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RIP: Rep. Chuck Sassara

Suzanne Downing
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RIP: Rep. Chuck Sassara

Chuck Sassara, who served in the Alaska State House of Representatives from 1965 to 1970, has passed.

Sassara and his wife Ann came to Alaska in 1955 from California, where he had graduated from UCLA. Sassara was a pilot, a mariner, business owner, and author. In 2015, he wrote “Propellers, Politics & People,” memoirs of his life and adventures in Alaska, which can be found at Amazon.

“A master of aviation, an honorable legislator, a cherished and selfless husband, father, grandfather, and friend—Chuck Sassara was larger than life itself. His desire to serve others was a driving quality, one that set him apart from the rest. In his role as an Alaska State Representative, Chuck was a key proponent in pivotal legislation which shaped Alaska into what it is today,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “Rose and I extend our deepest sympathies to the Sassara family in their time of grieving.”

Alaskans for Open Meetings

Suzanne Downing
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Alaskans for Open Meetings

For more information about this movement, head over to Alaskans for Open Meetings.

Liar? LaFrance says she opposes recall of Dunleavy, but she signed petition

Suzanne Downing
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Liar? LaFrance says she opposes recall of Dunleavy, but she signed petition

Suzanne LaFrance, the Democrat nominee for House District 28, told public broadcasting viewers on Wednesday night that she opposes the recall of Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

However, her name appears on the list of those signing the recall petition application in 2019.

LaFrance is running against James Kaufman, the Republican nominee for House District 28, South Anchorage. He opposes the recall.

She is the hand-picked nominee from the Alaska Democratic Party, substituted in after the primary — after her Democratic placeholder Adam Lees quit. LaFrance is a member of the leftwing controlling body of the Anchorage Assembly.

During the “lightning round” of questions, candidates were yes or no. She hesitated at the question on the recall, nodded her head back and forth, before “no.”

LaFrance signed the recall petition in 2019.

Gross attack: Al calls Sen. Sullivan a coward for not answering CNN’s ‘gotcha question’

Suzanne Downing
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Gross attack: Al calls Sen. Sullivan a coward for not answering CNN’s ‘gotcha question’

Sen. Dan Sullivan, a colonel in the U.S. Marines Reserve who served in Afghanistan, was in the Senate subway when a CNN reporter approached and asked him his thoughts on the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump on Tuesday. The answer given to the reporter prompted Sullivan’s opponent, Al Gross of Juneau, to call him a “Coward.”

Sullivan had responded to the reporter: He didn’t see the debate because he had been hosting one of his own events at the time.

It was, in fact, a campaign event at the Dimond Center in Anchorage, which took place at the same time as the debate. Sullivan had to teleconference into the event because the Senate had been called back to Washington. But he attended his own event nonetheless.

Then, as the doors were closing, the reporter asked Sullivan the “gotcha” question: Did Trump’s actions “refusing to condemn white supremacy” hurt Sullivan’s re-election chances?

The doors to the subway closed and the reporter said Sullivan stared silently for 8 seconds. Others said it was all over in a second, not 8 seconds, but this was CNN.

Al Gross, the doctor who embellished his involvement in killing a bear, had one word for the Marine who served around the globe and who spends three weeks training with the Marines every year: “Coward.”

It had been a set-up question from a CNN reporter who knows that Senators are not allowed to talk about their campaigns while they are in the U.S. Capitol.

The president has on several occasions denounced white supremacy, but also knows that this is a political attack and has responded forcefully to such questions.

As for Sullivan, he is married to an Alaska Native and is the father of Alaska Native children. But that somehow escaped the narrative for CNN and Al Gross.

Sullivan’s office released the following statement: “Senator Sullivan doesn’t know what the President actually meant by his comments. For his part, Senator Sullivan has consistently and unambiguously denounced white supremacy and expects all others to do the same. Period.”

Gross’s dark vision: COVID-19 devastation could have silver lining of ‘Medicare for all’

Walker effect: Nearly a third of Alaskans on Medicaid

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Walker effect: Nearly a third of Alaskans on Medicaid

By DAN FAGAN

How bad was former Gov. Bill Walker for the state of Alaska? Let me count the ways. He was certainly one of the most consequential governors in Alaska’s short history. 

His expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare has had a devastating impact on the state’s budget. In the year 2000, Alaska spent $486 million on Medicaid. That accounted for less than 10% of the state’s budget.

But since Walker’s expansion of the entitlement program, Medicaid costs to the state have exploded in growth. Since 2000, Medicaid spending has skyrocketed 379%.

In 2018, more than one-fifth of the state’s budget went toward Medicaid expenses. Medicaid spending in Alaska is currently growing 25 times as fast as state revenues.  

Since Walker expanded Medicaid to include able-bodied childless adults, it’s created close to an additional 100,000 government dependents. Before expansion Medicaid was limited to Alaskans who are elderly, disabled or families with low-income children and pregnant women. As of Aug. 31, 232,735 Alaskans are now on Medicaid.  That’s up from 125,616 before Walker expanded the entitlement program.  

Walker told us expanding Medicaid would lower health care costs for all Alaskans. It didn’t. Since 2014, the average health care costs for Alaskans is $11,000 higher than any other state.

Walker also left a mark on Alaska when he committed political suicide after opening the door to raiding the Permanent Fund. Legislation Walker signed allowed for the propping up of Alaska’s Jabba-the-Hut-like government. 

Before Walker, politicians would not dare talk of using money set aside for the yearly dividend and using it for government. Walker not only talked of it, he made it happen.  

Walker was a wholly owned subsidiary and creation of Big Labor and other special interests. We know how much Big Labor loves big government. Former AFL-CIO union boss Vince Beltrami along with former newspaper publisher Alice Rogoff created the Walker/Byron Mallott Unity Ticket. The only thing the Walker/Mallott team unified around was special interests depending on government largess to survive.  

Walker did them proud by opening the spigots of the multi-billion-dollar Permanent Fund, causing a tidal wave of cash to flow into state government. No need for cutting with that kind of cash pouring in. 

Lobbyists, union bosses, non-profit cabal types, deep-staters, and benefactors of corporate crony capitalism were thrilled. They finally had access to the massive Permanent Fund they’d been lusting after for years. 

With Walker raiding the Earnings Reserve Account came the shrinking of the yearly dividend check.  Walker signed legislation causing the Permanent Fund to operate more like an endowment. That meant each year the Legislature would determine how much was spent on dividend checks. Previously, the amount was determined by a statue (still in law) based on a five-year average of the fund’s earnings. 

This allowed Walker to veto the money the Legislature appropriated. His first year in office, Walker vetoed approximately half of the money allocated for the dividend check, costing each eligible Alaskan $1,100. Since the policy change, an Alaska family of four is out more than $30,000 in dividend check money and counting. 

Who knew electing the Unity Ticket would be so expensive? 

The Walker plan to allow the Legislature, not a statutorily mandated formula, determine the size of the dividend check each year also favored special interests by tying the hands of future governors who wanted to see a full dividend payout. 

Walker’s successor, Republican Mike Dunleavy, campaigned on issuing a full dividend and returning the money vetoed from previous checks. But the Legislature wouldn’t appropriate the money needed for Dunleavy to keep his campaign promise. 

As a result, many of those incumbent legislators were ousted and like Walker, today, couldn’t win a seat on their local community councils. 

Another reason Walker is so disliked among Alaskans is his signing of so-called criminal justice reform legislation in 2016. The new law was nothing more than letting the bad guys out of jail early scheme to save money. It also weakened penalties so significantly that criminals got nothing more than a light slap on the wrist for stealing. 

Next to ACES, Senate Bill 91 was the most devastating piece of legislation politicians ever passed. Many of the legislators who voted for the law lost reelection. 

Walker was able to get through much of what he wanted as governor. Fortunately, for all of us, he was unable to tie Alaska closely to the Communist government of China and his long-held dream of building a gas pipeline. 

Walker’s plan all along was to rip the leases from oil companies with rights to Alaska’s gas and cozy up to China to get his pet project pipeline built. Walker often spoke of the Norway model where the government, not the private sector played a bigger role in developing resources. That’s the reason Walker ran in the first place.

Fortunately for the state, he was unable to accomplish his most important goal. 

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

Campbell: Assembly usurps executive powers on policing as a step to micro-managing

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Campbell: Assembly usurps executive powers on policing as a step to micro-managing

By CRAIG CAMPBELL

In 1993 West Anchorage elected a moderate Democrat to the Anchorage Assembly.  He was a card-carrying union guy, working in the construction industry, who came here from California, where he had made a fortune in the Bay Area.   

Nope, I’m not talking about Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.  He may be from San Francisco, but never served on the Assembly.  

This guy was Joe Murdy.  Joe served on the Assembly between 1993 and 1999. I worked with Joe during his tenure on the Assembly. What a great person. Joe had a passion for public safety in our community, a passion he put into action by working close with the Anchorage Police Department to ensure they had the laws, budgets, and tools to effectively do their job.  

During his time on the Assembly, Anchorage had a serious gang problem, which included illegal drugs, prostitution, and violent acts between gang members, which sometimes injured innocent bystanders.  

Joe formed the Assembly Public Safety Committee. His vision was to provide positive interaction between the Assembly and APD to ensure we had adequate law enforcement throughout our community.  Joe often showed up at shift change to interact with officers. He routinely rode with officers.  He had a great relationship with police department leadership, but also could be critical of decisions he thought were not in the best interest of good law enforcement in Anchorage.  

The committee worked with the Mayor’s office in developing the annual police budget.  It never delved into determining policy and procedures of APD, nor did it micromanage any aspect of the organization.   

Joe died over a decade ago and in his honor the Anchorage Police Department Employee Association hired a new K-9, naming him “Joe Murdy.”  

Contrast that with today.  Joe must be spinning in his grave as the current Assembly has morphed his committee into a Public Safety Advisory Committee, a “Committee-of-the-Whole,” usurping executive branch responsibilities and interjecting themselves into the management of the police.  

The Assembly cabal just doesn’t get it.  Creating an antagonistic relationship with police at a time when law enforcement is under siege across America by anarchists intended on destroying our democratic government makes no sense, unless that is also your intended goal.  

For them, the first step is to isolate and neuter law enforcement. Once cops are “under control,” anarchists have free reign to terrorize the population to a much greater degree than is already being seen in the Lower 48, and to force submission to their autocratic control.  

So one has to ask why Assembly member Meg Zaletel is so hell bent on controlling our police?  I’ll answer that in a moment.  

First, there’s an old trick in politics. It works like this: Two steps forward, one step back, pause, repeat. Objective reached.  

Cabal member Zaletel introduces Ordinance 2020-80 to place restrictions and limitations on police officers’ use of force.  This is in sync with the national Leftist movement to politically restrict police activities. Two steps forward.  

She experiences backlash and public outcry.  She postpones indefinitely.  Ah, you say, issue is over.  

With these characters, the issue is never over until they win. She then introduced Resolution 2020-339 setting forth a process for the Assembly to review police policies and procedures. One step back.  

Anchorage Daily Pravda highlights the “watered down version” to make you believe this is a compromise. The audacity of these elitists.  

A sleight of hand lawyer trick, this resolution actually increases the Assembly’s ability to micromanage the Anchorage Police Department.  To make matters worse, and make sure Mayor Berkowitz can justify the establishment of his pet project — the Office of Equity and Justice — they added the option for policing policy changes to also be reviewed by the Chief Equity Officer.  

This week, without public testimony, the cabal passed the amended resolution.  Because that’s what autocratic elitists do.  Public opinion be damned.  

Ah, you say, Mayor Berkowitz can always veto the resolution.  Sure he can, and make it look like he defends police against the cabal lunatics.  Yet, the Assembly cabal would override the veto. So why veto? That might show a crack in cabal unity.  Either way, mission accomplished.  

The people of Anchorage support our police. We have one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the nation that now will be undermined by Leftists politicians’ attempts to unreasonably constrain and defund them to solidify control.  

Cabal Zaletel’s actions are designed to deliberately insert the Anchorage Assembly into the management of the police department, thereby being able to politically control law enforcement to meet the Leftists’ agenda.  Assembly members will deny this and claim the resolution just provides more transparency.  

They are lying to you.  This is our Assembly’s effort to “send a message” to politically liberal organizations that they, too, will interject themselves into law enforcement management.

“Local spokespeople need to be able to connect with audiences in their hometowns and cities; center shared values; clearly explain what it means to defund the police in the place where they live; and inspire people to imagine what alternatives to violent policing looks like.” This is the stated value and vision of The Movement for Black Lives.  

On Tuesday, the Assembly completed the first step:  Two steps forward, one step back, pause, repeat. Don’t believe for a second they will stop here.  

There’s a direct cause-and-effect with these actions. As politicians undercut law enforcement, citizens purchase more firearms and ammunition. Have you checked the shelves at gun stores recently? They are being emptied.  You can hardly find any .223 or 9mm ammo in Anchorage.  

This is not necessarily good if you are an uber-liberal who subscribes to rabid gun control and eliminating the Second Amendment.  But maybe there is a bright side to the cabal’s anti-police actions. 

Craig E. Campbell served on the Anchorage Assembly between 1986 and 1995 and later as Alaska’s Tenth Lieutenant Governor.  He was the previous Chief Executive Officer and President for Alaska Aerospace Corporation.  He retired from the Alaska National Guard as Lieutenant General (AKNG) and holds the concurrent retired Federal rank of Major General (USAF).

Gross’s dark vision: COVID-19 devastation could have silver lining of ‘Medicare for all’

Suzanne Downing
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Gross’s dark vision: COVID-19 devastation could have silver lining of ‘Medicare for all’

Sen. Dan Sullivan finally took the gloves off this week and called out his Democrat opponent Al Gross for his radical plans to create a government health care plan for all — nationalized medical care.

“After months of trying to hide his well-documented support for Medicare for all, Al Gross was just caught on camera admitting to donors his support for this radical government takeover of healthcare – which would eliminate private, employer, union and even military sponsored healthcare,” Sullivan’s ad says.

In interviews and on TV, Gross denies his support for Medicare for all, but in closed door fundraisers he admits the truth.

Sullivan’s campaign, however, found Zoom meetings where Gross appears to be promoting Medicare for all, and hopes that COVID-19 will have the silver lining of creating such a system. When asked directly if he supports Medicare for all, he said “it’s a matter of what you can get through.”

Then he explained how COVID-19 could lead to nationalized health care.

“What I’m hoping is that as an aftermath of COVID-19, and having so many people on Medicaid, that they will finally understand that they need to come up with that.”

Medicare for all would slash reimbursements to medical professionals by at least 50 percent, which means doctors, nurses, and technicians would all take a big pay cut.

Now that Gross is not practicing medicine as much, this won’t affect him or his family’s bank account. He has told reporters that while only working 3-4 days a week in Juneau as a surgeon, he made over $3 million a year. He left that practice in 2013 after being sued for malpractice.

Today, Gross gets paid as an expert witness by a law firm that defends doctors accused of medical malpractice.

According to his 2019 financial disclosure, he has worked as an expert witness for Hoffman & Blasco LLC in Juneau since January, 2014, shortly after he quit his practice after being sued. That suit was finally settled in 2017.

Toxic shock: Twitter’s former CEO says capitalists should be shot

Suzanne Downing
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Toxic shock: Twitter’s former CEO says capitalists should be shot

Further evidence that Twitter is encouraging Marxism and violence against normal Americans came from its former CEO on Wednesday.

“Me-first capitalists who think you can separate society from business are going to be the first people lined up against the wall and shot in the revolution,” he tweeted. “I’ll happily provide video commentary.”

The message was not removed by Twitter management.

Costolo’s comment was in response to a discussion on whether social justice should be a goal of industry.

Few Alaskans use the Twitter social media platform, which is dominated by liberals.

House Republicans appear confident in final stretch

Suzanne Downing
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House Republicans appear confident in final stretch

Alaska House Republicans held a giant fundraiser on Wednesday night in Anchorage, with over 100 people attending.

The event took place at a hangar adjacent to Lake Hood and had a pre-COVID-19 vibe about it, with a few people wearing masks, but everyone wearing smiles.

In many ways, it was like the “old days,” when Republicans charged forward excited and engaged in Alaska, confident in their prospects.

“This next session is the most important in state history and that makes this election also the most important. You can send down people to Juneau who are interested in dipping hands in people’s pockets or send people to do the hard work required to tackle the challenges in front of us. We need to put the Republicans back in charge,” said Lance Pruitt, House Minority leader. He gave a rousing speech to rally everyone to get through the final stretch and bring the Republicans back to power in the House this November.

The election is 33 days away, and it’s common for the House Republicans to hold an October fundraiser that can be used to drive the messages for their members during the final days.

Most all of the House Republicans were present, with the exception of Louise Stutes of Kodiak, and Steve Thompson and Bart LeBon of Fairbanks. LeBon was taking advantage of good weather in Fairbanks to go door to door, as he is in a competitive race against Democrat Christopher Quist.

Numerous candidates who won primaries but are not yet incumbents were also in the hangar, including Ron Gillham of Soldotna, Keith Kurber and Kevin McKinley from Fairbanks, Mike Cronk from Tok, and several from Anchorage and MatSu — Tom McKay, Ken McCarty, Kevin McCabe, Kathy Henslee, Paul Bauer, and James Kaufman, to name a few.

The mood was upbeat and positive, and although not all of the candidates will prevail in November, the sense of the room is that the Republicans will take back the House Majority that will work more cooperatively with the governor. The governor’s Chief of Staff Ben Stevens attended the event.

Republicans were victorious two years ago, but after the election in 2018, seven Republicans betrayed the majority and installed Democrats in power in a bipartisan coalition. Most of those have been unelected by their districts at this point in the election cycle, but the new Republican candidates still have to make the case to the voters that Republicans present better ideas and will govern smarter than the Democrats did over the past two years.

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