Early Monday morning, the campaign office of Congressman Don Young was broken into by unknown individuals.

The alarm system inside the building notified Campaign Manager Truman Reed, and police were notified. By the time Reed arrived, three Anchorage Police vehicles were on site and officers were sweeping the building, taking fingerprints and searching for clues.

The side door had been pried open at about 3:30 am, and the motion light above the door had been smashed.

“At this time, we have no idea who the perpetrators were or what they were looking for. We can’t say with  any certainty if it was a random act of burglary, or a planned, malicious attack on the Congressman’s campaign,” Reed said.

There’s no money or merchandise in campaign headquarters of Alaskans for Don Young, which is on Fairbanks Street in midtown. The congressman’s office has been located there for over a decade.

Has Mayor Ethan Berkowitz poked the bear that is the silent majority?

He may have. The grassroots in Anchorage has become activated as taxpayers are rallying to stop the spread of vagrancy and illegal drug activity in their neighborhooods.

This Tuesday’s Assembly meeting will be a continuation of the public input on an ambitious plan by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz to use tens of millions of dollar of federal CARES Act funds to purchase four buildings and greatly expand services and shelter to Anchorage’s vagrant population. The problem that people see is that more lawlessness will be headed toward their neighborhoods.

Ordinances were introduced last week that would use $22 million of the federal funds intended to address economic fallout from the super virus COVID-19 to instead acquire the Golden Lion Hotel, the Alaska Club on Tudor Blvd, America’s Best hotel in Spenard and the Bean’s Cafe property. During public testimony last week, dozens of Anchorage residents spoke against the plan to bring vagrants and drug abusers to their neighborhoods.

Last week, volunteers gathered in midtown and assembled mailers that went out to over 6,000 households over the weekend, encouraging people to attend Tuesday’s meeting at the Loussac Library building on 36th Avenue. That’s where the Anchorage Assembly has its meetings.

The mailer that went to thousands of Anchorage residents was paid for by pass-the-hat donations among activists. Meanwhile, a Facebook group called Save Anchorage has gained over 1,500 followers in just a few days and is growing by hundreds every day, the administrators said.

The Tuesday meeting begins at 6 pm. Mayor Berkowitz has limited the number of people who will be allowed into the Assembly Chambers due to COVID-19; those wishing to testify must arrive early to get inside.

Anyone wishing to give testimony by phone may email the Clerk’s office at [email protected] by 2 pm Tuesday, providing your name, phone number, agenda item or title for which they wish to provide testimony. The subject line of the email should be Phone Testimony. When the Assembly reaches that item on the agenda, the Clerk will call and connect you with the meeting so you may testify. The public is allowed 3 minutes per person to speak. If you want to speak on both ordinances, you will have six minutes.

The vote on the ordinances is expected to come on Thursday of this week, but it’s likely the Assembly will not be through the public testimony by then.

The mayor’s plan starts with AO 2020-58, an amendment to the municipal code that would allow homeless and transient shelters across a vast area of neighborhoods, and would bypass the Planning and Zoning Commission review process.

Items on the Tuesday agenda that pertain to the vagrant plan:

Ordinance No. AO 2020-58, an ordinance of the Anchorage Municipal Assembly amending Anchorage Municipal Code Table 21.05-1: Table of Allowed Uses, to allow homeless and transient shelters in the B3 Zoning District by conditional use; and waiving Planning and Zoning Commission Review, Assembly Members Weddleton and Zaletel and Mayor Berkowitz.

Ordinance No. AO 2020-66, an ordinance authorizing the acquisition by purchase, or lease with option to purchase, of real property legally described as: Lot 7A Block C Heather Meadows Subdivision (Plat 77-149) (PID 009-161-51), Lots 1 – 6 Block C Rosebud Subdivision (Plat P-224A), (PID 009-161-32, 009-161-33, 009-161-34, 009-161-35, 009-161-36, 009-161-37), Block 4A Central City Subdivision (Plat 76-245) (PID 003-241-29), the improvements on Lot 1 Block 33C USS 408 (Plat 84-374) (PID 003-073-33), and Tract C Green Valley Resubdivision No. 1 (Plat 73-210) (PID 010-193-22) (Properties) with aggregate acquisition and renovation costs not to exceed $22,500,000, Real Estate Department, Assembly Chair Rivera, and Assembly Members Zaletel and Constant.

Ordinance No. AO 2020-66(S), a an ordinance authorizing the acquisition by purchase, or lease with option to purchase, of real property legally described as: Lot 7a Block C Heather Meadows Subdivision (Plat 77-149) (PID 009-161-51), Lots 1 – 6 Block C Rosebud Subdivision (Plat P-224A), (PID 009-161-32, 009-161-33, 009-161-34, 009-161-35, 009-161-36, 009-161-37), Block 4a Central City Subdivision (Plat 76-245) (PID 003-241-29), the improvements on Lot 1 Block 33C USS 408 (Plat 84-374) (PID 003-073-33), and Tract C Green Valley Resubdivision No. 1 (Plat 73-210) (PID 010-193-22) (properties) with aggregate acquisition and renovation costs Not To Exceed $22,500,000, Real Estate Department, Assembly Chair Rivera, and Assembly Members Zaletel and Constant.

Ordinance No. AO 2020-66(S-1), a an ordinance authorizing the acquisition by purchase, or lease with option to purchase, of real property legally described as: Lot 7a Block C Heather Meadows Subdivision (Plat 77-149) (PID 009-161-51), Lots 1 – 6 Block C Rosebud Subdivision (Plat P-224A), (PID 009-161-32, 009-161-33, 009-161-34, 009-161-35, 009-161-36, 009-161-37), Block 4a Central City Subdivision (Plat 76-245) (PID 003-241-29), the improvements on Lot 1 Block 33C USS 408 (Plat 84-374) (PID 003-073-33), and Tract C Green Valley Resubdivision No. 1 (Plat 73-210) (PID 010-193-22) (properties) with aggregate acquisition and renovation costs Not To Exceed $22,500,000, Real Estate Department, Assembly Members Zaletel, Constant, and Kennedy.

File this story under “No good deed goes unpunished.”

The Division of Elections decided to mail out absentee ballot applications to all senior citizen Alaska voters this year. That act of charity has drawn a “not good enough” lawsuit from Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall, who was Gov. Bill Walker’s chief of staff.

Aided by an Outside liberal group called Equal Citizens, Kendall says it’s discriminatory to not mail out absentee ballot applications to all voters.

At present, the Division of Election is mailing absentee ballot applications to older Alaskans because of their increased risk for serious complications from the COVID-19 super virus.

The primary election early voting season begins in 16 days. The primary election ends on Aug. 18, when polls will be open across Alaska for in-person voting.

Two individuals stepped up to be the “harmed” plaintiffs: Democrat Camille Nelson of Kotzebue and Democrat Aleija Stover of Anchorage. They’re joined by the Disability Law Center of Alaska, Native Peoples Action Community Fund, and the Alaska Public Interest Research Group.

Nelson is a healthy young adult who recently organized a “I can’t breathe” march to protest the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of police. Stover is also a healthy young adult involved with student government at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Kendall is the left-leaning lawyer who is spearheading the effort to recall the governor of Alaska.

He is also the lead lawyer for a massive election voter initiative that voters will be asked to decide on in November: Alaskans for Better Elections, which would bring jungle primaries, the destruction of political parties, and ranked choice voting. Both Democrats and Republicans have opposed the ballot measure.

Alaska is a “no excuse” voting state, where anyone can request to receive an absentee ballot by mail; they do not need to give a reason. In 2020, voters can request an absentee ballot online for the first tine.

But Kendall and his plaintiffs say that there are too many barriers, and the state should just mail absentee ballot applications to everyone.

The costly plan would help achieve another goal that liberal groups are pushing — universal vote by mail.

Equal Citizens, which is funding the lawsuit, was founded by Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig. His group was involved in trying to get electors around the country to become “faithless electors” and not vote for President Donald Trump. The group’s effort fed into what became the most number of “faithless electors” to ever cast votes in a presidential election — seven. Prior to 2016, there had not been more than one faithless elector in a presidential election since 1948.

The plan went awry when more electors chose to be faithless against Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump; five flipped on Clinton and two on Trump.

Lessig represented some of the rogue electors, but this month the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld laws that punish or replace Electoral College delegates who refuse to cast their votes for a presidential candidate that they had pledged to support.

The group has also challenged the legality of the Electoral College.

Equal Citizens’ board members include Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners and the pollster for Joe Biden’s 2008 bid for president. Lake was the pollster for former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich and takes credit for helping Begich become “the first Senate candidate in Alaska to oust the incumbent in 50 years.” (The state was but 55 years old when Mark Begich and the Department of Justice’s and FBI’s corruption ensured that Sen. Ted Stevens would be retired from office.)

Other board members are Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration; Charles Kolb, founder of DisruptDC; Lawrence Lessig; and law professor Richard Painter.