Thursday, April 2, 2026
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COVID who? Supreme Court seat overtakes virus in 2020 campaign cycle

FIGHT TO THE FINISH: RIOTS, CIVIL UNREST LIKELY

“Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'”

It was the dog whistle to the Left.

NPR, which got the copy of the statement from Spera, was quick on the draw to publish the last wish of the 87-year-old Supreme Court justice, who on her deathbed committed her final nakedly partisan act, throwing the replacement of her seat deep into the 2020 campaign cycle. Her politics was her final word: It’s her seat, and she wants a Democrat in it.

COVID-19 is so- last-week. National mask mandates are in the rearview mirror. And nobody is talking about Joe Biden’s dementia today.

Now, the presidential candidates and their surrogates will be fighting for the holy grail — that key seat on the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump have said, essentially, it’s full steam ahead for nomination and confirmation. But McConnell, while he said there will be a vote on the president’s nominee, has not said when that vote would come. The election looms bigly in both these leaders’ minds.

Any campaign polls that were published before Friday night can be thrown out the window. All bets are off. For many on the left, Bader-Ginsburg was a cult hero. Although her death could not have come as a total surprise, for the Left, this is like Mahatma Ghandi’s death was for India. Bader-Ginsburg is revered that much. They are weeping, wailing, and rending their yoga pants.

But the fact is that Ginsberg became enchanted with her own image. She could have retired during the Obama years and ensured that she had a liberal replacement. She was 81 and had a window to get her liberal, woke replacement. But she missed that window because of her own narcissistic tendencies. It was bad succession planning on her part.

The battle for the Supreme Court may reignite the Antifa-Black Lives Matter riots across America, and will certainly reshape the thinking of every federal campaign, from the President to the U.S. House, which has no role in the confirmation process, but will feel the heat of the argument nonetheless. Joe Biden has already said he will appoint a black woman to the Supreme Court, fueling the racist rage of the Left.

One reason the President wants his choice on the high court is that it’s expected by Republicans that Democrats will try to steal the election through unsecured mail-in ballots across several key states, such as Pennsylvania, where officials have already said that mail-in ballots need to be counted even if the signatures don’t match the voter. They describe it as the “red mirage,” where Trump wins on Election Day, but then loses as the mail-in ballots arrive.

Litigation this year is likely to drag on for weeks. The Supreme Court may be pulled into the political realm to decide the outcome of the presidential election, as it was in 2000, when Florida hung in the balance with its “hanging chads” from well-used voting machines.

If the Supreme Court has only eight justices and lacks a tie-breaking vote, the nation could face a constitutional crisis, with no resolution to the election, and no president sworn in. A 4-4 split on the Court is not a good thing for either party.

The rioting that will ensue before and after the elections is almost a given at this point, as evidenced by the raging of the Left in recent weeks. The riots of this summer were just spring training for the main game. Unreported by the mainstream media, nightly riots continue in Portland, and sporadically elsewhere.

Rioting in Portland on Friday night.

Senate campaigns across the country are gearing up for the epic battle, which has become suddenly laser focused. Seats like Susan Collins in Maine, Corey Gardner in Colorado, and Martha McSally in Arizona will suck all the political oxygen out of the room, as Democrats fight to flip the Senate and put New York’s Chuck Schumer in charge.

Friday was a pivot in the campaign. Many a bottle of liquor was consumed by political operatives on the Left and the Right late into the night, as the consequence of Bader-Ginsberg’s death sunk in, and the demonstrations from the Left are beginning today here in Alaska and across the country.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has already boxed herself in with her statement that she will not vote on a nominee until after Nov. 3. That gets the demonstrators out of her office and down the hall at Dan Sullivan’s.

And the Democrats activated immediately: Democratic donors shattered records last night on the ActBlue donor site, contributing $6.2 million in the 9 pm hour. A lot of that money will be spent to take out Republicans like Sen. Dan Sullivan, Gardner, Collins, and McSally. If they lose, it would leave Murkowski in the minority in November at a time when she would otherwise be in line to run the Appropriations Committee.

Batten down the hatches. It’s going to get ugly.

Juneau residents getting multiple ballots leading up to Oct. 6 mail-only election

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Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – The City and Borough of Juneau is reacting to news that some voters are receiving excess ballots in the mail.

Many Juneau voters have started receiving their official ballot for the City and Borough of Juneau’s Oct. 6 by-mail Municipal Election.

But, according to city officials, there’s a chance you may have also received a ballot package addressed to a former resident at your mailing address or someone who’s not presently a resident of your household.

If this happens, mark it as “Return to Sender – not at this address” and then return it to the post office, put it back in your mailbox for the mail carrier to pick up, or bring it to a Juneau Vote Center at City Hall or the Valley Library starting Sept. 21.

News of the North discovered on Friday at least two households had received excess ballots. One case saw a two-person household receive three, while a one-person household received five.

The rest of the story at this link.

Meanwhile, next week the Juneau Assembly will consider removing the requirement that by-mail ballots must be witnessed.

Alaska Supreme Court says Galvin is indeed the Democratic nominee

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The Alaska Supreme Court will not stop the General Election or force the State of Alaska to reprint 800,000 ballots in advance of the General Election, which has begun with the mailing out of 11,000 overseas ballots.

The decision came down after an emergency hearing this afternoon that resulted from Galvin suing the State of Alaska. The high court confirmed the decision by Superior Court Judge Jennifer Henderson.

It means that those who run and win in the Democratic Party’s primary election will be listed on the General Election ballot as the Democratic nominee. They will not have a letter next to their name indicating that they are not really Democrats.

In 2018, the Walker-Mallott Administration allowed fake independents to have an “N” or “U” next to their name, even if they won the Democrat Party primary.

This year, the Division of Elections is under new leadership, and it says that if you win under a party banner, you proceed to the General Election under that banner. You don’t get to have a special letter by your name.

Galvin does not want to be identified as a Democrat. She only wanted to use the party’s resources, voter lists, funding, support, endorsement, and get-out-the-vote machine, but still appear to voters as an “independent.”

Galvin’s lawyer hinted that the entire election could be called into question, indicating that this lawsuit might not be the last for Galvin. She may sue after Nov. 3, if she does not win.

Fi

Ruth Bader-Ginsburg dead

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SHE VOTED AGAINST DECISION IN ‘BONG HITS FOR JESUS’

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg has died. She was 87.

Ginsburg was a member of the liberal minority on the Supreme Court and had been ill for many years.

On Alaska cases, she was a dissenting vote on the famous “Bong Hits for Jesus” case, in which a student in Juneau was suspended from high school for promoting drug use with a “Bong Hits for Jesus” banner during a school off-campus assembly that took place during the lead up to the Summer Olympics.

She also was a dissenting vote on the case involving the permitting for the Kensington Mine, (Couer Alaska) which now provides hundreds of mining jobs to Southeast Alaska.

On a more recent case involving hunter John Sturgeon and river access in Alaska, she voted with the majority.

President Trump, possibly with knowledge of her grave condition, had already released his list of potential replacements. He has challenged Joe Biden to release his list. Biden has not responded.

Ginsburg died of pancreatic cancer, her family said. It’s the same disease that quickly took the life of Alaskan Scott Hawkins, a gubernatorial candidate in 2018 and foundational supporter of Must Read Alaska during its inception.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, Ginsburg had spent much of her legal career advocating for women’s rights. She had won multiple arguments before the Supreme Court. She had served as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors; she was also general counsel to the ACLU.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski is on the record saying she opposes confirmation of any Trump nominee before the General Election.

If Trump nominates a replacement before the General Election, it will likely become the singular issue between now and Nov. 3. For many Trump voters, the Supreme Court seats were one of the most important reasons they voted for Trump in the first place. They consider those seats to be more important than those Republican seats in the House and Senate.

The Republicans in Congress are said to be pushing for Trump to go ahead and advance his nomination, an action that could prompt a new round of rioting across America.

According to NPR, Ginsburg said days before her death that her “most fervent wish” was that she not be replaced on the high court until a new president is sworn into the White House. 

“My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” Ginsburg dictated in a statement to her granddaughter that was obtained by NPR.

Dunleavy announces more funds for unemployment claims due to coronavirus

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Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy today announced another $62 million in funding for the FEMA Lost Wages Assistance program.

Alaskans who have lost work and wages due to COVID-19 disruption in their jobs will be entitled to another $300 a week if they qualify for at least $100 a week in unemployment insurance, and are unemployed or partially employed.

“I want to thank President Trump for his executive order directing FEMA to assist displaced workers, including self-employed workers, through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program,” the governor said in a statement. “Financial assistance to Alaskans now, who are ready and waiting to go back to work when their jobs return, will help protect Alaskan families and the overall economy.” 

The funds are being made available after Trump acted through executive order, after Congress failed to provide another round of supplemental benefits to keep families afloat during the pandemic crisis.

The $600 extra weekly unemployment benefit expired July 31. The average unemployment benefit fell from $812 per week to $257 per week for Americans. Democrats have blasted the executive order as unconstitutional.

Galvin loses first round in court

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Alaska Superior Court Judge Jennifer Henderson delivered a blow to the Democrats and their candidate Alyse Galvin today, as the judge refused to stop ballots from being mailed to overseas voters while Galvin sues the State of Alaska.

Galvin wants the courts to force the Division of Elections to put an N by her name on the ballot, even though she won the Democratic Party primary, was endorsed by the Alaska Democratic Party, receives money from the Alaska Democratic Party, and has the blessing of the top elected Democrat in the country, Nancy Pelosi. The matter will be decided in the Alaska Supreme Court this afternoon, but meanwhile, overseas voters will not be denied their ballots — not by Judge Henderson, anyway.

The argument is over a change made in 2018 by the Division of Elections under Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, which allowed candidates to have their party affiliation next to their name even if they won in the Democratic Primary.

The Division of Elections this year went back to the way it had been done prior to the Walker-Mallott Administration, where people who ran and won under the Democratic Party were listed thus on the General Election ballot.

Galvin wants to return to the Mallott ballot style, shown on the left here:

Galvin demands that the State of Alaska reprint over 800,000 ballots, so that the letter “N” would appear next to her name.

Meanwhile, the Alaska Supreme Court heard both sides of the lawsuit today and will issue an order by the end of the day, presumably by 4 pm.

Why did Lisa Murkowski throw an elbow at Al Gross and endorse Dan Sullivan?

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Two days ago Al Gross told the Huffington Post that he would not have run against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, if her term was up, because she “stands up for Alaska.”

Today, Murkowski stood up for Alaska and said Al Gross’ “dishonest attacks” on Sen. Dan Sullivan are “just flat-out wrong.”

Sullivan is a great senator, Murkowski said, in a short video ad designed to reach middle-of-the-road voters.

Murkowski has thrown a sharp jab at Gross, who is running for the Democrats against Sen. Dan Sullivan. Outside super PACs are spending millions of dollars attacking Sullivan and lying about his record. Those lies, if left unanswered, could damage Sullivan’s reputation with voters.

Gross presents himself as a moderate. But Murkowski is aware that he would caucus with the Democrats and would put Sen. Chuck Schumer in as Senate majority leader, something that would be devastating for Alaska.

Staunch conservatives may not like the Murkowski endorsement, but it’s not aimed at them. It’s aimed at her supporters. More than 138,000 voters cast their ballot for her in 2016, and every one of those voters is a possible voter for Sullivan in 2020.

In 2018, Murkowski endorsed Republican Mike Dunleavy for governor of Alaska.

What makes an Alaskan ‘authentic’?

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By WIN GRUENING

It’s become a bit tiresome watching the constant barrage of political ads and op-eds claiming a candidate isn’t really “Alaskan” and thus not qualified to represent Alaska.

As if the length of your Alaska residency or where you were born determined that.

A recent example is Zach Brown’s September 4 Juneau Empire My Turn deriding Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan – labelling him as “Ohio Dan” and unworthy to represent Alaska.

Sullivan’s major flaw?  He was born Outside.  I wonder if Brown feels similarly about “Frisco Bay” Berkowitz,  “Big Apple Jay” Hammond or “Tulsa Tony” Knowles?

Brown implies since Sullivan has received campaign contributions from Republican supporters outside Alaska, by some leap of logic, he must be a climate-change denier who cares nothing for the environment.

According to Brown, the reader’s only choice to defeat this threat and combat the lies “that will spread like an oil slick as more dark money spills into Alaska,” is to vote for Al Gross, “an authentic, independent voice who will speak for Alaskans instead of billionaires from New York City.”

Hogwash.  And how does being born in Alaska make someone automatically “authentic” and deserving of deference and respect?  

Karl Kircher, writing in the ADN last year, opined that in Alaska’s early days, “the spirit of being an Alaskan would likely include a dedication to working together and contributing to create a society in the vast, beautiful place they wanted to live.”

Most of us know people who weren’t born here but reflected that attitude.  They came here to enjoy Alaska’s beauty and experience unparalleled opportunities to succeed, raise a family, and make a difference.  

Their journey to Alaska and decision to stay was a choice, not a birthright.  They expressed their gratitude through public service and helping others.

Conversely, there are people who have spent their entire lives here yet were always too busy for community service.  They spent their time cashing in, not giving back.  

Opportunists like that can be found anywhere and Al Gross is one of them.  

It’s not surprising because Gross has no record to run on.  His carefully crafted narrative is full of irrelevant stories like his family narrowly being buried in an avalanche, shooting a grizzly bear in self-defense, and growing up while his New York-born father was Alaska’s Attorney General.

Gross made a fortune as an orthopedic surgeon in Juneau, but his resumé lacks any public service or recognition in the community where he was born and spent his career.

Gross’s campaign ads extol his “Alaskanism”, but the source of his campaign donations contradict his supposed grassroots-grown candidacy.  Federal campaign reports reveal Gross has benefited from millions of dollars in contributions funneled through ActBlue and the Lincoln Project, two special interest political organizations largely funded by out-of-state coastal liberals dedicated to flipping the U. S. Senate to Democrat control. 

Gross claims political independence but has explicitly stated he will caucus with the Democrats and that most of his values are to the left, but his best path to get elected is to portray himself as an “independent.”

It’s hard to understand how Gross thinks his campaign embodies the “authentic” values Alaskans embrace.

In contrast, Dan Sullivan’s lengthy record of service to our country and state is exemplary.  Dan served as Alaska’s Attorney General, spearheading the state’s Choose Respect strategy to combat domestic violence. He also served as Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources prior to being elected to the U. S. Senate.

Dan Sullivan is recognized as one of the Senate’s most effective lawmakers.  His membership on committees critical to Alaska include: Armed Services, Commerce, Veterans Affairs, and Environment and Public Works. He is currently an infantry officer and Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

Sullivan has taken the lead on rebuilding our country’s military, promoting responsible resource development in Alaska, opening markets for Alaska’s fishermen, and cleaning up our oceans. 

Dan and his wife Julie Fate Sullivan were married 26 years ago in Julie’s hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska, where they first made their home.  Later they moved to Anchorage where they raised their three daughters.

On November 3, if “authenticity” is on the ballot, the choice is easy.

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, was a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.

Add your voice to Ballot Measure 1 hearings

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Alaskans across the state can speak out on Ballot Measure 1 next week.

As required by law, the Lt. Governor’s office has scheduled four hearings on the job-busting initiative proposed and financed by oil foe Robin Brena. While these sessions are typically held in person, they will be held telephonically due to limitations related to COVID-19.

Testimony sessions will be split by judicial district in an effort to allow for as much time for public comment as possible.

Hearing schedule for Ballot Measure 1:

  • District 1 – 1-3 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21. Call in number is (907) 586-9085.
  • District 2 – 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22. Call in number is (844) 586-9085.
  • District 3 – 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23. Call in number is (907) 563-9085.
  • District 4 – 1-3 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24. Call in number is (844) 586-9085.
  • District 1 includes: Angoon, Haines, Hoonah, Juneau, Ketchikan, Prince of Wales, Sitka, Skagway, Petersburg, Wrangell and Yakutat.
  • District 2 includes: Ambler, Kotzebue, Nome, Noorvik, Point Hope, Unalakleet and Utqiagvik.
  • District 3 includes: Anchorage, Dillingham, Cordova, Kenai, Kodiak, Palmer, Unalaska, Valdez and Wasilla.
  • District 4 includes: Aniak, Bethel, Delta Junction, Healy, Fairbanks, Nenana, North Pole and Tok.

A complete list of communities belonging to each judicial district can be found at http://www.courts.alaska.gov/shc/probate/docs/shs-pr-communities.pdf