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Plan to fast-track signatures on recall petition hits molasses in January

Suzanne Downing
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12
Plan to fast-track signatures on recall petition hits molasses in January

The Recall Dunleavy Committee had a rough week. After being jubilant over a huge set of wins on Jan. 10, when the committee’s lawyers swept the tables in Superior Court, the case to remove the governor had run into a wall.

[Read: Can Gov. Dunleavy get a fair shake in this court?]

The Superior Court judge who had just ruled in favor of allowing the group to start collecting signatures on a recall petition on Feb. 10, changed his mind. He sent the matter on up to the Alaska Supreme Court, washing his hands of further controversy.

But by then, the recall committee had scheduled training sessions for phone bank volunteers and signature gatherers, and had rented the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage for three days for a Recall Dunleavy festival, where the push to get over 71,000 signatures would get off to a strong start in mid-February.

Attorneys Jahna Lindemuth and Scott Kendall, former attorney general and former chief of staff to Gov. Bill Walker, are now heading up the recall of Dunleavy. For them, this is personal.

They had been cocks of the walk in the courthouse on Jan. 10, when the judge went through the motions of oral arguments, and then granted them an insta-win.

But if they started out January as lions of the court, they ended January as lambs.

This ruling was a big setback, and possibly a costly one, for the plans to stage their major media fanfare on Feb. 10, when the recall activists and paid employees would descend on the Division of Elections to pick up the petition booklets, while knowing full well the Supreme Court had not yet calendared the case.

The cart, it seems, was before the horse and on down the road a stretch:

  • Volunteer phone-bank training was scheduled for Feb. 4 at AFL-CIO Hall.
  • The signature-gathering training was to take place at the AFL-CIO Hall in Anchorage on Jan. 29, and at the IBEW Hall on Feb. 5-6.
  • Then on Feb. 15-17, the group had already rented the Sullivan Arena to stage their three-day signature festival from 9 am to 8 pm daily.

All that planning is in question now that the recall petition’s validity, and whether the “stay” on collecting signatures in advance is Supreme Court material; the sides are awaiting the decision on when oral arguments will be made.

The Recall Dunleavy legal “dream team” of former Gov. Bill Walker is pushing for oral arguments sooner rather than later.

The Stand Tall With Mike group, which joined the defense of the governor as a legal “intervenor” in the case, is the sole reason for the slowing down of the race to recall the governor. The Division of Elections, represented by the Department of Law, had found no justifiable harm to allowing the petitioners to ramp up their campaign to unseat the governor. But Stand Tall With Mike lawyers said their side would be irreparably harmed if Recall Dunleavy Committee started juicing up the case in the court of public opinion.

If not for the Stand Tall lawyers, who are billing by the hour, the petition books would already be at the printer and they would be available for pick up on Feb. 10. The momentum would be off and running again.

The Alaska Supreme Court is likely to side with the Recall Dunleavy “dream team” lawyers in the end, and allow the recall matter to go before the voters in some form or another. But the oral arguments could be anytime this year. The Stand Tall With Mike group has agreed to an expedited hearing schedule, the terms of which are still being negotiated with the Recall Dunleavy group.

Alaska Democrats will have a dozen on their caucus ballot

Suzanne Downing
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12
Alaska Democrats will have a dozen on their caucus ballot

OR IS IT ELEVEN? ONE CANDIDATE HAS DROPPED

Alaska Democrats taking part in their party’s privately run primary on April 4 will have 12 candidates to choose from for their presidential nominee:

  • Michael Bennet, age 55, senator
  • Joe Biden, age 77, former Vice President
  • Michael Bloomberg, age 77, former New York mayor
  • Peter Buttigieg, age 38, mayor
  • John Delaney, age 56, former representative
  • Tulsi Gabbard, age 38, representative
  • Amy Klobuchar, age 59, senator
  • Deval Patrick, age 63, former governor
  • Bernie Sanders, age 78, senator
  • Tom Steyer, age 62, businessman
  • Elizabeth Warren, age 70, senator
  • Andrew Yang, age 45, businessman

Jan. 24 was the application deadline for presidential candidates to apply to the Alaska Democratic Party for inclusion on their ballot.

John Delaney has announced he is dropping out of the race, but he and the other candidates have already paid $2,500 each to the Alaska Democratic Party to take part in the party’s first-ever private primary — a method of caucusing by ballot, rather than by standing around a gymnasium.

If the ballot hasn’t been sent to the printer, Delaney’s name will likely be dropped. Others will probably drop before the Democrats hold their primary, leaving some ghost candidates still on the ballot.

The Democrats’ ballot will include a ranked choice voting. Participants will be able to choose and rank up to five candidates, in the order they prefer. How they will handle ghost candidates is still an unknown.

They’ll also be executing an ambitious mail-in ballot program at a time when they don’t have a digital director to manage mailing lists and data files. The Democrats’ data director parted ways with the party on Jan. 10, and the FBI has been called in to investigate.

[Read: FBI interviews Alaska Democratic Party]

The Democrats are in the middle of their State Central Committee meeting, a quarterly event. This week, it’s in Juneau at the Baranof Hotel and surrounding watering holes, where Democrat activists can also rub shoulders with their legislators.

Then, Democrats must turn their focus to training volunteers to run their primary in every one of the 40 House districts.

On Feb. 13, Districts 29 and 30 Democrats will be treated to an informational meeting at Phormation Chiropractic Office on Kenai Spur Hwy. The meeting starts at 5:30 pm, one of many to take place around the state this month.

On Feb. 19, the party will mail to every registered Democrat some information explaining the ways in which a voter may cast a ballot in the 2020 party-run process, which is a radical change from its past practices. All Democrats registered with the Division of Elections as of Feb. 1 will receive the information.

Absentee ballots can be requested on the state party website beginning Feb. 19, and must be postmarked by Tuesday, March 24.

In-person voting will take place on April 4 in these communities, and possibly others: Anchorage Fairbanks/North Star Borough, Juneau, Mat-Su Borough, Kenai Peninsula, Dillingham, Bethel, Nome, and Kotzebue.

Tozzi

The party has settled on Anchorage Democrat Wigi Tozzi as its presidential primary director. Tozzi was one of the leaders of a recall effort in 2013 to oust Lindsey Holmes, a former representative for House District 19 who switched from Democrat to Republican while in office. That recall effort fizzled after Holmes declined to run for reelection.

How Lisa Murkowski saved the Supreme Court

Suzanne Downing
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52
How Lisa Murkowski saved the Supreme Court

AND CONGRESS, AND THE REPUBLIC, FOR THAT MATTER

It cannot have been easy, but Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has been here before, with a pivotal vote and pressure from the Left.

This time, it wasn’t about a Supreme Court Justice’s confirmation or an Education secretary nominee. It was about the Supreme Court itself and its very credibility with the American public.

Today in the Senate, Murkowski voted against the introduction of witnesses and more documents in the impeachment trial of the president. Senator Dan Sullivan was already a “no” vote, and was being ignored by the political pressure groups.

There were consequences: Instantly, Murkowski was excoriated by the Left on social media, while her colleague Mitt Romney was just as instantly disinvited from the 2020 Conservative American Union CPAC 2020 conference.

The final vote was 51 against witnesses, and 49 in favor. Only Sen. Susan Collins and Romney crossed over from the Republican position to the Democrat position, leaving Murkowski once again in a situation that had profound implications:

If Murkowski had voted for documents and witnesses, there would have been a tie, and Chief Justice John Roberts would have been called upon to break the tie, putting the Supreme Court right in the middle of what is clearly a partisan battle, one that began in 2017, when Donald Trump took the oath of office.

In no small way, this Murkowski vote mattered. She had the pivotal vote.

And Sen. Elizabeth Warren made it easy. Warren had, just Thursday, posed a question aimed directly at the Supreme Court Justice, challenging his credibility on national television, as she forced him to read it aloud:

“At a time when large majorities of Americans have lost faith in government, does the fact that the chief justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which Republican senators have thus far refused to allow witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the chief justice, the Supreme Court and the Constitution?” 

Roberts read the question, and then paused. A sense of shock went through the Senate. He kept his composure. Warren, as readers know, is running for president and so has a dog in the fight.

In describing why she was a “no” vote, Murkowski today indicated that having the Supreme Court Chief Justice being asked by Warren to wade into the politics at hand was bad for the Republic.

“It has also become clear some of my colleagues intend to further politicize this process, and drag the Supreme Court into the fray, while attacking the chief justice,” Murkowski wrote in advance of the vote today.

[Read: Murkowski to vote no on witnesses, no on polarization]

Murkowski was prescient. As soon as Warren’s question was read by the very man who would have had to break the tie, social media ads started tagging Roberts from the group called “Demand Justice,” an anti-Justice Kavanaugh group.

The political pressure from the Left was shifting from Murkowski to the Supreme Court Justice himself:

The Senate tie would have put Roberts in a position of making one of three choices: Break tie to have witnesses, in which case he’d be in the middle of the trial to follow; break tie against witnesses; or refuse to rule altogether. Whichever way he would rule, he was going to get hammered.

The decision by Murkowski to vote “no” is consistent with her wanting to protect our institutions. If the House is so broken, and the Senate is now embroiled in the House’s dysfunction, the last thing Murkowski would want is to drag the third branch of government into what’s a bitter partisan battle.

Murkowski took a stand to save the pillars of the republic. Readers may send her a note at this address.

In defense of the unborn, where are Republicans?

Guest Writer
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17
In defense of the unborn, where are Republicans?

By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO

On January 29, 2020, nine Alaska Republican House members voted against moving HB 178, an act which would interpret the right-to-privacy clause of the Alaska State Constitution to include the unborn.  

The nine were Bart LeBon, District 1; Steve Thompson, District 2; Kelly Merrick, District 14; Louise Stutes, District 22; Chuck Kopp, District 24; Mel Gillis, District 25; Laddie Shaw, District 26; Jennifer Johnston, District 28; and Gary Knopp, District 30. Mark Neuman, Republican, District 8, mysteriously got up and left the House chamber just before the vote and was held absent, which may raise constituent questions.

The Constitution of the State of Alaska declares, in Article I, Section 1, that “all persons have a natural right to life,” and the Constitution of the State of Alaska further declares in Article I, Section 7, “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.    

My personal belief is these sections have always applied to the unborn, a person, a human being regarded as an individual, yet our state government and our own legislature, those representing us, have not caught up with the fact that “the science is settled.”

SETTLED SCIENCE  

We hear so much today from the Left regarding climate change and the “science is settled”, yet those of us who have a smidgen of discernment, curiosity and inquiry know that is almost never the case as science continues to discover something new continually regarding this and so much more.

This is the same for just about everything science envelops with one exception. The major branches of science include chemistry, physics, geology, astronomy, and biology.  In the science of biology is that one exception. And that is the answer to the question of life at conception.

The question of the life at conception science has concluded that indeed it is settled.  It is life and therefore life at conception is a person, a human being regarded as an individual.

Pythagoras who first proposed that the Earth was round sometime around 500 B.C. waited patiently and posthumously for centuries before our collective body of knowledge and experience agreed with him.  Thus, overcoming centuries of denial, ignorance and unintelligence, we now take for granted something that was not only denied for centuries, but those who denied at the time the conventional thought of “flat world” were persecuted, tortured and put to death.  

Like this universal cognition and after navigation, observation and experience, we as the human race using scientific methodology have reached conclusions about our natural existence. These conclusions stand until someone or something provides a new component to introduce new hypothesizing.

Yet at this rare moment of exception, where science and social standards actually have the remarkable opportunity to agree and co-exist not just scientifically but morally, these nine legislators have decided to ignore the facts.  

  • The fact that a new human embryo, the starting point for a person, a human life regarded as an individual, comes into existence with the formation of the one-celled zygote, a fertilized human ovum, is pronounced by scientific findings throughout the scientific world as an undeniable conclusion.  
  • The fact that, at the moment of conception, the entire genetic road map of a person, a human being regarded as an individual, is created within the fertilized human ovum is an undeniable conclusion.
  • The fact that the human embryo, the developing organism from the time of fertilization until significant differentiation through this genetic map, becomes known as a fetus, a person, a human being regarded as an individual,is an undeniable conclusion.  
  • The fact that the human fetus, a person, a human being regarded as an individual, to birth, is alive and cognizant of its environment is an undeniable conclusion.

Nowhere is the denial of these undeniable conclusions more evident than with the Alaska House where these nine Republican legislators not only ignore their own Republican Party platform and arrogantly and defiantly deny the proof which science has promulgated. The arrogance and defiance of this is morally wrong.

Will we as Alaskans willingly allow this to go unchallenged?  Will we as Alaskans allow these Alaska House representatives to continue the disaster of our lifetimes known as abortion?  

We as Republicans have primaries and elections coming up this year.  It is time that we put the unborn first in front of all these nine Alaska House representatives and adopt House Bill 178.

Michael Tavoliero is the chairman of House District 12-14 of the Alaska Republican Party.

Declared: U.S. health emergency declared, includes quarantines

Suzanne Downing
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1
Declared: U.S. health emergency declared, includes quarantines

With travel limitations and quarantines, the United States is implementing temporary measures to proactively and aggressively prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading in the country, the White House said.

Any US citizen returning from Wuhan or who has been in Wuhan, or the Hubei province in China during the past 14 days will be under 14 days of mandatory quarantine. The quarantine will be at an appropriate quarantine facility, not in their homes. Department of Homeland Security has not identified those facilities.

Any U.S. citizen who have been in the rest of mainland China in the previous 14 days will under go proactive health screening, and up to 14 days of monitored self-quarantine.

President Donald Trump has temporarily suspended entry of foreign nationals who post a risk of transmitting the disease, including foreign nationals who traveled in China in the last 14 days. To be clear, if they remain outside the United States past the 14-day period, they may enter the U.S. under normal conditions.

The order is effective as of 5 pm on Sunday.

The president’s task force said it’s likely that more cases will be identified in the U.S., including person to person transmission, but the risk still remains low. And the White House wants it to remain low.

More Americans are expected to enter the U.S., but as of 5 pm Sunday, incoming flights from China will be funneled through JFK, Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Honolulu, and Los Angeles International, said Secretary of Homeland Security Kenneth Thomas Cuccinelli.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates…

There is no travel ban to China, but all three carriers to China are taking down their flights to China voluntarily. The U.S. has put its highest travel alert on China, a “do not travel.”

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, there has been a significant decrease of passengers going between the U.S. and China. The number of U.S. citizens has been rising, however, in the past week, as Americans return home.

Watch the entire press briefing from the White House coronavirus task force, which starts at the 38 minute mark in this YouTube video:

Breaking: Murkowski says no on witnesses, polarization

Suzanne Downing
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20
Breaking: Murkowski says no on witnesses, polarization

Murkowski’s Statement on Senate Impeachment Process Vote

Washington, DC –U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today released the following statement on the Senate vote regarding additional evidence for the court of impeachment: 

“I worked for a fair, honest, and transparent process, modeled after the Clinton trial, to provide ample time for both sides to present their cases, ask thoughtful questions, and determine whether we need more. 

“The House chose to send articles of impeachment that are rushed and flawed. I carefully considered the need for additional witnesses and documents, to cure the shortcomings of their process, but ultimately decided that I will vote against considering motions to subpoena. 

“Given the partisan nature of this impeachment from the very beginning and throughout, I have come to the conclusion that there will be no fair trial in the Senate. I don’t believe the continuation of this process will change anything. It is sad for me to admit that as an institution the Congress has failed.  

“It has also become clear some of my colleagues intend to further politicize this process, and drag the Supreme Court into the fray, while attacking the Chief Justice. I will not stand for or support that effort. We have already degraded this institution for partisan political benefit, and I will not enable those who wish to pull down another. 

“We are sadly at a low point of division in this country.”

11th hour ads miss mark on Sen. Lisa, as Sen. Alexander says ‘no’ to calling witnesses

Suzanne Downing
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15
11th hour ads miss mark on Sen. Lisa, as Sen. Alexander says ‘no’ to calling witnesses

The progressives were pulling out all the stops on Thursday to have their like-minded Alaskans call the offices of Sen. Lisa Murkowski to demand that she vote in favor of bringing witnesses in the impeachment trial of the president.

That “witness” vote will likely happen on Friday, which is why the pressure built all of a sudden on Murkowski, as well as other Senate Republicans considered moderates, such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.

The pressure was deflated when Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee announced on Thursday night that he is a “no” vote on the motion to bring in additional witnesses and further documents for the trial of the president. Without him, the Senate does not have the four votes to bring witnesses, which puts the chamber on track to possibly acquit President Trump by Friday or Saturday. Suddenly, the pressure was off Murkowski.

“There is no need for more evidence to conclude that the president withheld United States aid, at least in part, to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens; the House managers have proved this with what they call a ‘mountain of overwhelming evidence.’ There is no need to consider further the frivolous second article of impeachment that would remove the president for asserting his constitutional prerogative to protect confidential conversations with his close advisers,’ wrote Sen. Alexander, former governor, former U.S. Secretary of Education, and now senator.

The calls to Murkowski’s office will likely dry up over night. And in any case, most of the calls she has received to date have been from activists outside the state, not her own constituents, Must Read Alaska has learned.

But as much pressure as they were applying, the total intensity is far less than felt by Senate offices during the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court or even Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education.

Insiders say this round of activist pressure has been relatively tame. During the Kavanaugh hearings, women were swarming the offices and activists were chanting, wailing, and getting arrested for their occupation.

The ads aimed at Murkowski this week caught the eye of political analysts on Thursday.

The one above is sponsored by Tom Steyer, a candidate for president, although you’d have to know where to dig to find that information.

Steyer’s “NeedtoImpeach” ad on Facebook is a continuation of a campaign the billionaire started in October of 2017, a cause for which he has spent more than $2 million to promote; it is separate from his campaign for president.

Murkowski had indicated she was interested to hear what witnesses might have to say, and because she signaled her curiosity, the pressure campaign started up again.

The DefendAmericanDemocracy.org ad campaign above is funded by a consortium of left-wing groups that it has spent $132,000 on Facebook ads on impeachment since January of 2019, when it started hammering on the Russia collusion theory. That theory is now ancient history and debunked by nearly everyone, but the group has moved to new charges and new theories.

The Defend American Democracy Facebook ad library can be studied at this link.

Sen. Susan Collins issued a statement saying she will be a vote in support of more witnesses and documents. She is in a tough reelection campaign with Democrats on the attack in her state.

“I believe hearing from certain witnesses would give each side the opportunity to more fully and fairly make their case, resolve any ambiguities, and provide additional clarity. Therefore, I will vote in support of the motion to allow witnesses and documents to be subpoenaed,” Collins wrote.

Two Republican senators remain to announce — Murkowski and Mitt Romney of Utah, and neither have said what they will do on Friday. Romney has been viewed as a yes vote, but Murkowski said Thursday night that she would need to review her notes and reflect on what she has heard.

Senator Sullivan: Shouldn’t the House be the one accused of engaging in cover-up?

Suzanne Downing
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21
Senator Sullivan: Shouldn’t the House be the one accused of engaging in cover-up?

Sen. Dan Sullivan threw a pointed rhetorical dart at Impeachment Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler during the impeachment trial today, asking why the Senate should not base its decision based on the same evidence the House based its impeachment decision on.

The inference is that if the Senate is covering up by not including witnesses, then the House did as well:

“Earlier today, I posed this question during the impeachment proceedings in the Senate: Given that the Senate is now considering the very evidentiary record assembled and voted on by the House, which Chairman Nadler has repeatedly claimed constitutes overwhelming evidence for impeachment, how can the Senate be accused of engaging in, what Mr. Nadler described as, “a cover-up,” if the Senate makes its decision based on the exact same evidentiary record the House did?”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for president, also had a question today, implying that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and the Constitution itself is at stake:

“At time when many have lost faith in government, does the fact that the Chief Justice is presiding over an impeachment trial in which GOP senators refuse witnesses or evidence contribute to the loss of legitimacy of the Chief Justice, SCOTUS, & Constitution?” Warren asked.

An audible gasp came from the Senate floor, as Republican senators expressed their disapproval.

WHO declares coronavirus a global health emergency

Suzanne Downing
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3
WHO declares coronavirus a global health emergency

The novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China is now a global health emergency, says the World Health Organization.

A Public Health Emergency of International Concern is described by WHO as “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response.”

The Wuhan virus has spread to 23 countries, and has taken 213 lives in the weeks since the outbreak started in Wuhan, a city the size of London in the middle of China. There have been 9,171 confirmed cases, as of Jan. 30, 2020.

“The main reason is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,” said Tedros Adhanom, Director General of WHO. “Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to other countries with weaker health systems, which are ill prepared to deal with it.”

Six cases of the virus have been identified in the U.S. The most recent was of a family member in Chicago who was caring for a coronavirus patient who had returned from a trip to Wuhan during the initial outbreak.

There have been five previous public health emergencies of international concern declared by WHO:

  • 2009 H1N1
  • 2014 polio
  • 2014 Ebola in West Africa
  • 2016 Zika
  • 2019 Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

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