By CLAY KOPLIN

While it is somewhat unusual for an Alaska mayor to write an opinion piece, I have been consistent in sharing my views on fisheries, Cordova’s single largest economic driver. I’m always striving to represent the opinions and needs of my community, even in rare cases where they may diverge somewhat from my own.  

I point to such pieces as “Salmon for All” in support of a responsibly managed hatchery system.  I have repeated my common themes of the importance of access to fisheries resources to all user groups, of environmental protections of our ocean and coastal watersheds, of science-based management, and of providing adequate management funding resources to our Alaska Department of Fish and Game.  

This very week Cordova will experience the first live king crab crossing her docks in almost 40 years; a testament to collaborative work between Cordova fishermen, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the governor’s fisheries advisors.

What I have not shared is my deep concerns over the existential threats to our oceans and way of life, but perhaps a few reminders are in order this week, and my opinions regarding these are my own based upon my observations. 

While Alaska is famous for fish politics, I have trusted Laine Welch and Fish Factor to be an objective, non-partisan source of important fisheries news and legislation for much of my 49 years as a coastal Alaskan. 

The Oct. 24 Cordova Times article entitled “Vote for Healthy Oceans and Thriving Coastal Communities” was a narrow, if not targeted, view of ocean threats.  

Laine’s column does a disservice to her readership by blatantly ignoring the largely bipartisan efforts to protect ecology and economy that misses many critical elements that she herself has brought to our attention in previous articles and radio programs. But we weren’t a week away from an election at those times.

So, a few reminders of some of the threats our oceans and fisheries face and what our Congressional delegation has done to address those threats. One of our clear and present ocean dangers is ocean trash, particularly plastics.  I was elated during Don Young’s September visit to Cordova when he shared one of his enthusiastic dreams of repurposing retired US Aircraft Carriers into front-loading salvagers of ocean waste for recycling on board. This would tackle the blob of trash the size of Texas riding our oceans.  

The “Save our Seas Act” or SOS legislation, was introduced by Senators Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, and Sullivan, and Alaska Republican, and signed by President Donald Trump as a bi-partisan effort to reauthorize NOAA’s marine debris program.

This year, Senator Sullivan again championed the Save our Seas 2.0 Act – the most comprehensive ocean debris cleanup to ever pass the Senate, and recently passed by the House.  

As for partisanship, Sullivan was ranked by the Lugar Center at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy as the 14^th most bipartisan Senator in the U.S. Senate. Sullivan voting with Trump 97 percent of the time is not an all-encompassing rating or ranking of the senator’s six-year voting record.   

Further, as a first term senator, Sullivan was ranked by Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science Alan Wiseman, as the 8^th most bipartisan Republican senator – right behind our own Senator Lisa Murkowski. And on the House side, our own Congressman Don Young is ranked as the first most bipartisan Republican representative.   

The threat of mining, perhaps none more so that Pebble, poses risks to critical Alaskan fisheries. It has been clear to me that Senator Sullivan supports the process – not a fast-tracked process that is politically expedient but rather a process that is fair, consistent, and transparent.  

When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released their findings that the Pebble mine could not meet the high threshold to be permitted the Senator came out against Pebble stating that the process had run its course and he trusts the Corp’s findings.

His statement came out on Aug. 24 almost a full month before the “Pebble Tapes” were released. Senator Sullivan took a lot of flak for following the process – I commend him for his true leadership on that.   

Senator Sullivan has also been a champion for our Southeast communities fighting the issue of transboundary mine pollution. Sen. Sullivan, Sen. Murkowski, and delegations from other Canadian border states have worked together with the Canadian government to protect our waters, fisheries, and communities.  

As Laine’s article points out, the other Canadian concern is the pipelining of Russian/China halibut through trade paths, dodging tariffs into the US Markets to the detriment of Alaskan Fisheries. 

Is it any wonder that until these trade issues are resolved opportunities like cheaper Canadian pharmaceuticals might take a back shelf? Sullivan’s assistance on tariff protections included $250 million of exclusions for salmon-specific tariff lines, as the Trump Administration seeks to balance trade deficits with foreign competitors.  

The recent pandemic has introduced an even stronger market headwind than trade programs.  Thanks to our delegation, recent “Buy American” provisions in our school lunch programs further assist in balancing trade and improving the market prices for Alaskan fishermen. 

Russia and China, however, pose perhaps an even larger threat to Alaska fishermen, illegal global fishing.  The recent illegal Chinese take of chum salmon and Russian fleet interference with Aleutian chain fisheries are impacting our own waters.  

The bipartisan congressional efforts, supported by Senator Sullivan, to address illegal fishing and Coast Guard authorization for enforcement, is helping to address these threats.  

Speaking of the Coast Guard, in his six years in office, Senator Sullivan has secured over $400 million in funding to strengthen Alaska’s Coast Guard to protect our fisherman, fisheries and our waters. 

Finally, much closer to home during the pandemic season, Senator Sullivan worked directly with President Trump and Gov. Mike Dunleavy to emphasize the risks to our fishing industries and communities to provide the testing and resources to execute a successful season against stiff odds.  The chief medical officer for homeland security, Dr. Alexander Eastman, visited Cordova with Dr. Anne Zink and other State of Alaska health officials to offer their assistance and guidance (and learn from our own, effective measures in Cordova) for our first large salmon fishery in the State. We wanted to avoid outbreaks and protect our remote Alaskan communities with limited medical resources.  

I mark Cordova as a success, and from discussions with mayors and processors up and down the coast and in State calls, the rest of the state was successfully protected as well. 

These multiple threats are important for all Alaskans of any political affiliation, and it will be important for all of us to work together to confront them, and I know that Senator Sullivan has taken a bipartisan approach to do this.  

With over 94 percent of our nation’s seafood being imported and as one of our country’s top five trade imbalances now that we are energy secure, there is plenty of room for strong economic support for Alaskan fisheries right here in our gargantuan US consumer market.  We have been, and will continue to be, in this together.

I would encourage the press to remember this and to continue to focus on fish business rather than fish politics so that we can continue to trust their objectivity and perspective in the future.

Respectfully, Clay Koplin, Citizen, Cordova

Clay Koplin worked summer seasons as a cannery laborer and machinist while pursuing his electrical engineering degree, commercially long lined, and avidly participated in sports, subsistence, and personal use fisheries in the communities of Kenai, Kodiak, and Cordova. His career passion has been the transition of coastal Alaskan electricity to affordable, reliable, and renewably sourced systems to support the economies of fishing communities.

By SEAN MORAN / BREITBART NEWS

On Nov. 3, Alaskans will vote on Ballot Measure 2, which would force Alaskans to vote for their political leaders on so-called “ranked-choice voting” or RCV. Voters using RCV would assign a numerical rank to multiple candidates rather than voting for their preferred candidate.

Defend Alaska Elections, which opposes ranked-choice voting, contended that this might appear fairer; however, ranked-choice voting often results in the winner of the election receiving less than a majority of the votes cast.

This week Defend Alaska Elections announced that they had surpassed the pro-ranked choice voting group’s fundraising in less than two months of fundraising.

The latest fundraising figures found that the anti-ranked choice campaign had collected 336 donations from Alaskans. The Yes campaign only collected 296 donations from Alaskans since they started campaigning in July 2019.

The numbers reveal that the Yes on 2 for Better Elections had raised $6,194,081 from outside Alaska and had only raised $20,000 from inside the state.

In contrast, Defend Alaska Elections raised $323,542 from Alaska and $141,583 from out-of-state.

Brett Huber, the campaign manager for Defend Alaska Elections, said in a statement this week that they will continue to fight dark money’s influence in Alaska’s elections.

Huber said:

With just $20,000 in Alaskan donations, in-state backers of Ballot Measure 2 represent a miniscule 0.3 percent of the Yes campaign’s dark-money haul — little more than a rounding error for the political operatives hired by out-of-state billionaires to promote Ballot Measure 2. In less than two months, Alaskans stepping up to defend our fair and transparent elections against Outside dark money have donated more than 15 times this amount.

Huber added, “While we remain outgunned by billionaires from New York and California and millions in out-of-state dark money, our donors have something the Outside billionaires don’t: the right to vote in Alaska.”

Former Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) and former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich (D) wrote in an op-ed in July that ranked-choice voting would harm Alaska’s elections.

“As former elected officials from different parties, we’ve had our share of disagreements,” the former lawmakers wrote. “But we are united in our belief that the Better Elections initiative would be bad for our state. Alaskans shouldn’t have to doubt that their votes count.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

By KEN KOELSCH

We got our first television in the late 1950s on our family farm.  After the evening chores were done, the family would gather by the TV instead of listening to the radio. 

We could get reception from just two distant TV stations so, if anyone wanted to change channels, one of the kids was designated to go outside and move the antenna until the picture and sound became clear. 

“Dragnet” with its main character, Sergeant Joe Friday, was a family favorite.  The expression “Just the Facts, Ma’am” is attributed to that show.

Facts can be defined as the truth about events as opposed to interpretation.  In this current election cycle, facts fail to be presented with reliability or civility.  The only bright “fact” spot this election year was our local Juneau election. While municipal election results didn’t turn out to everyone’s satisfaction, our local candidates campaigned on the issues with civility and class.  

The current presidential campaign, on the other hand, is at the opposite end of the civility spectrum compared to our local election. 

But Alan Gross’s campaign for the U.S. Senate dominates the media and completely lacks any decency or class.  The outside political groups behind Alan Gross, the Democrat nominee, are determined to win this election at any cost.

It is impossible to escape the sheer volume of distorted, divisive “facts’ and innuendo that arrive hourly and sometimes minute by minute over the airwaves, social media and in our mail.  This U. S. Senate race will undoubtedly go down as the most negative in Alaska history.  

Here are some facts: I’m supporting and voting for Dan Sullivan for U.S. Senator and hope you will consider doing likewise.   

Sullivan supports Fisheries.  Sullivan does not support the Pebble mine.  

Sullivan supports insurance companies being required to accept pre-existing medical conditions.  Sullivan does not support Obamacare and its taxation of private insurance plans and uninsured individuals.

Sullivan supports lower cost prescription drugs.  He has voted against efforts to allow “unsafe” or “unapproved” prescription drugs into the U. S.

Sullivan supports our military and law enforcement. 

Sullivan secured $1.6 billion in new military construction for Alaska.   Sullivan helped increase personnel and modernize vessels for the U. S Coast including new cutters for SE Alaska.

Sullivan has championed “Choose Respect” campaigns for women and aided survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.

He fought to keep and to increase Federal work positions based in Juneau which make up almost 7% of our workforce.  

When the pandemic struck, Sullivan fought for and helped secure billions of dollars for Alaska in the CARES Act that translated into over $53 million for the CBJ and millions more for local Native entities, fisheries, Juneau International Airport and Bartlett Regional Hospital.  

Those funds helped maintain our police and fire units, our school system, our local businesses, our tourism industry, our homeless, our arts, our hospitality organizations, and our non-profits.  

The composition and powers of the Senate were established by Article One of the United States Constitution.  The Senate is considered the more deliberative and prestigious body of Congress due to its longer terms (6 years) and its smaller size (100 members).  

As a freshman senator, Dan Sullivan was the primary sponsor of 10 bills that were enacted into law and they range from Save Our Seas to the Veteran Advocacy Act of 2020.  

Sullivan was designated in the top 10% of most effective bipartisan senators and is respected on both sides of the aisle.  He has earned respect as a tireless fighter for Alaska and its people. Sullivan has served with honor in D. C.  

 Fact is, Senator Sullivan has earned re-election.

Please join me in voting to send Dan Sullivan back to the U.S. Senate for a second term.

Ken Koelsch is the former mayor of Juneau.