By DAN FAGAN

After months of virtual silence over major controversial issues facing Alaska, Gov. Michael Dunleavy finally came out from his basement. Dunleavy had put away and stored for safe keeping his bully pulpit, coincidently, at about the same time the recall effort targeting him surfaced.   

Yet the pressure on the absent governor must have grown so intense he decided to come out of hiding. 

What might have been the final straw is when Elizabeth Welsh, the founder of the widely popular and formidable Facebook group, Open Alaska, posted this on Wednesday: 

“Where is Dunleavy? Wake up! Anchorage is in turmoil and he is silent? Write him and call him today. Tell him to end emergency powers. And travel restrictions. Speak to Anchorage. Stand up for them. Keep the assembly accountable for the CARES act money. This hands-off approach is not standing tall for half of Alaska. The travel restrictions are crippling 1/3 of our industry. Villages in long term care facilities are prisons. He likes to say we’re open, but we are not open. “

Open Alaska’s 7,000 plus members are the heart and soul of Dunleavy’s base. They frequently post their frustration over Dunleavy’s sheepishness and reluctance to take on Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and his hard Left, rubber-stamp majority enablers on the Assembly. Welsh’s grass roots post must have scared the fear out of Dunleavy and pushed him to act. 

Dunleavy was wise to heed the call of a homeschool mom with no experience in politics who has galvanized, energized, and motivated 7,000 plus people around an issue. 

Back in August, Anchorage Assembly member Jamie Allard, who is always courageous and Trump-like, also called out Dunleavy for remaining silent on the tyranny run rampant in Alaska’s most populated city. 

“Some folks believe you can lead from the rear which we know is not true. I prefer to lead from the front,” Allard said in August. “I can’t speak for the governor, I can only say what I would do and yeah, I wish he would have taken action a lot sooner.”   

Conservative firebrand Bernadette Wilson has been very outspoken on the governor’s silence. She, too, would like to see Dunleavy do more.

“Thousands of Alaskans have been left to battle their government on their own. They’ve sent hundreds of emails and spent thousands of hours attempting to educate themselves regarding the truth about COVID,” said Wilson. “They’ve testified on numerous occasions and have been left out in the cold for countless hours outside Assembly chambers with no one but themselves because Gov. Dunleavy refuses to take a hard line with the municipality of Anchorage and stand with the citizens. I would argue there are things the governor could do to help. At the bare minimum he needs to speak up and be just as vocal as the rest of us have and from the position of someone that has far more influence and reach. We have been standing tall. It’s time for the governor to stand with us.”   

I, too, have been hounding the governor over his silence on Berkowitz’s tyranny and Dunleavy’s refusal to take a stand on Ballot Measure 1 & 2.

Dunleavy advisor Dave Stieren and I got in a rather heated exchange on the radio recently over the governor’s reluctance to take on controversial issues. Stieren claimed it was his job, not the governor’s to take on controversies.  

Wednesday evening, I received a request from Stieren asking if the governor could appear on my show Thursday morning. Stieren added via Facebook message: “He’s breaking news on your show regarding the ballot measures. He’s coming out as a no on both. So, you win.”

You can hear my conversation with the governor regarding Ballot Measures 1 & 2 by clicking on the links below. 

Podcast: Dan Fagan Show/Dunleavy takes stand on Ballot Measure 1

Podcast: Dan Fagan Show/Dunleavy takes a stand on Ballot Measure 2

I also confronted Dunleavy on why he’s remained silent as Berkowitz has destroyed Anchorage’s private sector. 

You can hear that conversation by clicking here.

Some argue there’s nothing the governor could do about Berkowitz’s tyranny, at least not legally. Therefore, Dunleavy would be wasting his time calling the mayor out for ruining the city’s economy using COVID-19 as an excuse. 

But President Trump has been very vocal in calling out Democrat-run cities where mayors have allowed rioting and looting to go unchallenged. 

This is a new age where Leftists like Berkowitz and the majority on the Anchorage Assembly are so radical, dangerous, and destructive, it’s incumbent on all of us to call them out.

Whether it be Welsh, Allard, Wilson, or even “Big Mike.” 

Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive radio show in Alaska on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans. 

By PETER ZUYUS

As an advocate for senior citizens and a senior myself, this November I will be voting no on Ballot Measure 2. I urge you to do the same.

As seniors, we have long valued our right to vote for the politicians of our choosing. In a state with the highest percentage of veterans in the nation, we all have friends who fought in the wars of the 20^th Century to protect that right. As the most active share of the electorate, we exercise that right more so than any other demographic.

On Nov. 3, we will be asked to eliminate this liberty by enacting “ranked choice voting.”

Instead of our simple and transparent “one Alaskan, one vote” system, Ballot Measure 2 will force every senior to vote for all candidates in order of preference.

Democrats will be forced to vote for Republicans and Republicans will be forced to vote for Democrats.

Independents will have it even worse, losing their ability to petition onto the general election ballot.

The paid consultants shilling for Ballot Measure 2 claim you can simply vote for one candidate and leave the rest of the ballot blank.

What they don’t tell you is that your ballot will be thrown out if the candidate you choose is eliminated when the computer algorithm calculates the winner.

In fact, research shows that 10 to 27 percent of ballots are thrown out during ranked choice elections due to this very problem. 

Even if you play along and rank each candidate, seniors are most at risk of having their ballot thrown out due to voting mix-ups. Many of us have been voting for 50 years or more. Imagine entering a voting booth and receiving a ballot with 15 candidates that you must vote for in order of preference.

That’s exactly what happened in Portland, Maine in 2011 where voters were faced with a 225-bubble ballot. A single mistake – accidently ranking two candidates as your fifth choice or missing a row – could invalidate your entire ballot.

This problem of “spoiled ballots” is well documented. Research from San Francisco, where ranked choice has been used since 2004, shows that seniors are by far the most-impacted class of citizens followed closely by minority voters.

Voting should be simpler, not more complicated. 

But the flaws with Ballot Measure 2 are deeper than thrown out ballots and complicated computer algorithms. Ballot Measure 2 would change the type of politicians who get elected. Because every candidate must work to be your second or third-favorite choice, they will be less willing to take strong positions and defend seniors.

While a politician under our current system might be a vocal advocate for protecting Social Security and Medicare, a ranked choice politician will try to make everyone happy. This does not bode well for seniors who make up a very small portion of the electorate at 13 percent.

History is full of examples of societies and countries that turned their backs on seniors in times of economic stress or political pressure. As we enter a time of historic global unrest and economic distress, electing politicians who care about seniors’ issues is critically important.

This year, New York’s governor forced senior centers to accept COVID-19 patients, resulting in 6,500 senior deaths. The Texas lieutenant governor said seniors should be willing to die to save the economy. Many people believe we should end all pandemic precautions and keep seniors locked up in their nursing home cells until a cure is found.

As Alaskan seniors, we must step up to save our democratic voting system – not just for our own sake, but for those who come behind us.

Our friends and families need to know that the billionaires from New York funding Ballot Measure 2 do not have our best interests at heart. Our children and grandchildren will be proud and thankful that we stood firm and protected democracy in Alaska and the United States.

As we prepare to pass the torch to the next generation of Alaskans and enjoy our well-deserved retirement, let’s make sure our “one Alaskan, one vote” system makes it through the transition intact. Whether you’re voting by mail or in-person on Nov. 3, I urge you to defend our democracy and vote NO on Ballot Measure 2.

Pete Zuyus of Anchor Point is a retired telecommunications executive and Chief Information Officer for the State of Alaska and an advocate for seniors citizens. 

By DAN FAGAN

Ethan Berkowitz has left his position as mayor in disgrace. But it’s not just his extramarital affair with a former news anchor that will forever leave a black mark on his record. 

Berkowitz was an abject failure as mayor in just about every way. He leaves a city behind with an economy in shambles thanks to his unreasonable, destructive, and rigid lockdowns. He denied the businesses he destroyed the help the federal government offered and instead used most of the money for his pet liberal projects. 

Berkowitz also grew the drug-and-alcohol-addicted vagrant population exponentially.  

His rubber stamp Assembly majority did nothing to curb Berkowitz and his Leftist agenda. It has been the most radical agenda ever imposed on the people of Anchorage. 

It should be said there’s no evidence that’s surfaced, thus far, corroborating the charge by former news anchor Maria Athens that Berkowitz sent naked pictures of himself to an underage girl’s website. Athens put her career on the line with the charges and has yet to back them up. It appears she got some bad information and then decided to run with it anyway. 

The confusion for Athens began when she was interviewing a woman by the name of Molly Blakely on Friday. Blakley mistakenly told Athens her daughter was an underaged escort for the mayor a couple of years ago. But Blakley’s daughter never told her mother that Berkowitz was a customer. Instead, she told Blakley she was an escort for a short man who worked for the state of Alaska. Blakely assumed it was Berkowitz because of his diminutive stature. 

The daughter confronted her mother after the story broke telling her it wasn’t Berkowitz. The daughter released a voice mail Blakely left on her phone backing up her claims. 

“I was calling to tell you that I told the police that it wasn’t him. I don’t know what more to say. No one knows anything about us being involved in any way. Yes, what I told her (Athens) triggered her.  I did not make it up on purpose. I didn’t even make it up. You told me that and I just added one and one together and I made an assumption that was wrong.”

But it was too late. Blakely’s misinformation set the scorned Athens off. Berkowitz’s former lover exploded in anger. Blakely and Athens then traveled to Kriner’s Diner. There, Athens, in front of several witnesses, left the following loud, animated, and profanity-laced message on Berkowitz’s voice mail: 

“Ethan, it’s Maria Athens from Fox, ABC, CW, Newsnet National Alaska. I just learned through my uh Emmy award-winning journalism you’re also a pedophile and like little girls and children and there’s a website. I’m so fucking exposing you. I’m gonna get an Emmy so you either turn yourself in, kill yourself, or do what you need to do. I will personally kill you and Mara Kimmel my God damn self you Jewish piece of living fucking shit. You have met your match mother fucker. You have met your mother fucking match. I can’t believe I am such a good person and thought I loved you. I fucking hate, I don’t even hate you. I will pray your Zionist fucking ass you piece of shit loser. And I’m putting this on the news tonight. Bye. Have a great Friday you mother fucker.”

Blakely later sent a text to her daughter describing witnessing Athens leaving the phone message: 

“She is super unstable. Was even yelling the F word in Kriner’s diner. And people were calling her out on FB and she was cussing them out too. This was the reason I called. To tell you she lost her mind. Apparently, she had a 3 year affair with him. And he never left his wife. I knew none of this. She called him and threatened to kill him and his wife, On a voice message!!!” 

Later on Friday, Athens released on Facebook from her TV station a video promising to air a story that evening on how Berkowitz shared his genitalia on an underaged girl’s website. This appeared to be based on the new revelation, which was false, that Berkowitz hired an underaged escort. 

All Athens has offered as proof thus far is the nude picture Berkowitz sent to her while they were dating. After she posted her video claiming reliable sources told her the mayor was involved in sending nude pictures to an underage girl’s website, she posted the nude picture of Berkowitz with the heading: “PROOF Mayor Ethan Berkowitz #TakeThatHaters. 

Athen’s use of the word “proof” in her heading above the picture seems to indicate she wanted those challenging her on Facebook to believe the nude photo of Berkowitz was tied to an underage website. But the picture proved nothing.  

Blakely’s daughter heard of the video Athens cut from her TV station. She asked her mother via text: “Do you have the video?” Blakley responds: “I’ll get it, but know she made this all up!!” 

The teased story never aired after Scott Centers, the station’s general manager and Athen’s fiancé’ got into a physical altercation in the station’s parking lot. Athens was arrested for that altercation. 

We can’t know for sure if what Athens alleges about Berkowitz exposing himself to underage girls is true. And since there is no evidence proving it, we should give the mayor the benefit of the doubt, no matter how much we dislike his policies. 

But this we do know; Berkowitz had a careless and reckless affair with Athens, and it cost him his political career. Berkowitz has no one to blame but himself. 

Dan Fagan hosts the number one rated morning drive radio show in Alaska on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.