cruise season. While this figure has shifted over time, $53 million in federal CARES Act funding has significantly offset this shortfall. 

Currently, after using CARES monies as economic stimulus in the form of loans and grants to businesses and organizations, as well as paying for Covid-related public safety expenses, there is an estimated $10-12 million that remains uncommitted.

Under current federal guidelines, uses for these funds are restricted to Covid-related impacts and must be committed prior to December 31, 2020.  However, there are several bills pending in Congress that would lift these restrictions, giving CBJ the ability to use these funds where they see fit.

While Congress is deadlocked on these CARES funding revisions now, there’s a reasonable chance for approval later this year.  

Once the Assembly has satisfied its obligations to fix leaky school roofs, could it be hoping that, if CARES Act funding is no longer restricted, the resulting windfall would justify additional funding for the New JACC not requiring voter approval?

If CARES monies do become available and the $15 million bundled bond package passes on October 3, voters would have unnecessarily raised property taxes, when by waiting, this could have been avoided.

There are any number of projects that should have a higher priority for public dollars than some favored by the Assembly recently.  Solid waste disposal, the relocated Glory Hall, and West Douglas Pioneer Road extension are but a few deserving of support.

The question remains: Why is the Assembly promoting additional city debt for projects that remain largely undefined?

And it’s fair to ask why Juneau residents should vote to add new debt now if alternative funding sources may be available.

Win Gruening retired as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in 2012. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is active in community affairs as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

Zuckerburg rules: No new political ads Oct. 27-Nov. 3

Suzanne Downing
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Zuckerburg rules: No new political ads Oct. 27-Nov. 3

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM TARGETS QANON

The CEO of Facebook has spoken. With the General Elections two months away, Mark Zuckerberg says he is worried that between COVID-19 and with a nation so divided, all new political ads during the last week of the campaign season are banned from the Facebook platform.

Candidates across the country, from the president to local legislative races, will need to adjust their last-week publicity plans accordingly.

During a year of pandemic, many campaigns are relying heavily on the social media platform, particularly in Alaska, where it is already a wildly popular communication tool. Very few in-person events are being held, particularly for the legislative races.

Zuckerberg said he is concerned that new ads might contain material that will cause civil unrest, especially if it takes days or weeks for the final vote to be tallied and results certified.

With an uptick in mail-in voting, it is a distinct possibility that some races will be too close to call on Election Night.

“We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy,” Zuckerberg wrote, referring to the constitutional republic form of government that is the United States of America. “That means helping people register and vote, clearing up confusion about how this election will work, and taking steps to reduce the chances of violence and unrest.”

Facebook is already running the largest voting information campaign in American history, with a company goal of registering 4 million people and getting them to vote.

He noted that he and his wife have donated $300 million to non-partisan organizations supporting states and local counties in strengthening our voting infrastructure. Now, as foreshadowed earlier this summer, the company is going to actively get involved to encourage voting, push out authoritative information, and fight misinformation.

“These changes reflect what we’ve learned from our elections work over the past four years and the conversations we’ve had with voting rights experts and our civil rights auditors,” he wrote.

One change will be the placement of a Voting Information Center at the top of Facebook and Instagram almost every day until the election. The information center will contain video tutorials on how to vote by mail, and information on deadlines for registering and voting tailored to every state.

The company is also blocking new political and issue ads during the final week of the campaign.

“It’s important that campaigns can run get out the vote campaigns, and I generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims. So in the week before the election, we won’t accept new political or issue ads,” he said.

Advertisers will be able to continue running ads they started running before the final week and adjust the targeting for those ads.

The social media behemoth is also going to remove any perceived misinformation about voting, such as false claims about polling locations.

“We’ve already consulted with state election officials on whether certain voting claims are accurate,” Zuckerberg wrote. The company will prevent misinformation from going viral on its site by limiting the forwarding function on Messenger and WhatsApp. This is a technique Facebook says it has used in other countries to prevent the spread of misinformation.

An example of misinformation that the company might delete would be a post that tells people they can mail in their ballots up to three days after the election deadline, or that anyone who has a driver’s license can vote.

Another new election-related rule pertains to posts about people being more likely to catch the COVID-19 coronavirus if they go to the polls.

“We’ll attach a link to authoritative information about Covid-19 to posts that might use the virus to discourage voting, and we’re not going to allow this kind of content in ads. Given the unique circumstances of this election, it’s especially important that people have accurate information about the many ways to vote safely, and that Covid-19 isn’t used to scare people into not exercising their right to vote,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg is predicting that the results of many races won’t be known immediately and that the political climate could get heated, with civil unrest. The company will use the Voting Information Center feature to advise people repeatedly that results may not be known right away and that this doesn’t mean anything nefarious is going on to delegitimize the race.

The company will partner with Reuters and the “National Election Pool” to provide authoritative information about election results. Those results will appear in Facebook’s Voting Information Center and the company will notify users as results become available. This will present a huge challenge for television news networks, which are used to owning the viewership on Election Night.

If any candidate or campaign tries to declare victory before the results are in, the company will add a label to their post educating that official results are not yet in and directing people to the official results, he wrote.

Additionally, the company will attach labels to any post that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of the election or even ones that discuss the legitimacy of voting methods.

Facebook’s CEO gave a special stink-eye to one group: QAnon. Without naming the violent Antifa or Black Lives Matter organizations, Zuckerberg said QAnon is the one he is worried about stirring up trouble. Qanon and militias, he said, using a word typically referring to right-wing, constitutionally based groups.

Qanon is a label that left-wing media have used to delegitimize support for the president and have recently tried to push to equate with Antifa, a violent Marxist movement in the U.S. According to Wikipedia, “QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring is plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling them, leading to a ‘day of reckoning’ involving the mass arrest of journalists and politicians…”

“We’ve already strengthened our enforcement against militias, conspiracy networks like QAnon, and other groups that could be used to organize violence or civil unrest in the period after the elections,” Zuckerberg wrote. We have already removed thousands of these groups and removed even more from being included in our recommendations and search results. We will continue to ramp up enforcement against these groups over the coming weeks.It’s important to recognize that there may be legitimate concerns about the electoral process over the coming months. We want to make sure people can speak up if they encounter problems at the polls or have been prevented from voting, but that doesn’t extend to spreading misinformation.”

As for foreign interference in the elections or on Facebook, Zuckerberg says the threat has not gone away.

The company this week took down a network of 13 accounts and 2 pages that were trying to mislead Americans and amplify division, he said.

“We’ve invested heavily in our security systems and now have some of the most sophisticated teams and systems in the world to prevent these attacks. We’ve removed more than 100 networks worldwide engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior over the past couple of years, including ahead of major democratic elections. However, we’re increasingly seeing attempts to undermine the legitimacy of our elections from within our own borders,” he said.

“I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election — even if it takes time for every vote to be counted,” he wrote, calling on campaigns, parties and the public to live up to their responsibilities to protect free and fair elections.

It’s time to end the emergency declaration

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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It’s time to end the emergency declaration

By REP. BEN CARPENTER

Like most business owners, I have been concerned about when our government response to the current viral outbreak will come to an end, as it must eventually do. 

It is a question of timing. It is also a question of vision.

I recently received a long sought-after answer from Gov. Mike Dunleavy as to what his vision is for the end state of his emergency declaration. 

His concept of when this thing ends has been a moving target that I hope has stopped moving.

The governor recently declared in his Aug. 22 opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News that “…no amount of government effort can fully restore Alaska’s economy until a vaccine or cure is developed. We intend to build on these successes as we work to stabilize our economy and improve the lives of everyday Alaskans.” 

Clearly, his intent is for his administration’s response to remain in effect until a cure in the form of a vaccination has been developed.

Gov. Dunleavy’s recent ADN opinion piece and our follow-on phone conversation solidified for me where I think he is headed. I don’t think he will mandate a vaccine cure. We will treat a COVID-19 vaccine as we do the flu vaccine. It will be voluntary and will help to reduce the number of deaths but will not eliminate them.

I believe there are other effective medical remedies for treatment of this virus and a potential vaccination is not the only effective treatment option available but I agree with his vision with regard to not mandating a vaccination.

We may, or may not, ever have an effective vaccine. If there is no vaccine, or if it does not eliminate all deaths, we will likely continue to have medical and political pressure to continue health mandates until the mortality rate reaches a politically acceptable level. A morbid thought for sure, but it is the reality we will face without a 100% cure. 

For perspective, a greater number of deaths attributed to the flu virus each year do not result in medical or political pressure for emergency health mandates in Alaska. With a COVID-19 vaccine, we will likely strive to reach a comfort zone with the number of unfortunate COVID-19 related deaths, just like we do with the flu virus. 

The governor’s end state will be reached when there is an effective vaccine and the death rate is at an acceptable level, however that will be defined. Our businesses will continue to suffer under the health mandates until that time.

Upon receiving the governor’s vision for when he would consider lifting all health mandates, it became clear to me that it is time to immediately end the emergency declaration.

Other states have already done this.

Regardless of the availability or effectiveness of a vaccine or the number of deaths from the COVID-19 viral outbreak (or the deaths from the approaching flu season and other diseases with high death rates), what we will certainly have is fewer businesses and fewer employed people in this state as our economy continues to strain under the emergency mandates. 

Failed and failing businesses more accurately describes the situation under the Municipality of Anchorage health mandates. It is time that public policy reflects the acknowledgement that the COVID-19 virus will remain with us for the foreseeable future and that we must have a healthy economy to be successful in the future. 

The CARES Act stimulus money can only temporarily slow the bleeding; what we need is to stop the hemorrhage. Only a return to a free economy, with no restrictive health mandates, can save our businesses. 

Eliminating the health mandates at the state level will not eliminate the mandates in Anchorage but it will provide leadership and political momentum for the business leaders in Anchorage to reign in their Mayor.

I supported the extension of the governor’s emergency declaration made in March of this year. 

My support was based upon the governor’s declaration that there existed an imminent threat to the life and health of Alaskans statewide, and discussions with members of the administration who believed at the time that the extent of the crisis was likely to overwhelm our medical capacity to respond effectively. 

I agreed to the emergency declaration with the goal to slow the spread of the virus and give our medical community precious time to build up its response capacity.

We have learned a lot about this virus since March and much of what we feared would come to pass has not occurred in Alaska. Our medical community has built up sufficient capacity to effectively respond to this viral outbreak and previous medical projections of the overwhelming nature of the viral infection have not been proven to be accurate in Alaska. 

Several treatment options exist today that make managing this virus more successful than it was in March. Much of our success this summer can be attributed to the quick and tireless work of our medical community and to our fellow Alaskans who have taken this viral outbreak seriously.

We have also learned that less people are dying from Covid-19 than we originally thought. Recently, the CDC released updated statistics that indicate that only 6% of the nation-wide Covid-19 deaths can be attributed to the virus only. 94% of the nationwide Covid-19 deaths were attributed to two or more comorbidities. 

The governor has been very vocal about his belief that Alaskans can be trusted to behave appropriately during these trying times, and it is our behavior that is going to be the difference-maker in the outcome of this viral outbreak. I agree with this sentiment. If we can trust Alaskans to behave appropriately, then mandates are not necessary.

I believe that the Alaskan medical community is doing a superb job of managing this disease and their efforts will only be more successful if an effective vaccine is developed. If there is no effective vaccine in the immediate future, our medical providers will have to continue doing the best that they can. 

We must not ask our businesses to continue to remain closed indefinitely or shoulder the burden of the consequences of the health mandates pending a cure that may, or may not, arrive. 

The best immediate government response to help restore Alaska’s economy is to end the emergency declaration. Our medical community has proven capable of handling the viral outbreak and Alaskans can be trusted to be responsible for their health decisions.

Our government response is now doing more harm than good. There are many businesses that are struggling financially due to our government response and there are federal funds that continue to be made available to help these businesses. None of these financial assistance programs is intended to make businesses whole from the damage that has already occurred during our economic shutdown. 

The best action government can take now is to restore the freedoms our businesses enjoyed prior to the government induced shutdown. Ending the emergency declaration will not jeopardize the continued availability of these financial assistance programs. But ending the emergency mandates will give our businesses their best fighting chance of survival.

The Legislature’s support of the governor’s emergency declaration is due to automatically expire on Nov. 15 without legislative reauthorization. Waiting until mid-November is unnecessary and only continues the harm to our business owners. The two biggest reasons in favor of waiting until Nov. 15 are a bitter pill for our businesses to swallow.

Political campaigns and fear of partisan political power struggles over spending should not prevent the legislature from doing the right thing for our Alaskan business owners and employees. 

The easiest solution is for the governor to end the emergency declaration on his own. I am amenable to dialog with the governor for the purpose of achieving this end in a timely manner. If he is unable to act quickly, it is incumbent on the Legislature to call itself into special session and end the emergency declaration. 

At my request, Legislative Legal Affairs has drafted the necessary bill to modify the end date of the emergency declaration to Sept. 15, or a date of our choosing. Our special session need not be a long drawn out affair and I assume there is little appetite from most legislators to do so given the election season.

There are political consequences in joining with members of the Majority Coalition to call a special session, such as the inevitable excessive spending requests. However, there are political consequences for not putting our businesses before politics. If, as all members of the legislature espouse, our business community is important to us, then we should be able to set aside politics in this extraordinary time and agree to a limited special session focused on saving our business community.

Our State economy is floundering right now with many a hope that things will eventually get better. Getting better is up to us. Providing clear and decisive leadership at this crucial time is what is needed and expected of us. I invite you to join me in a call for action by our governor to immediately end the emergency declaration. If unsuccessful, it’s time to request our legislative leaders to pursue the calling of a limited special session of the Legislature for the purpose of ending the emergency declaration.

Rep. Ben Carpenter lives in Nikiski, District 29, where he grows peonies.

Constantly misguided assemblyman says racism is ‘baked into our community’

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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By DAN FAGAN

Are you a racist? I’m not either. Are your friends racist? Yeah, neither are mine. So where are all these racists Democrats warn us about? They constantly complain the “disenfranchised” can’t get ahead, because, you know, racism.  

If you believe hard-core leftist Assemblyman Christopher Constant, Anchorage is spiked with intolerance and bigotry. It’s woven into our culture. We’re swimming in racism. It’s who we are as a people. Yes, Constant argues the people of Anchorage are authentically prejudice and steeped in racial discrimination.  

“To me, the issue of racism is not specific to a person acting, but it is just baked into our community in such a way that we do not even see the people who we don’t have equal respect or understanding of. We just literally blank them out,” Constant said during a recent Assembly meeting.  

Constant singled out those testifying before the Assembly and objecting to Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’s plan to flood certain areas of town with high and drunk vagrants as racist. But he’s wrong about dissenters not seeing the vagrants. We do see them. They’re everywhere. Fornicating, defecating, masturbating, trespassing, fighting, falling down, and lawbreaking.  

The reason so many are speaking out over Anchorage’s exploding vagrant epidemic has nothing to do with race. What a stupid thing to believe. People don’t want lawless drug addicts and drunkards flooding neighborhoods leaving their feces, drug needles, trash, and stolen bikes all around. 

Does Constant honestly believe these dysfunctional vagrants would be welcome in neighborhoods if they were of a different race? Is he out of his mind? 

Constant not only believes Anchorage is currently racist, he says it’s been that way for years. 

“We have made policy for generations on that principle and I will not stand for that principle one more day on this body as long as I’m here,” said Constant. 

And there it is. The one constant with Constant and other hard-core Leftists: Virtue signaling. 

“I will not stand on that principle one more day on this body as long as I’m here.”  

What Constant wants you to know is that even though the city he serves is racist and has been for years, as an enlightened, woke, super virtuous crusader for all things not equal, he will draw a line in the sand and single handily bring to an end generations of injustices. 

He’s faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look up in the Sky. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Christopher Constant, social justice superhero! 

Here’s the thing about left-leaning virtue signalers like Constant, Berkowitz, and other Assembly members of their ilk. Because their focus is on their image and how their decisions make them look, they rarely discover truth.  

Seeking and finding truth requires a humble and compassionate heart. To find the truth one must care about others and sincerely want to help. The heart obsessed with its own image cannot see or hear truth. 

The ideology and religion of Leftism is based on pride and self-glorification. It’s the opposite of humility. Leftists fancy themselves hyper-intellectual. Above the uneducated and less refined. They’re all puffed up. It’s why Leftists typically destroy everything they touch. 

They must be defeated at the ballot box. The longer they control a city, the more decline and destruction. Look at San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. Consider Venezuela, once a resource-rich nation, now a place where the vast majority live in poverty. 

Don’t think it could happen to Anchorage or Alaska? Keep electing Leftists. You’ll see.   

Dan Fagan hosts a radio show weekday mornings on Newsradio 650, KENI. 

Breaking: Municipal Attorney denies recall petition for Zalatel

Suzanne Downing
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Breaking: Municipal Attorney denies recall petition for Zalatel

The municipal attorney and Municipal Clerk for Anchorage have rejected the petition application for recalling Assembly member Meg Zalatel, who represents midtown Anchorage.

“We conclude that the recall application is factually sufficient; it is sufficiently particular to allow the reader to understand the allegations, and to permit Assembly Member Zaletel to respond in 200 words. Determining the legal sufficiency of the application is more complex, and requires analysis of the governing law on open meetings in Alaska as well as factual context of the allegations in the application.

“The bulk of the petition’s allegation is that Assembly Member Zaletel’s ‘misconduct in office’ violated Alaska law at the July 28 Assembly meeting by not allowing public testimony inside the Assembly chambers; by conducting municipal business after the public had been excluded; by permitting people to remain in chambers through a means not disclosed to the public prior to the meeting; and by ‘disenfranchising people’ who wanted to attend the meeting in person. The petition alleges that Assembly Member Zaletel’s misconduct violated both Alaska’s Public Meetings statute, AS 29.20.020, and Open Meetings Act, AS 44.62.310-.312.19”

The rejection explanation goes on to say that the Open Meetings Act does not specify the logistics of how to allow public testimony, and that there is no guarantee that testimony must be allowed in person or the the public has a right to “any particular method of participation.

Response-to-Recall-Application-2020-01Download

The decision means the public may not collect signatures to put a recall question on the ballot.

Another group, Recall Dunleavy, was granted a petition last year based on flimsy accusations that had no factual basis. After appeals, the Supreme Court has already ruled the governor can be recalled for any reason, even though there is a “for cause” standard in statute. The standard for municipal seats is even lower, but the municipal attorney Kathryn Vogel is an extreme leftist who supports the positions of the left-wing Assembly and mayor.

Zalatel, during a meeting earlier this summer, was the presiding chair of the Assembly and allowed one person from the public to testify because she wanted specific testimony; the rest of the public was barricaded from the meeting due to what the Assembly interpreted as a CCOVI-19 health threat. Her arbitrary allowance of one person over all others became part of the basis for the recall petition application. Without having a petition to gather names on issued by the Clerk, there is no path for a recall.

Must Read Alaska was not able to reach the sponsor of the petition application, Russell Biggs, of Anchorage, for a comment, but this story will be updated.

Group collects signatures to recall Meg Zaletel from Anchorage Assembly

Robert Myers survives recount in Fairbanks

Suzanne Downing
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Robert Myers survives recount in Fairbanks

Robert Myers, who challenged Sen. John Coghill for Senate Seat B in Fairbanks-North Pole, has survived the recount that Coghill requested.

The final tally is 1,739 to 1,725, a 14-vote difference.

Coghill was part of the Senate leadership team under Sen. Cathy Giessel, who also lost her seat in the Aug. 18 primary. Voters were upset with the way the budget and the Permanent Fund dividend calculation was handled, and also with the stance that several Republican lawmakers took against Gov. Mike Dunleavy on his attempts to put a spending cap and the Permanent Fund dividend in front of a vote of the people for constitutional amendments.

In House District 23, Republican Connie Dougherty also asked for a recount, after being bested by Cathy Henslee. The winner of that primary will go on to challenge Democrat Chris Tuck in the General Election. That recount has not yet been posted by the Division of Elections.

Myers is behind in fundraising, he ran on a shoestring budget. His main opponent Marna Sanford is well funded with at least $60,000 in her campaign treasury for her Indie-Democrat campaign, much of it coming from outside the district and outside the state. Evan Eads also is on the November ballot as a no-party candidate.

The Democrats have been offering no-party candidates as their preferred alternative to registered Democrats, but this time it bit them because they created a three-way race for the General Election, where two will take on a Republican during a presidential election year, when more Republicans get out and vote.

Myers said the first order of business for him will be to raise funds for his campaign, as he is well-aware that Sanford has a warchest, but also he has to get some hours on the clock at his day job, because he has a mortgage to pay.

His website is www.myersforalaska.com.

Haines Palmer Project mine wins against enviro-lawsuit

Suzanne Downing
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Haines Palmer Project mine wins against enviro-lawsuit

The litigation by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council against the Bureau of Land Management over the Haines-area Palmer Project has been decided in favor of the mining companies, Constantine / Alyu Mining Co, and Haines Mining and Exploration Inc.

Every one of SEACC’s claims was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the most liberal appeals court in the country.

Although oral arguments were held back in June, Judge Timothy Burgess’ summary judgment was not affirmed by the court until Aug. 28. Burgess is the presiding judge of the Federal District Court for the District of Alaska.

Liz Cornejo, Community liaison and advisor for Constantine, was pleased with the outcome, as it allows exploration and scientific inquiry to continue.

“We believe the Ninth Circuit decided correctly on this matter and are pleased with the final decision. Constantine remains committed to quality science and meaningful engagement with Chilkat Indian Village of Klukwan and other stakeholders through every step of our mineral exploration and development activities,” she said.

The court ruled that future potential impacts of a mine do not need to be considered for approval of the current exploration and scientific work, which was the claim being made by SEACC and its partner litigants.

“We recognize the importance of ongoing scientific studies and stakeholder discussions during the exploration process that will help us create a responsible mine proposal for consideration in the future,” Cornejo said.

Southeast Alaska is experiencing severe economic impacts from the coronavirus pandemic and various shutdowns of important sectors of the economy.

“Now more than ever, Constantine is proud to be contributing to the local economy by creating employment opportunities and working with local businesses to support exploration work at the Palmer Project and the new Big Nugget Gold Project, both in the historic Porcupine Mining District of Haines,” Cornejo said. 

Constantine’s summer work has supported 19 local jobs for Haines, and a total direct workforce of 25. 

Merrill Palmer, President of Alyu Mining Co., Inc. and Haines Mining & Exploration, Inc. said he’s persevered for 50 years to keep the opportunity alive, “and I will keep fighting for what I believe is a great gift for the people. Mines are safer today than ever before. A modern operating mine could add more than 250 year-round jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue to the Borough. A mine could also provide an important source of minerals to support ‘green technologies’ and national security. Civilization is based upon mining. Without successful mining, you don’t have a civilization.”

He said SEACC’s pattern of obstructionist behavior is something the group may want to reconsider going forward.

Palmer, who staked the claims to the mining prospect back int he 1960s, was instrumental in creating the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in 1982, which came from a consensus agreement with SEACC and other groups.

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