Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel has filed with the Federal Election Commission and formed an exploratory committee for a run for president.
The 88-year-old would be the oldest candidate in an increasingly crowded field of Democrats; he’s 11 years older than Sen. Bernie Sanders and will turn 89 in May.
Gravel was in the Alaska House of Representatives when he ran for Senate, beating Sen. Earnest Gruening. He served from 1969 to 1981.
While in office, Gravel was the senator who read the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971, in the middle of a Supreme Court case involving the New York Times reporting on the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers were a secret Department of Defense study of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam between 1945 to 1967, but by reading them into the record, they immediately became public documents.
Gravel, a Democrat, lost to Clark Gruening in the 1980 primary; Gruening lost to Republican Frank Murkowski. Gravel ran for president in 2008, and also served as CEO of a cannabis company, KUSH, which made a cannabis lozenge known as “Kubby,” (named after a Libertarian who helped draft California Proposition 215 to legalize medical marijuana).
Gravel has launched the simplest of campaign web sites that indicates he wants to have a voice in the 2020 race, so he can say “what establishment candidates won’t” say.
He also has a Twitter handle,where he has plenty of jokes and jabs at fellow Democrat contenders, calling them out by name. A click on the Twitter button on his website brings up a suggested Tweet: “Holy crap Mike Gravel is running https://mikegravel.org #2020election”.
During his 2008 campaign for president, Gravel was something of a media sensation with his sometimes mystifying television ads, such as this one:
Gravel says he hopes to get enough donations in to qualify for the presidential debates, as he did in 2008, and to push the dialogue “leftward.”
At his web site, he describes his progressive intentions further:
“Sen. Gravel is committed to ending America’s imperial policies (especially in Venezuela and Iran), rescheduling cannabis, fundamentally reforming our politics through direct democracy, abolishing mass surveillance on American citizens, prioritizing climate change, dismantling America’s carceral [prison] state, and building a foreign policy free of undue influence by Israel and Saudi Arabia.”
“If he were to run, he would aim not to win, but instead to qualify for the 2020 Democratic debates in order to send a message that no other candidate, not even Bernie Sanders or Tulsi Gabbard, is willing to issue. Our goal is to push the rest of the Democratic field toward policies, especially on political reform, climate change, and foreign policy, that, for the first time in decades, will truly challenge the American plutocracy and military-industrial complex.”
NARY A KOCH BROTHER IN SIGHT AT FIRST COMMUNITY MEETING
The mainstream media doesn’t like Gov. Michael Dunleavy partnering with Americans for Prosperity in a series of community budget discussions across the state.
Critics and reporters pounced. One commenter on MustReadAlaska.comcompared the meetings to a gathering of Hitler’s Brown Shirts (a violent paramilitary group attached to the Nazi Party).
Why? Because the Koch Brothers, who fund AFP, are the meeting sponsors.
Here’s how the Fairbanks NewsMiner reported it:
However, Dunleavy began his Koch-free “budget roadshow” bright and early this Wednesday at a pro-business group that regularly meets in Juneau.
The media wasn’t invited, (but will be to the AFP-sponsored discussions).
The place was packed and attendees — about 35 of them — asked thoughtful and informed questions as Dunleavy explained that he ran for governor to fix the problem that was created over multiple years of spending more than Alaska was taking in in revenue. He said now is the time to fix it. And the only way he can see to fix it is to rip the bandaid off now and put in place some constitutional amendments to prevent it from getting out of control again.
Numerous other meetings are being put on the governor’s calendar with civic groups, such as chambers of commerce, the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, Associated General Contractors, and more. They, too, will control the venues and meeting rules, like AFP.
In short, AFP is just one of many sponsors of these discussions, but the one most eager to get credit and wanting to publicize it broadly, and it’s the one the Governor’s Office announced — without mentioning AFP.
AFP and the Governor’s Office should have disclosed all of the details of the AFP meetings up front, rather than let the media sink its teeth into the story. If a Democrat governor had his public meetings organized and sponsored by MoveOn, Must Read Alaska would have pointed it out, especially if the meetings had similar strict sign-up requirements.
With so many meetings planned, this roll-out could have been better, although for some Alaskans, anything related to the Koch Brothers is akin to the Brown Shirts.
PLAYING IN JUNEAU NOW, ANCHORAGE IN MAY, AND IS A ‘SURE BET’
By KEN KOELSCH GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
“Guys and Dolls” is currently playing at Perseverance Theatre in Douglas (for non-Juneauites, this is over the bridge from Juneau). Much of the script by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows revolves around gambling. If you are looking for professional entertainment with an exceptional cast, then “Guys and Dolls” is a sure bet.
In another life, while I was teaching English, history and American government at Juneau-Douglas High School, I produced and directed the JDHS Spring Musical. Working in theater provided the opportunity to engage as many students as I could corral into stepping outside of their comfort zones (and my own) to participate in the annual event.
My first production in 1971 was “The Sound of Music” and my last in 1996 was “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.” (In this age of full disclosure, I should note that Must Read Alaska’s, Suzanne Downing, appeared as Maria in “The Sound of Music.” Obviously, she did an outstanding job because there has been a spring musical ever since.)
Twenty-five years ago, I chose the 1950 Broadway musical “Guys and Dolls” for the production. Eighty-five high school students were cast as dancers, gangsters, gamblers and Salvation Army band members.
That year, Kelly Richards (current Eagle River State Rep. Kelly Merrick) played a lead role as Adelaide.
I should also come clean and confess that crapshooters in the production carried their dedication to the musical beyond all expectations and actually learned to shoot craps. I discovered that one lunch hour in a back hall at the school. That they were joined by some members of the Hot Box girls and the Mission Band was doubly troubling. Like the good law enforcement officer I was about to become, I broke it up and threatened severe consequences if it happened off-stage again.
Fearing I was responsible for fostering a bad habit, I sought out Juneau’s Catholic Bishop Michael Kenny for counsel. Bishop Kenny always attended the spring musical, sat in the front row, laughed and clapped in the right places, and was the first to his feet to lead a standing ovation. Bishop Kenny’s suggested penance was that perhaps we should again do “Sound of Music” the next year to balance things out.
Over the last 40 years, I have seen many Perseverance Theatre productions. “Guys and Dolls” did not disappoint. The production is, in fact, fantastic. Director Shona Osterhout (wisely) didn’t mess with the book, music, or lyrics. “Guys and Dolls” doesn’t need to be modernized. My only gentle criticism is that if there is a “marker” for 12 sinners, there should be 12 sinners in the Mission!
Perseverance’s 15 actors are well cast, multi-talented and create even, solid characters. This is one of the most athletic group of actors I have seen outside of the gym. The choreography is sharp and quick-paced and demonstrates the required athleticism and rhythm. Between the choreography and the stair-stepping at mach speed, they might want to have an EMT on call just in case.
The four main characters: Sarah Brown (Allison Holtkamp) Nathan Detroit (James Sullivan), Miss Adelaide (Ericka Lee), and Sky Masterson (Enrique Bravo) stand and deliver stellar performances. Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Michael Gamble)’s “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat” is a personal favorite along with General Cartwright (Stacy Katasse) cutting loose in the song, as is Arvide (Derrick Grimes)’s “More I Cannot Wish You.”
You’ll recognize “Guys and Dolls” songs like “A Bushel and a Peck,” “Luck be a Lady Tonight” and “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.’
I give you my marker, you will leave the theater with one of the songs stuck in your head.
Also in the “A” category are the five musicians who not only sound like a 20-piece orchestra but interact hilariously with the actors on stage. I especially enjoyed the choreographed standing up in “Sit Down You’re Rockin’ the Boat.” I’m still not sure how Nicely-Nicely Johnson gets down to the sewer through the main stage. The levels on the set worked well and adding in the audience area at times was genius. The lighting and the costuming were top notch as were the scene changes.
Criticism… I got nothin’.
“Guys and Dolls’ will play in Douglas at Perseverance Theatre until April 13 and then go to Anchorage where it runs from May 3-12. “Guys and Dolls” is an American classic and Perseverance pulls it all together — music, lights, sets, costumes, choreography, dancing, acting, and singing.
Put it on your calendar – miss it and you’re outta luck.
Ken Koelsch is the former mayor of Juneau, and was a teacher at Juneau-Douglas High School for decades. He also served on the Juneau Assembly and was Port Director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He and his wife Marian live in Juneau.
Petroleum engineer Jessie Chmielowski has been appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission by Gov. Michael Dunleavy.
She is a professionally licensed engineer with 19 years of experience in Alaska and a long list of regulatory oversight work in her background.
Jessie Chmielowski
Chmielowski replaced Cathy Foerster, who retired this month. Foerster’s was a planned retirement after 14 years on the commission; she originally planned to retire in February but stayed on extra weeks at the request of the governor, who is in the process of replacing another former AOGCC commissioner, Hollis French.
Most recently, Chmielowski was the senior petroleum engineer for the Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska office, where she oversaw federal onshore oil and gas activities in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula.
The commission was created as a quasi-judicial agency by statute to ensure that the state’s oil and gas is not wasted. This is one of three paid seats on the commission and it’s assigned to a petroleum engineer. The others are assigned to a geologist and a member of the public.
The public seat is vacant since Dunleavy released French for cause: He wasn’t showing up at work on a regular basis.
In the 1960s and ’70s, bookstores had shelves of books about how to study for and pass various qualification exams for government jobs and even some private sector jobs.
Last year’s homecoming queen couldn’t (usually) just use her looks and name to get a job; she had to prove she could type 50 words per minute. Most jobs had some sort of qualifying criteria and testing to make sure the candidate could meet that criteria. That all ended in the early 1970s.
In 1971 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Griggs v. Duke Power Company. It was a South Carolina case, and racial discrimination in employment was simply a fact in the South. It was all but impossible for a black person, especially a black man, to get any but the most menial job.
Art Chance
As late as the early 1980s, when I last spent any time there, if you hired a white carpenter he’d tell you his rate was, say, $20 an hour. That $20 included his black laborer who did all the lifting, handing, and holding; nobody asked what the laborer was getting paid.
Willie Griggs sued Duke Power Company, a major electric utility, alleging that its job qualification requirements did not have “business utility” in terms of evaluating the applicant’s skills and that they had a disparate impact on black applicants.
The Supreme Court found for Mr. Griggs, setting a standard of business utility for qualifications for hiring or promotion, in itself a reasonable standard and an appropriate reaction to discriminatory hiring and promotion.
If the high school diploma or the college degree isn’t directly related to the applicant’s ability to perform the work, it is an artificial and potentially discriminatory barrier to employment or promotion. In the abstract, Griggs is a pretty good decision though the Supreme Court has pulled away from the disparate impact line, usually requiring a demonstration of an actual intent to discriminate.
But, court decisions often have unintended consequences. Griggs vs. Duke launched a tsunami of discrimination suits against skills tests and minimum job qualifications in the 1970s, many of them successful and accompanied with large judgments. American business and government rapidly abandoned skills testing because it was simply too expensive to defend the business utility of the test.
Business and government responded by setting as long a probationary period as they dared on new hires and promotions and by setting a minimum qualification of “a degree” for many jobs. Especially in government, a degree is often pretty much useless for anything other than maybe making you a good conversationalist. Even the degrees required for professional certifications are as likely to be an artificial barrier as a legitimate requirement to do the job.
Fast forward 40 years: A degree is worth about 10 years in most government job classifications. If you go to work in government right out of high school or with a GED, you start at the very bottom and if you’re successful it takes you about 10 years to get to the top of the technical level or bottom of the supervisory classes in your classification. If you have a degree in 14th Century French Lesbian Poetry, you start at the top of the technical or bottom of the supervisory classes in your classification.
The colleges figured out this game very quickly and figured out a way to provide “a degree” to people who shouldn’t even be on the grounds crew at a college, and they charged them a lot for the privilege. Today the nation has about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, most of it from people with a useless degree and who can’t get a job above waiting tables. If you were wondering why so many young people think they’re Socialists, it’s because they’re so poor. today’s GI Bill is “good in-laws.”
To bring this to Alaska and contemporary issues here, the State of Alaska caught the “need a degree” disease too. Were I a lawyer, I’d go recruit some young men with high school diplomas who were denied a job or promotion with the State and sue the State for the “a degree” minimum qualifications it has on so many jobs for which “a degree” has no relevance. A degree from the most prestigious university would not teach you a thing about using the State of Alaska’s proprietary financial management, budgeting, and personnel administration systems; you only learn that by doing it.
Gov. Michael Dunleavy should lead other Republican governors in having his director of Personnel review the class specifications of every job in State government. The last time I looked there were about 1,000 of them. He should eliminate the “a degree” minimum qualification for every job for which the degree wasn’t required for a professional certification.
While on the topic, if the University of Alaska eliminated those “Studies” and “Communications” degrees, the university system would become a heck of a lot smaller, and quickly.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon.
An appointee from Ketchikan has withdrawn his name from a volunteer position on the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct .
Trevor Shaw had been appointed to serve on the volunteer commission by Gov. Michael Dunleavy. However, Democrats savaged his reputation and created enough damage that he chose to resign rather than go through the rest of the confirmation process. He and his wife are expecting a child within a few weeks.
“A myriad of inaccuracies, misconceptions, and outright falsehoods regarding my public service have cast a shadow over my confirmation that is damaging to the mission of the Commission on Judicial Conduct,” Shaw wrote. “I will continue to endeavor for the truth of the situation to be revealed, as opposed to the alternative facts that are being predominately portrayed in a concerted effort to deceive the public about my nomination,” he wrote in a letter to the governor.
Shaw was the president of the Ketchikan School Board when a high school teacher in Ketchikan was accused, and later arrested, for sexual misconduct.
At the time, Shaw was the youngest school board president in Alaska history, and some in Ketchikan criticized his leadership during the investigative process of the teacher. In a small town, everyone knows everyone, and the teacher was a family friend who had officiated at his wedding.
Shaw eventually resigned from the school board in 2018, rather than face a recall that was under way.
The scandal came at the same time Shaw was trying to negotiate union contracts in public session, rather than behind closed doors. The teacher’s union and local Democrats used the scandal to gin up opposition to Shaw, who was also the district chair for the Alaska Republican Party.
Today Gov. Dunleavy accepted Shaw’s withdrawal and appointed Fairbanks resident Hank Bartos to serve on the commission. Bartos is a retired Air Force pilot. A Realtor since 1987, he has a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina and master’s degree from Boston University.
Bartos, the current nominee, served on the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, the Economic Development Commission Board of directors, as an Alaska board member to National Association of Counties, Alaska Municipal League Board of Directors, United Way Board of Directors, Big Brothers Big Sisters board member, and numerous other committees around Fairbanks.
TRIBAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE DRESSES DOWN COMMISSIONER PRICE
At the invitation of the newly created House Special Committee on Tribal Affairs, Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price was giving data to the committee about rural public safety in Western Alaska. Lots of data.
But from the outset, the hostile reception she received from committee Chairwoman Rep. Tiffany Zulkosky and House Speaker Bryce Edgmon came through loud and clear.
Price is somewhat of a data machine. She delivers numbers like an high-powered rifle — fact after fact after fact. And although passionate about public safety, she is a linear presenter who is tasked with giving appropriators the information they need to make decisions.
Right now those decisions involve whether to cut back the funding for the Village Public Safety Officer program, as Gov. Dunleavy has proposed doing. Most observers feel the program is challenged, if not broken.
DPS Commissioner Amanda Price
Price didn’t know she was walking into a trap, one apparently set by Zulkosky and Edgmon, the latter of whom has let it be known throughout the Capitol that he doesn’t like this particular Public Safety commissioner. The two were loaded for bear.
Price began her presentation on the rural Alaska public safety components. Recruitment, hiring, retention — it’s all an historic challenge for the Village Public Safety Officer program in rural Alaska. The program works through grantees, which are tribal associations that provide the public safety services with state grants. They are not contractors, she noted, but grant recipients, a difference she felt was an important distinction.
But in spite of her skills as a presenter and her command of the facts, she was interrupted repeatedly by Zulkosky and Edgmon, who is vice chair of the committee.
Zulkosky had asked members to hold their questions until the end of the presentation. But the House Speaker couldn’t wait and she gave him a pass. Edgmon started asking Price questions that were posed in the form of accusations — why is the State of Alaska getting in the way of the VPSO program? Why does the department feel it needs to exert such control? Why can’t the tribal associations — the grantees who manage the VPSO program — have their hands untied by the bureaucracy?
Between Zulkosky and Edgmon, there were a dozen of these pointy-edged questions that seemed to come from a pent-up anger.
Why were some VPSO grant applications denied in 2017 and 2018? The two wanted her to give detailed history of what had happened before she became commissioner.
Finally, with his voice shaking, Edgmon said he had viewed the video of her in another committee, and he accused her of saying that the VPSO program is more expensive than the State Trooper program, because Price included indirect costs for the VPSO program but did not for the Trooper program.
He then accused Price of having “an indifference” to the VPSO program and wanted her to explain why she said it was more costly.
“Rep. Edgmon … Mr. Chairman … Thank you for the question. No, sir, I don’t believe I said that a VPSO is more expensive than an Alaska State Trooper. I believe that I said that they’re a bit comparable in cost…”
Edgmon interrupted again: “Well madam, if I may just jump in, you also sort of insinuated that the indirect rate was as high as 48 percent. When I watched that, you know, that sort of caught my attention because there are some entities like Northwest Arctic Borough that has an indirect of 9 percent and Bristol Bay Native Association, which has an indirect rate of 15 percent and maybe one of the grantees that actually at that 48 percent range,” he said.
“Rep. Edgmon, through the chair, thank you so much,” Price started. “Thank you for putting forward your frank statement. I find myself in an interesting position where providing data is often taken as insinuation. And just for this body and the purpose of everybody who is in the room and who is listening, I am not a person who insinuates. I make statements so never feel like you have to try read behind the lines. I’m trying to make data statements. The VPSO program is one of the arenas I am responsible for. All of the prongs of public safety are of critical importance.
“Indifference? I think certainly not,” she continued. “I think trying to infer what my attitude or perception is based on data presented is just one of the many challenges that comes with sitting at a microphone and trying to provide data. When I was…”
Edgmon interrupted again to scold her: “If I could jump in please, I would recommend that you choose your words a little bit more artfully, because that was the message that was directly left with me. And I’m somebody who’s been around this building for quite a few years. I’ve seen a number of commissioners in your department come and go. I’m not questioning your dedication and integrity, any of that. But I’m just saying, the message I was left with — me and others — was very different from what I’m hearing you’re trying to portray.”
Edgmon indeed has been around the building for many years, beginning his legislative career as an aide to Sen. George Jacko, who served from 1989-1994.
A few minutes later in the hearing, Edgmon was again dressing Price down, telling her that in her half hour presentation she had not offered one bit of a plan to correct the program. He ignored the fact that she had been interrupted a dozen times at this point. Now visibly angry, he called her presentation “rhetoric.”
“Rep. Edgmon, did you not hear me make the statement earlier that on April 25, we are working with the grantees to deliver what our plan is for the Village Public Safety Officer Program, and how to strengthen it?” Price asked.
Rep. Zulkosky had her moment to also exert her authority: “I would ask the commissioner nominee to manage tone in response to the committee.”
Zulkosky, who had not managed the meeting up until that point, but had allowed it to become a verbal shooting gallery, had finally decided someone had better watch her tone.
A small detachment of students and other supporters protested cuts to the University of Alaska budget on Monday in front of the Capitol in Juneau. The University system is facing $134 million in cuts, or 17 percent of its total budget.
On hand was a University of Alaska Southeast van that had been used to transport the students from the Auke Bay campus for the protest, shown above. About 20 people participated. One of the protesters held a sign that read “Fund Our Future.”
UAS has about 2,500 students, with a student-faculty ratio of 9-1, and a graduation rate of 26 percent.
THREE REPUBLICANS VOTE WITH THEIR FEET ON INCREASING BUDGET
On Monday morning, the House Finance subcommittee on Education started to erase, line by line, the Gov. Dunleavy education budget from discussion, and put in its place the FY 2019 budget for education, which would form the basis for the discussion and amendments for the FY 2020 budget.
But the meeting didn’t get very far before the three Republican members of the subcommittee objected to the process and eventually all three of them walked out of committee to bring attention to what they said was a committee that was changing its rules, with no transparency.
Essentially, Reps. DeLena Johnson, Josh Revak and Ben Carpenter were sending a message to Alaskans and the rest of the Legislature that it was likely that all of the Finance subcommittees were using the upside-down budgeting method that would force minority members to actually vote against the governor’s budget.
The method uses the 2019 as the base, and subcommittee members then vote on each line of Dunleavy’s budget. If the Dunleavy line fails, then the base budget moves ahead.
The three minority members were told by committee Chairman Daniel Ortiz of Ketchikan that they could raise their issues as amendments on Wednesday. Monday’s votes were to be on “action items.”
That didn’t set well with Rep. DeLena Johnson, who asked Ortiz to clarify what was actually going on and why all of these “action items” were being done outside of the amendment process, when it was clear that they were amendments.
Rep. DeLena Johnson
“The committee brought forward 34 budget amendments this morning – all of which increased government spending – and wouldn’t allow for debate on any of them,” said Johnson later. She was the one who led the objections that characterized the entire meeting, most of which was done in an undeclared at-ease, with the microphones turned off.
Johnson protested the “action item” method of amending the budget and asked Committee Chair Daniel Ortiz to clarify the process because it was clear that the budget in front of them was not the governor’s budget.
Ortiz said that he too had been confused.
Rep. Daniel Ortiz
“To be perfectly honest with you — this is all off the record — to tell you the truth, I wasn’t sure how we were going to work through this process. We were trying to get some instruction through the co-chairs of Finance as to exactly how we were going to deal with this because there was a question of — we’re starting with the FY adjusted base budget, but we still were required to address the governor’s suggested numbers in the budget,” he explained.
Ortiz had just admitted that the committee was dealing with two budgets — last year’s as a base, and the governor’s budget.
“This isn’t how the committee process is supposed to work and it is not the process that was agreed to beforehand. I’m not going to be a rubber stamp for an agenda that clearly aims to take more money out of the pockets of hardworking Alaskans without telling them,” Johnson said in a statement later.
Rep. Josh Revak was the first to vote with his feet, even as Rep. Ben Carpenter continued to argue against the predetermined outcome of the education budget.
“It has become clear after the first few weeks of the budget process that the Democrat-led House Majority intends to suppress debate with those who disagree and create a platform for those who agree with their agendas,” Revak said. “Regardless of whether you’re represented by a member of the minority or the majority, every Alaskan deserves to have a voice in this process.”
That’s true, but the House is now being run by Democrats, and they’ll produce a Democrat budget.
“As evidenced by this morning’s meeting, the House leadership is not prepared to have an honest conversation about the size, scope, or role of government,” Carpenter said in a press release. “We’re more than happy to identify compromises to find the best solutions for Alaskans, but we can’t have productive conversations if we’re deliberately hiding the fact that we have no way to pay for these 34 proposed budget increases, other than to tax the people or raid the PFD.”
Carpenter was referring to the fact that the Democrat majority is increasing the budget without saying where the money will come from.
Johnson stayed a few more minutes after Carpenter had finally given up and walked out. The exchange among the committee had mainly taken place with the microphone off, but Johnson asked that the committee be back on the record so she could state why she was leaving.
“Given the change to the way we’re doing business here today, I feel like this is a heavy-handed action by the majority, I think the minority voice is not being heard. I think my constituents and the people who elected me deserve better. And as such I will not be participating today.”
With that, she picked up her notebook and left, leaving five Democrats on the subcommittee to vote on the Education budget “action items.”
