Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi on Thursday denied left-wing litigants their demand that election officials must assist voters in correcting wrongly filled-out absentee ballots.

The Alaska Center for the Environment had sued to force the Division of Elections to make it go to great lengths to help voters correct a signature error, or other mistakes on their absentee ballots.

But Guidi said the Division of Elections is not required to let voters know they’ve made a mistake that would disqualify their ballot. Guidi pointed to state statute as the basis for his decision.

Last week, another judge ruled that absentee ballot votes don’t need to provide a witness signature on the outside of the ballot to increase election integrity.

In order for a vote to count, voters must sign the back of the absentee ballot envelope and provide a voter identifier, such as date of birth or driver’s license number.

The Division of Elections recommends that voters date their signature on the back of the envelope. Normally, the witness would date their signature, but since there is no witness requirement, the voter is encouraged (but not required) to fill this information in.

The left-wing litigants included the Alaska Public Interest Research Group and Floyd Tomkins of Sitka, the father of Democrat Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins of Sitka.

Nearly 40 percent of the 80,017 registered Democrats in Alaska have requested an absentee ballot. As of October, Alaska has 594,474 registered voters thanks to automatic voter registration with Permanent Fund dividend applications. There are believed to be only 730,000 residents in the state with 182,000 of those Alaskans being under the age of 18, leaving a possibility of about 548,000 legitimate voters.

Al Gross admitted on Sunday that he had donated to Bernie Sanders in 2016. He said he did so because Hillary Clinton, according to him, was a “failed candidate.”

But evidently not that flawed. Gross, the Democrats’ nominee for U.S. Senate, donated to Hillary Clinton in 2008, according to his federal campaign donation history.

In a debate hosted by ComFish Alaska and the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce and conducted on the Zoom program, Gross and Sen. Dan Sullivan sparred over fish politics, Pebble politics, and health politics.

But Gross didn’t only give money to Socialist Bernie Sanders. In 2019, he gave $6,000 to the Alaska Democratic Party. He donated to Alyse Galvin in 2018 when she ran against Congressman Don Young for the first time, and Mark Begich in 2008, when he took on Sen. Ted Stevens.

After Gross stated on Sunday, he said “All of my money is from individual contributors,” Must Read Alaska took a look at his campaign income and donation history.

Over all, Gross has not been a generous contributor to political causes. He’s kept his pursestrings tightly closed until this past year when he poured over a million dollars into his own campaign for Senate.

That is false.

A review of the Gross campaign contributors shows over 41 instances of contributions from political action committees, totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

In addition, George Soros, the billionaire anti-capitalist, has donated to Gross’ campaign. Two donations are included as an illustration, but the total from the Soros family is nearly $17,000.

Soros is held in such poor esteem around the world that even his home nation of Hungary passed “George Soros” laws to ban the facilitation of illegal immigration.

The list of funds that have given donations to Gross’ campaign include many that are attached and controlled by Democrat Party U.S. Senators, such as these:

• Impact ($10,000) – Sen. Chuck Schumer
•  Blue Hen Federal PAC ($10,000) – Sen. Chris Coons
• M-PAC ($10,000) – Sen. Patty Murray
• Common Ground PAC ($7,000) – Sen. Tim Kaine
• Velvet Hammer PAC ($5,600) – Sen. Tina Smith
• Lobo PAC ($5,000) – Sen. Martin Heinrich
• Frontline USA PAC ($5,000) – Rep. Adam Schiff
•  All For Our Country Leadership PAC ($5,000) – Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto
• Remedy PAC ($4,000) – Rep. Eric Swalwell
• New Energy PAC ($1,000) – Rep. Eric Swalwell
• Granite Values PAC ($2,500) – Sen. Maggie Hassan
• Great Lakes PAC ($2,500) – Sen. Debbie Stabenow
•  Hawaii PAC ($2,000) – Sen. Brian Schatz

Gross also received donations from the following trade associations:

•  SPINE PAC OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SPINE SPECIALISTS ­– $5,000
•  THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF OB-GYNS PAC (OB-GYN PAC) –$2,500
• AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR JUSTICE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (AAJ PAC) – $5,000
• LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS ACTION FUND – $4,800
• PLANNED PARENTHOOD ACTION FUND INC PAC, DBA PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERAL PAC – $2,810

Check out the entire list of Gross donors at this link.

WILL DUNBAR BE SWAPPED IN AS ACTING MAYOR?

Anchorage Assembly Chair Felix Rivera has scheduled a special meting for the purpose of reorganizing the Anchorage Assembly. That meeting is Friday, Oct. 16, at 5 pm in the Assembly Chambers at the Loussac Library.

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has resigned effective Oct. 23. If no change is made, Rivera will become acting mayor until a special election is held. Rivera might not be acceptable to the majority of the Assembly.

Anchorage Charter states that if a vacancy occurs, a special election shall be held not less than 90 days from the date of the vacancy, or if the vacancy occurs less than 90 days before an election, the vacancy is not filled.

Observers say that Forrest Dunbar will be put in as acting mayor in the meantime, which would give him an advantage as he runs for mayor during the regularly scheduled April 6 election. Presumably he would also run for acting mayor during the special election.

It doesn’t always work out well, however, to take over the sunset of a mayor’s second term, as Dunbar would be doing. It happen to Matt Claman in 2009, who had stepped into the shoes for Mayor Mark Begich, when he left office early to join the U.S. Senate. There were 15 in the race, which ended up in a runoff between Dan Sullivan (not the senator) and Eric Croft.

Sullivan had nearly 44 percent, but 45 percent was required to win outright. The next closest was Eric Croft, who came in at a distant 19.63 percent. Claman was far down the list at 5.71 percent.

Dunbar, if he became temporary mayor, would inherit the mantle of failed administration, with higher crime, homelessness, and taxes. He is famous for saying the Constitution is a racist document, and is considered the most leftwing of any of the announced candidates.

The term of the mayor ends on June 30, with the new mayor starting July 1. If Rivera or Dunbar become acting mayor, their seats would remain unfilled and the acting mayor cannot vote, but can only veto.

The runoff election has the same percentage provision as a regular election, meaning the victor needs to have 45 percent, and a runoff would bump up against the regular April 6 election.

Another twist to the story is that four Assembly members have recall petitions filed against them.

Rivera and Assembly member Meg Zalatel are the subjects of a recall by a group of midtown Anchorage residents, who are awaiting a decision from the City Attorney for whether or not their petition may move forward, while at the same time a lawsuit is pending over the City Attorney’s denial of a prior recall petition request.

In a separate case, Assembly members Austin Quinn-Davidson and Kameron Perez-Vervia are the subjects of a recall attempt by David Nees and Dustin Darden.

Anchorage elections are held by mail, and this means there could be as many as four mail-in elections in Anchorage between now and a possible runoff after the April 6 election, if no candidate gets at least 45 percent on the first round.

Announced candidates include Dunbar, Eric Croft, Bill Falsey, Bill Evans, Dave Bronson, and Mike Robbins.

By SCOTT LEVESQUE

The resignation of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, announced Tuesday at the Anchorage Assembly meeting by his Chief of Staff Jason Bockenstedt, overshadowed the Assembly’s vote to extend the mayor’s emergency powers for the fifth time. 

As AR 2020-379 was introduced, an intense battle ensued as Assembly Members lined up to pitch their particular amendment to the resolution.  

Assembly Member Suzanne LaFrance got things started by introducing an amendment to change the emergency powers end date from December 31 to Nov. 30. The amendment passed 10-0.

Assembly Member John Weddleton joined the debate by proposing an amendment that would require public testimony for any further extension of the emergency powers. The amendment passed 10-0.

Assembly Member Meg Zaletel added an amendment to Weddleton’s amendment that would require a public hearing to occur two weeks before the emergency powers end date. The amendment passed by a 9-1 vote. 

And finally, Assembly Member Crystal Kennedy introduced the most unique and promising amendment, which confirms that this current extension’s sole intention is to allow time to move all processes and operations from an emergency powers status to the city’s standard Municipality of Anchorage operation. This amendment passed by an 8-2 vote. Meg Zaletel and Forrest Dunbar both opposed the amendment. 

Ultimately, the Assembly voted 9-1 in favor of extending the emergency powers, which gives the mayor vast power over operations during his final 10 days in office, after which the power will transfer to Chairman Felix Rivera, who is positioned to step into the role of acting mayor until a special election is called. Jamie Allard was the sole Assembly member who voted against the extension.