The mayor of Eagle, Alaska says he signed a letter of support for Elijah Verhagen without having considered the candidate more fully and because he was misled about who the incumbent, Rep. Dave Talerico, had endorsed.
Mayor Daniel Helmer is retracting that endorsement and is not endorsing in the District 6 race, whose winner will replace retiring Rep. Dave Talerico. Mike Cronk of Tok is the Republican in the race.
“I am not endorsing a candidate in the district 6 election. Besides being Mayor, I am a public employee, and my job prohibits me from endorsing or denouncing candidates for state or national office.
“I signed a letter in support of Verhagen last week without fully knowing what was going on. I have since asked him to remove my name from the letter, and to not use my name in support of his campaign,” Helmer wrote to Must Read Alaska.
“I was led to believe that Elijah was supported by Dave Talerico, and the only reason he was not a Republican, was because he missed the filing deadline to run in the primary,” Helmer explained.
“Signing Elijah’s letter was a mistake on my part. I should have looked into it more closely before agreeing to sign,” he wrote.
The mayor of Anderson has signed a letter endorsing Verhagen, who left the Republican Party and has no political team affiliation. Mayor Samantha Thompson is also a State employee; she is a deputy magistrate II in the court system. Thompson is a liberal who signed the recall petition against Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Lies and mischaracterization of Sen. Dan Sullivan by Alan Gross have prompted me to write this response.
I worked with Dan while he was Alaska’s Attorney General and while he was commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources.
I traveled to many villages with Dan while he chaired the Rural Alaska Sub-Cabinet, seeking solutions to the complex and challenging issues faced by many Alaskans residing in rural Alaska — issues like fuel costs, transportation, unemployment, public safety, domestic violence, sexual assault, and many other difficult problems.
What Dan experienced in these villages he took to heart and acted on. As an example, Dan was instrumental in spearheading the “Choose Respect” initiative, taking on a dark subject few had the courage or character to tackle.
I also worked with Dan on many projects. The most memorable was his determination to return Alaska Native allotments that once served as fish and hunting camps to Native families. Alaska Native allotment applications that were stuck in a bureaucratic limbo for decades were resolved under Dan’s watch.
In our travels together, Dan sat for hours listening to beloved elders like Walter Soboleff and Sidney Huntington, seeking their wisdom and learning from their stories.
Honesty and respect are core values of Alaska Native people, so for this Native Alaskan, Alan Gross’ lies are shameful and show his true character.
Citizens who have a second recall petition request filed with the Municipal Clerk’s Office have received no response — not a yes, not a no.
And it’s now past the 30-day period for a response, as required by municipal charter.
The citizen activists known as “Reclaim Midtown” signed the request for a recall petition; they want to hold an election to remove Assembly members Felix Rivera and Meg Zalatel.
Their first request — for a recall petition to remove Zalatel — was denied by the Municipal Attorney on the last of the 30-day period set forth by the municipal charter. That request denial is now being litigated, said Russell Biggs, one of the citizens.
But in the meantime, the group filed a second set of petitions — to remove Zalatel on additional grounds, and to also recall Assembly Chair Felix Rivera.
After the 30-day period passed on that petition request, Biggs is mystified. He sent a letter to Clerk Barbara Jones to ask for an explanation:
“It appears the municipal clerk’s office has failed to respond to the recall petition applications 2020-04 (Recall of Felix Rivera) and 2020-05 (Recall of Meg Zaletel) within the time frame defined in AS 29.26.360.
“Both of these petitions were submitted and documented as received by your office on Sept 28, 2020 and are now overdue.
“I am writing to inquire if this was an oversight, or if the municipality has taken the position that the time limits described in these statutes do not apply to the citizens’ initiative to remove these legislators in the manner provided by law.”
Must Read Alaska has also reached out to the Clerk’s office for a response.
Frank McQueary, president of Alaskans for Opens Meetings, said this is “another example of the Municipality being completely unresponsive to reasonable demands that it conduct the public’s business in a transparent way.”
Meanwhile, the initial recall petition request has been appealed to Anchorage Superior Court. The municipality doesn’t have to respond to the appeal at the court for 45 days, and has not, in fact, responded to the appeal, which was filed Sept. 30.
At least one of these cases will likely move forward via petition or through the courts, but it appears the municipality is slow-walking all of it through the system.
The recall petitions say that Rivera and Zalatel committed misconduct by participating in indoor gatherings of more than 15 people, in violation of the mayor’s emergency orders.
The allegation further says that Zalatel violated Alaska’s open meetings laws by not allowing public testimony inside the Assembly chambers, but then inviting just one person from the public to come inside the chambers to testify, after all others had been excluded.
Zalatel further allowed certain members of the public to remain inside the chambers and did not disclose this exemption to the public, disenfranchising the rest of the public.
That petition was rejected by the Municipal Attorney Kate Vogel.
The second petition to recall Zaletel and Rivera is similarly worded.
Reclaim Midtown is also the group that objects to former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’ and the Assembly’s plan to purchase two hotels, an old Alaska Club building and Beans Cafe to launch a network of services for Anchorage vagrants and drug addicts. The plan involves the use of CARES Act funds that many in Anchorage believe are being misused.
“Our community effort to remove Meg Zaletel for her role in denying Anchorage citizens the right to participate in the most controversial piece of Assembly legislation in recent memory has been an important example of the methods of government overreach used by the Municipality’s administration to stifle free speech and the right to assemble,” Biggs told Must Read Alaska in September.
“Municipal Attorney Kate Vogel’s flawed legal arguments used to justify the denial has been rejected in no less than three prior Alaska Supreme Court rulings and flies directly in the face of both settled case law and the Alaska Constitution,” he said. “The decision is patently inappropriate and we will now turn to the courts for remedy.”
But at least there was a decision. This round of recall efforts has, so far, been met with stonewalled silence.
DEMOCRATS’ NOMINEES PAY BIG MONEY TO GET EVERY ‘THUMBS UP’
If you’re an Alaskan voter, Democrat nominees Alyse Galvin and Alan Gross have spent a boatload of money to be your friend on Facebook. With millions of dollars from Outside donors, the two have shoveled it right back to Menlo Park, California to boost ads to your Facebook newsfeed.
And what they want most is a “thumbs up” to indicate you saw it and you like them.
Galvin and Gross are running against Congressman Don Young and Sen. Dan Sullivan.
While all candidates use the social media platform to boost their views and persuade voters, Galvin and Gross have deluged their messaging to Alaskans’ Facebook feeds at a spend approaching $850,000. By the end of this week, it will likely top $900,000 for Facebook ads alone.
So far, it’s a cost of $20.30 per “like” for Galvin, and a whopping $93.60 per “like” for Gross.
Congressman Don Young’s campaign has not had to spend as much to get those thumbs up reactions — his cost is only $4.64 per “like.” He has slightly fewer “likes” than Galvin, but is spending far less than her. He’s been in office for decades, but in past years his campaigns haven’t focused as much on Facebook as it has this year.
Gross, who is taking on Sen. Sullivan, has a lot of Outside money burning a hole in his campaign pocket. But although he has spent $93.60 for every “thumbs up” he’s received on Facebook, he has the fewest likes of any of the four candidates — just 6,053 have given him a nod of approval. Maybe it’s because he killed a bear.
Sen. Sullivan has the most “likes” of the four candidates, and has spent one tenth of what Gross has spent on those boosted ads and posts.
Facebook has become a valuable property for candidates during this pandemic-ridden campaign cycle. There’s a lot less door knocking and a lot less baby-kissing going on, as candidates and voters keep their distance from each other.
Facebook is still a relatively new frontier for politics. This week the company put a halt to all new paid ads in the days leading up to and following the election in order to prevent false claims from being promulgated at the last minute. But savvy campaigns had already placed their ads before the Tuesday deadline, and are still running them at a feverish pace.
By the end of Tuesday, Nov. 3, the news feeds of Alaskans will return to something that resembles normal — recipes, vacations, and puppies — as all the political ads vanish into thin air.
‘FILTHY FUHRER’ CASE OF KIDNAP, MURDER OF ‘STEAK KNIFE’
More charges have been brought in an indictment against members and associates of a white supremacist prison gang known as the “1488s,” according to U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder.
The 1488s have been charged as a criminal organization that was involved in narcotics distribution, arson, obstruction of justice, and acts of violence including murder, assault, and kidnap.
Two new defendants were added to the recently unsealed superseding indictment.
Felicia King, 55, of Wasilla, Alaska, was charged with accessory after the fact for her role in the August 2017 beating, kidnapping, and murder of Michael Staton, aka “Steak Knife.”
Justin Eaton, aka “Skulls” 45, of Anchorage, Alaska, who had been previously charged as a felon in possession of a firearm, was charged with RICO (racketeering) conspiracy, kidnapping and assault for his role in April 2, 2017, beating of a former 1488 member.
Original defendants Filthy Fuhrer, (formerly Timothy Lobdell), 42; Roy Naughton, aka “Thumper,” 40; Glen Baldwin, aka “Glen Dog,” 37; Craig King, aka “Oakie,” 53; and Colter O’Dell, 26, were all charged in a RICO Conspiracy.
Fuhrer and Naughton also face additional charges for federal kidnapping, as well as kidnapping and Assault in Aid of Racketeering for incidents occurring in April and July of 2017.
In the original indictment, Fuhrer, Naughton, Baldwin, King, O’Dell, and Beau Cook, 32, were charged with murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping in aid of racketeering, assault in aid of racketeering, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit assault and kidnapping in aid of racketeering.
Two other key members, Nicholas M. Kozorra, aka “Beast,” 29, and Dustin J. Clowers, 34, previously pleaded guilty to murder in aid of racketeering in unsealed court documents.
Additionally, Cook has now pleaded guilty to kidnapping for his role in the Staton homicide.
According to the superseding indictment, the 1488s are a violent prison-based gang operating inside and outside of state prisons throughout Alaska and elsewhere.
The 1488s employed Nazi-derived symbols to identify themselves and their affiliation with the gang. The most coveted tattoo of 1488s members was the 1488s “patch” (an Iron Cross superimposed over a Swastika), which could be worn only by “made” members who generally gained full membership by committing an act of violence on behalf of the gang.
The 1488s members and associates allegedly engaged in illegal activities under the protection of the enterprise, including narcotics trafficking, weapons trafficking, and other illegal activities to promote the influence of the gang.
The 1488s allegedly had an organizational structure, which is outlined in written “rules” widely distributed to members throughout Alaska and elsewhere.
Members of the 1488s allegedly acted in different roles in order to further the goals of their organization, including “bosses” who had ultimate authority in all gang matters.
“Key holders” were allegedly responsible for all gang matters within penal facilities where 1488s had a presence, and in “free world” Alaska (outside of prison).
“Enforcers” were allegedly responsible for enforcing the rules and performing tasks as assigned by higher-ranking gang members.
“Prospects” for membership were required to familiarize themselves with Nazi-inspired white supremacist ideology. Violence against law enforcement was also a means of gaining standing within the 1488s. Female associates of the gang were referred to as “lady-eights”.
In or about 2016 Fuhrer became more aggressive in his efforts to impose disciple within the gang.
Fuhrer believed that members who were defying the 1488 code of conduct were diminishing the power and influence of the gang. As outlined in the superseding indictment, this culminated in the kidnapping and assault of former members on April 2, 2017, and July 20, 2017, and the kidnapping, assault, and murder of Staton on Aug. 3, 2017. These acts were ordered by leadership of the 1488s acting from within and from outside of the prison system.
The FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, and the Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Bureau of Investigation, investigated this case in conjunction with the District of Alaska U.S. Attorney’s Office Organized Crime Division and the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Gang Section (OCGS). Investigative Assistance was provided by IRS Criminal Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Anchorage Police Department, and the State of Alaska’s Department of Corrections.
The charges of VICAR murder and kidnapping resulting in death are punishable by mandatory life sentences.
The joint investigation into the 1488 gang began in late 2017. To date, the investigation has yielded 14 additional federal indictments against members and associates of the gang. The charges have included: carjacking, narcotics conspiracy, weapons offenses, and mail theft.
It’s a question many Alaskans have yet to answer. You’ve probably heard it has something to do with ranking candidates and putting everyone into one big primary. But despite the millions spent by out-of-state billionaires to prop up Ballot Measure 2, they really haven’t explained much.
There’s a reason for that.
The truth is that the dangers of Ballot Measure 2 – all 25 pages and 74 sections – can’t be conveyed in 15-second soundbite.
What I’m about to tell you will take a few minutes to read, but it’s critical that you know why this initiative would be an unmitigated disaster for our democracy.
In 2016, Maine become the only state in the country to utilize ranked choice voting after 388,273 voters in a state of 1.3 million people approved the measure. What followed was a travesty. The very next election, a moderate congressman named Bruce Poliquin won his election by a margin of 2,632votes. Unfortunately, the ranked choice computers didn’t agree with Maine’s voters.
After nearly two weeks of chaos, the algorithms decided voters actually preferred Poliquin’s opponent, Jared Golden. But here’s where it gets crazy. Over 8,000 voters had their ballots thrown out because they didn’t want to rank candidates they didn’t like. Others simply made a mistake when filling out the 25-bubble ballot. This meant Golden was declared the winner with less than 50 percent of the vote.
Just like that, ranked choice voting’s house of cards came crumbling down. No majority winner, the most attack ads in state history, a moderate candidate kicked out of office, and no reduction in partisanship. In fact, Poliquin called it the “nastiest” race of his career while Maine’s moderate governor deemed it “the most horrific thing in the world.”
Fast forward to 2020 where Susan Collins and Sara Gideon are locked in a drag-out brawl for a Senate seat in Maine. The race has set a new record in Maine for political spending at over $150 million, including $70 million in outside expenditures and $10 million in dark money. Maine’s primary TV market has seen $89 million in spending – more than both Chicago and Dallas.
Much like war profiteers, political operatives are the only winners as Mainers tear each other apart.
Across the country, it’s more of the same. In 2010, a San Francisco supervisor’s candidate won with4,321 votes after9,503 votes were thrown out during 20 rounds of computerized runoffs. To put that in simpler terms, the winner claimed just 21 percent of the votes cast that day in a runoff between two candidates.
This systemic problem has been politely termed “ballot exhaustion” by ranked choice backers. Personally, I call it ballot fraud when an American shows up to cast a vote only to have it thrown in the garbage bin. I have a feeling most Alaskans agree.
The results in San Francisco and Maine are not an anomaly. University research shows a whopping 10 to 27 percent of ballots are thrown out in an average ranked choice election. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom, who won election under ranked choice voting in 2007, called criticized its false promise of greater democracy.
Then there’s the “spoiled ballots” – another fancy word for votes that don’t get counted. Remember how “butterfly ballots” cost Al Gore the 2000 presidential election when many voters struggled with a slight change in ballot design? Ranked choice is butterfly ballots on steroids. The victims? Older Alaskans, those in lower socio-economic brackets, and minorities who are not native English speakers. This isn’t theoretical – it’s exactly what university research found in San Francisco.
In Minneapolis, ranked choice voting had a direct impact on spoiled minority ballots while whites were unaffected. San Francisco saw a drop in minority turnout. The Kansas ACLU has claimed an 8 percent drop in turnout can be expected, especially among “new and casual voters.” Another peer-reviewed study found that ranked choice voting fails to achieve a majority winner 61 percent of the time – an incredible statistic that undermines the entire house of cards Ballot Measure 2 is built upon.
Folks, this is politics at its worst. That’s why ranked choice voting has already been tried and repealed in cities across the country. In Pierce County, Washington, ranked choice voting was kicked to the curb only three years after implementation by an overwhelming 71 percent of voters. Burlington, Vermont’s rejection occurred after a mayor won election with only 29 percent of the first-place votes.
This isn’t about left, right, or middle. It’s about the trail of destruction left behind by ranked choice voting wherever it rears its sinister head.
It’s about the single mom working two jobs who doesn’t have time to research and rank 15 candidates just so that her vote doesn’t get thrown out. It’s about our elders and pioneers who expect to walk into that voting booth and pick their champion the same way they’ve done since statehood. It’s about the veterans who’ve lost friends and innocence fighting for our precious right to self-determination.
Most importantly, it’s about protecting your voice from a misguided experiment that is doomed to fail.
John Sturgeon is chairman of Defend Alaska Elections—Vote No on 2. He previously spent 12 years fighting to reverse federal intrusion on Alaska’s public lands, achieving victory at the U.S. Supreme Court twice.
Two final Republicans are holding the line on the Pacific Coast — Congressman Don Young in Alaska and Jaime Herrera Beutler, who represents the Third Congressional District in Southwestern Washington.
If both are eliminated in the General Election, the entire West Coast — where it touches the Pacific Ocean — will become Democrat-controlled congressional districts.
There are 21 congressional districts in the contiguous United States that border the Pacific Ocean, and just one in Alaska for a total of 22. All but Young and Herrera’s districts are now in Democrat hands.
Herrera Beutler and Don Young are a generation apart, but they share similarities in that their districts are Pacific Ocean-facing, Northwest, working class, Republican, and also Indian Country.
In addition, Young and Herrera Beutler are facing candidates who ran against them in 2018, and they are both feeling the targeted money-driven attacks of the National Democrat political action groups, which see both seats as vulnerable.
Herrera Beutler is running against Democrat Carolyn Long, the same candidate who challenged Herrera Beutler in 2018. Herrera Beutler beat Long 53% to 47%.
Coincidentally, that’s the same percentage that Don Young beat Alyse Galvin by in 2018.
This primary season, 135,726 voters in Washington’s Third Congressional District voted for Herrera, while 95,875 voters picked Long in the state’s nonpartisan primary.
Meanwhile, Young won 51,972 votes in his August primary, with 16,000 votes peeled off for competitors John Nelson and Gerald Heikes. Republicans run a semi-open primary in Alaska and only exclude voters who are registered members of other parties.
But in the Democrat primary, Galvin busted through with 53,258 votes, with nearly 9,000 choosing one of her two competitors.
There are still more Republican votes out there for Young than Democrat votes for Galvin, but the race is considered tight.
Herrera Beutler’s opponent is focusing on Medicare for all, and an anti-Trump platform.
Young’s opponent Galvin, however, is trying to appear more Republican than the Dean of the House himself. She’s backed by Nancy Pelosi and the Alaska Democratic Party, and has tried to avoid taking controversial stands, but has the support of the Democratic establishment.
Young and Herrera Beutler have worked together on legislation that passed and was signed into law that made it possible for Indian Reservations to operate distilleries. Young was an original cosponsor of HR5317, which removed archaic laws that prohibited such commercial activity on reservation land.
Although both Young and Herrera Beutler are having to defend their seats under attack from national Democrats, both are considered to be in the safe zone for Republicans. But neither campaign appears to be letting down their guards as they run through the Election Day tape.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services are ramping up efforts to contain the spread of COVID-18. The efforts announced by the governor come as an increase in cases has hit the hundreds for days in a row. The mobilization of new resources include:
Testing Supplies:
Increasing weekly allotments of test kits from the federal government.
Additional 25,000 Abbott BinaxNOW rapid test cards supplied from Health and Human Services.
50 new rapid testing machines that will be focused on cluster response and congregant settings from HHS.
Procuring 189 additional rapid testing machines and 186,000 tests that will focus on staff who serve vulnerable populations.
14,000 easy to use antigen tests for rural hospitals and clinics to have rapid results.
Improving the testing supply chain to allow small and mid-size hospitals who can’t compete with vendors the ability to purchase equipment from the DHSS.
Expanding testing with schools.
PPE supplies:
Purchasing 3.5 million pairs of gloves that will resupply all hospitals, clinics, and communities.
Infrastructure:
Opening a new commercial testing lab in Alaska which will add capacity decrease turnaround time for results.
Opening a new testing site in Nome.
Preparing alternate care sites to be on standby across the state.
Improving IT systems and connections so results are returned faster.
Assisted Living Facilities:
The Infection Prevention Team will expand current prevention work for Assisted Living Facilities and Skilled Nursing Facilities.
Setting up the CorrectCare app so Assisted Living Facilities can find qualified employees to work if low on staffing.
Personnel:
Expanding contact tracing utilizing the National Guard, UAA staffing.
Developing provider agreements that allow providers to bill the State of Alaska the hours that a COVID positive employee would have worked while in isolation.
Developing patient movement coordination and maximizing available beds around the state so patients don’t have to be diverted out of state.
“From the early days of COVID-19 reaching Alaska, my team has worked around the clock to meet the needs of our communities and provide necessary equipment to slow the spread of this virus,” said Governor Dunleavy. “I commend the tremendous effort made by our public health and emergency operations teams in coordination with our federal and local partners. Together, we remain committed to fighting the virus and protect our most vulnerable populations.”
“Our work to provide added layers of protections for Alaska’s most vulnerable populations has continued and is increasing,” said Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum. “However, even if we isolate the most vulnerable, we are all connected. These efforts to support and protect workers who assist our vulnerable populations are critical, as we also work to ensure that all Alaskans are as healthy as possible.”
“Hospital capacity is always limited in Alaska, which is one reason it’s so critical to keep our cases as low as possible,” said Alaska’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. “Many Alaskans, and not just the elderly, are at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19. We must ensure we have adequate testing supplies and PPE throughout Alaska, especially in congregate settings and in rural areas where access to health care is more limited. I’m grateful to Governor Dunleavy for his support in obtaining these needed supplies.”
After weeks of Trump rallies across Alaska, the final ones are planned for this weekend.
On Saturday in Fairbanks a full day of American Pride will be on parade, starting at 10:30 am at the Regal Cinemas parking lot, where a Trump road rally will begin, ending at The Event Center, where Congressman Don Young, Senator Dan Sullivan, Governor Mike Dunleavy, will be speaking at a “get out the vote rally,” along with other Republican candidates running in Fairbanks state races. The event includes food and music and then the road rally will head out and cruise through Farmers Loop and North Pole, with an extended gathering at the Santa Claus House. Weather will be in the low teens.
On Sunday, another Trump rally and motorcade through Anchorage is happening at 3 pm at the parking lot at Carrs on the corner of Northern Lights Blvd. and New Seward Highway.
Weather in Anchorage will be in the low 20s.
New: A Trump get-out-the-vote rad rally in Palmer is still being firmed up, according to MRAK sources.
At this time, the event is planned for the Four Corners Lounge parking lot at 1 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, and the convoy will roll around 2 pm.
On Saturday, the group will end at the Sunrise Grill at approximately 4 pm for Halloween festivities, including music, games, and treats.
