The Alaska Supreme Court took little time in deciding to deny an appeal from Fairbanks House District 1 candidate Kathryn Dodge, rejecting her arguments and allowing the one-vote victory of Rep. Bart LeBon stand.
“We have referred the matter to a special master for hearing and reviewed the record of the recount and the arguments of the parties. Based on this review, we affirm the Director’s decision. A full opinion will follow,” wrote the court, referring to the former director of the Division of Elections, Josie Bahnke.
The court on Friday morning heard both lawyers from LeBon and Dodge argue their cases for why they should be declared the winner. The decision came not long after noon.
LeBon was welcomed into the Republican caucus, which now stands at 20, since Republican Gary Knopp of Kenai has decided — for now at least — to remain outside of either the Democrats or Republican-led caucus. The Democrats have 19 in their caucus, including two Republicans.
“Alaska’s Courts should be commended for their attention to detail in this race,” said House Speaker-Elect Rep. Dave Talerico. “The first step in repairing Alaskans’ trust in their government is to ensure that our elections carry the highest level of integrity – down to the very last vote.”
“Alaska’s fiscal future could not be placed in more capable hands,” said Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole. “He [LeBon] brings a wealth of financial and educational knowledge at a time when it is so desperately needed, and we’re delighted to have his wisdom and leadership as we work to reduce the deficit.”
LeBon won by one vote after a recount that occurred on Nov. 30 in Juneau. Dodge and her lawyers challenged that result by focusing on a handful of ballots they determined should or should not have been counted. LeBon countered by challenging other ballots that would have benefited his outcome had they been decided on differently by the Division of Elections.
From the land of dumb ideas come a really dumb idea.
Frothing House Democrats stung by 2016’s presidential defeat and yearning to turn this nation into a pure democracy – something loathed and feared by the country’s Founders – have introduced legislation to kill off the Electoral College.
Nancy Pelosi had hardly stumbled through her speaker acceptance speech when Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., jumped up to offer a bill that would be a first step toward sinking this country into tyranny.
The Electoral College, ensconced in the U.S. Constitution, primarily was meant to protect the political minority’s rights and it hands states the power to elect presidents. Nowadays, it means protecting most of the nation’s states – including Alaska – from the hysterical excesses and whims of a few states with huge populations clustered in cities.
If the Electoral College were eliminated by eventual ratification of a constitutional amendment, as would be required, voters in Alaska and other states with small populations could just stay home on election day. The Founders designed the college to force presidential candidates to appeal to a wider swath of states to reach the magic 270 votes needed to win.
The National Federation of Independent Business announced that it named lobbyist and Alaska hunting guide Thor Stacey as the new director of the Alaska division of the small business alliance.
Stacey replaces Denny DeWitt, who retired recently, after serving as director for many years.
NFIB is the nonprofit trade group that fiercely defends the interests of small business owners. The group was the plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Obama Administration in opposing Obamacare, a case that was lost at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stacey said that as a hunting guide, he ran his own business and is excited to now represent the group that guards the interests of “Main Street” small business owners.
“We wanted someone who would make for a seamless transition from the superb small-business advocacy work Denny DeWitt did for us for past 12 years, and we are delighted to have found the perfect candidate and honored Thor Stacey has agreed to come on board,” said Gary Selvy, NFIB’s executive director of state governmental relations. “His experience and talents are perfectly suited to meet the challenges ahead. We wish Denny the best in his well-deserved retirement and look forward to working with Thor.”
Stacey will be joined by Stacy Jenkins, NFIB senior grassroots manager, who will be working to engage small-business owners throughout Alaska .
For the past six years, Thor Stacey has been the director of government affairs for the Alaska Professional Hunters Association and has also led legislative initiatives for Trident Seafoods, Alaska Air Carriers Association, Alaska Wild Sheep Foundation, and IPOP Mining.
A lifelong Alaskan, Stacey served in the U.S. Marine Corps under Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan. A graduate of Dimond High School in Anchorage, he attended the University of Alaska Southeast to study political science and government, and studied aviation maintenance at the University of Alaska Anchorage.
Stacey’s role for NFIB is mainly as a lobbyist to track, report on, and advocate for legislation, but he will also be a subject expert for the interests of small businesses.
A month after he was sworn in as governor in Kotzebue, Gov. Mike Dunleavy is back in the Arctic community. His traveling companions include commissioners and the president of the State Senate: Department of Public Safety Commissioner Amanda Price and Department of Health, Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Corri Feige, and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum.
Senate President Cathy Giessel and two members of Dunleavy’s senior policy group are also attending: John Moller and Ben Stevens.
Dunleavy will be hosting a community town hall meeting today in the Assembly Chambers at 11:30 am. It’s being characterized as a listening session.
Meetings with the Northwest Arctic Borough officials will include the topics of public safety and sexual assault, something Dunleavy has identified as a key focus of his Administration.
Kotzebue is where a young girl disappeared in September, only to be found days later murdered and sexually assaulted. Ten-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr had been kidnapped and killed on the evening of Sept. 6. Her assaulted body was found eight days later more than two miles from where she had been last seen, at a local playground. The event traumatized the close-knit community; 41-year-old Peter Vance Wilson has been charged with the crimes.
On Dec. 3, Dunleavy stopped in Kotzebue on his way to Noorvik, where he was to be sworn in as governor. The weather in Noovik forced his hand, however, and a ceremony was quickly organized in the high school gymnasium, with students in attendance in an ad hoc assembly, enabling him to meet the noon deadline for the swearing in. He then continued on to Noorvik for his inaugural celebration in the hometown of his wife, Rose Dunleavy.
While in Kotzebue and Noorvik in December, he promised the communities that rural Alaska would not be forgotten. Today is one way that he is making good on that promise.
Kotzebue is an important hometown for the governor, as he taught school and was superintendent of schools there in the 1990 and early 2000s.
Senate President Giessel was a school nurse for the North Slope Borough school district for many years and as a child spent a lot of time in the region with her father, who was a pilot for Wien Air.
The trip includes a stopover at nearby Red Dog Mine. On Thursday, Sen. Giessel shared a study with an audience at the Resource Development Council that shows that the Northwest Arctic Borough has led the nation in the greatest increase of life expectancy, a remarkable occurrence that parallels commercial development of oil, gas and mining in the region.
HOUSE SPEAKER HAS THIN MAJORITY THAT IS FARTHER LEFT
Alaska Congressman Don Young swore in the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on Thursday.
This is Pelosi’s second time as Speaker in her long career, and the duty to swear her in fell to a congressional warhorse who has served even longer than her. Pelosi was first elected in 1987, and Young has served since 1973. The role of swearing in the Speaker falls to the longest-serving member of Congress, known as the Dean of the House.
Young made quick work of the ceremony, which lasted just under one minute.
The 78-year-old lawmaker from San Francisco had the support of 220 Democrats who voted for her leadership. Fifteen Democrats, however, did not support her leading their caucus, voting “present” rather than in the affirmative. She needed 216 votes to win, and the defections were unusually high for a Speaker, leaving Pelosi with a thin four-vote margin of support and a caucus that is moving farther to the left.
Pelosi and Young are on opposite sides of the political aisle, but both have been in office for decades and have respect for each other and the institution. They both are fierce advocates for their positions but have been able to put personal politics aside to get the job done.
Pelosi came to Young when he was chair of House Resources Committee to ask for his help in getting the Presidio U.S. Army fort converted to a national park, which he agreed to champion for her in his committee. When Young became Dean of the House, Pelosi expressed her thanks for that effort during her floor speech recognizing his new role.
“Despite our differences, it is clear that Don cares deeply about our nation. Don serves because, in his words, he’s ‘enthusiastic about meeting people and trying to solve their problems.’ As a former teacher, he’s an advocate for quality education for all. As a former U.S. Army tank operator, he believes in ensuring that service members, families and veterans have the care they have earned. And in honor of his late, beloved wife Lu Young, he’s been a champion for the Native children of Alaska,” she said last year.
Ten of the new Democrat freshmen and five others defected from supporting Pelosi, who was sworn in along with all other Congress members on the 13th day of the federal government shutdown.
But among Pelosi’s caucus are members of a far-left faction of the House, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, both of whom are members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and who support expanding Medicare and free public college for all.
Tlaib, the the first Palestinian-American congresswoman, told a cheering crowd that “we’re going to go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherfucker,” referring crudely to President Donald Trump. You can see her remarks here:
But Pelosi told the media yesterday that she isn’t interested in impeachment. As for indictment, she said it was “open to discussion,” and that she disagrees with the Justice Department opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, although she did not specify which act by Trump was indictable.
She said on Thursday that the Democrats’ caucus would reject any funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’re not doing a wall. Does anybody have any doubt? We’re not doing a wall,” she said.
Pelosi has already had to acquiesce to the far-left freshmen of Congress, who have been taking their cues from left-leaning lawmakers like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has announced she is running for president.
Even the shutdown of the federal government may not have been resolved because Pelosi was not able to make a deal with President Trump before the vote on her speakership, or it may have led to some of her supporters jumping ship.
Her predecessor, former Congressman Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, also was hobbled when he was Speaker by the disparate political views in the Republican Party, especially the harder-right conservatives and Freedom Caucus members that influenced the House Republican Caucus starting in 2014.
Ryan won his speakership with 236 votes over Pelosi’s 184 votes in October of 2015. Pelosi’s current four-vote margin of victory leaves her with a more tenuous position than Ryan had, or that former Speaker John Boehner had before him.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy sent a 15-page request to President Donald Trump on Thursday, detailing the need for additional federal dollars and asking for a major disaster declaration under the federal Stafford Act after the Nov. 30 earthquake in Southcentral Alaska.
The dollars requested reach nearly $100 million already, but are expected to grow. Some earthquake damage may not be known until the ground thaws and snow melts this spring.
Dunleavy noted that more than 300 homes are uninhabitable due to damage from the 7.0 earthquake, and some schools will remain closed through the school year, awaiting repairs, many of which cannot be done in the winter.
Repairs to roads, bridges and public buildings were extensive and some were temporary repairs that will need to be redone in the summer months.
“My team has been working diligently – with our federal, state and local partners – over the past four weeks to assess damage, rebuild infrastructure and get Alaska back up and running,” Dunleavy said. “The November 30th earthquake caused significant damage – shuttered schools, destroyed homes, displaced hundreds of Alaskans – and we have determined that effective recovery efforts are beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments. In an effort to ensure Alaskans have every opportunity to recover, today we have formally requested a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration under the federal Stafford Act, which opens the door to an assortment of federal assistance programs to get Alaska back up on its feet faster.”
A presidential emergency declaration was made immediately after the earthquake, but Dunleavy’s request put the event in the “major disaster” category, which brings more federal relief.
The letter details actions taken by the State of Alaska subsequent to the disaster, an account that chronicles both the event and inventories of damage in the state’s most populated regions. It follows a format used by governors across the country when requesting such a disaster declaration.
In August of 2018, California Gov. Jerry Brown also sent a 15-page letter to Trumpasking that Shasta County be designated a major disaster after the Carr Fire and associated fire systems ravaged Northern California, and the Golden State received an affirmative answer from the Trump Administration the following day. The damage from the 2018 California fire season reached into the billions of dollars.
(Alaska will likely also receive a swift answer from the Trump Administration. This story will be updated.)
In one of the most memorable memes of 2018, President Trump was mocked for suggesting that the horrific California wildfires could have been prevented if Californians had only spent more time raking the forest floor free of leaves.
Trump supporters insisted this just referred to forest management practices in general. Trump detractors predictably saw this as ignoring the effects of climate change.
Depending on your view both were right.
Still, this was a good example of humor being used to illustrate a point.
Win Gruening
But, often, criticism is not so lighthearted.
In today’s world of political correctness and gotcha moments, every word, gesture, and facial expression of political leaders, celebrities, pundits, and newsmakers are parsed endlessly and mercilessly on social media and talk shows.
The toxic rhetoric then escalates to a fever pitch with neither side backing down.
Usually, there is an allegation that what was really meant was an expression of racism, misogyny, or hatred for someone who thinks differently. And therefore, we must be offended.
Being considerate about how we speak and act around others is good.
But being afraid to speak your mind is not.
Bridging our differences depends on our willingness to discuss them openly, not hide them. It also would be helped by using more humor and less nastiness.
It’s entirely possible what someone perceives as an offensive (though possibly insensitive) remark is not meant to demean. But the temptation to take offense and assume some ulterior motive is very powerful.
It becomes easier to play the victim card than try to understand another’s view-point.
Wouldn’t it be better to accept an apology and move on?
A great example of this was the recent Saturday Night Live skit ridiculing Navy Seal Dan Crenshaw for wearing an eye-patch – a result of combat injuries he received during his third deployment to Afghanistan.
Crenshaw, who had just been elected a congressman from Texas, declined to ask for an apology and, instead, said, “I want us to get away from this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks.”
That alone would have qualified Crenshaw as an anomaly in political circles, but he took it one step further. Crenshaw agreed to appear on SNL in a humorous skit accepting an apology from host Pete Davidson and shaking hands afterward. The YouTube video of that skit now has over 8 million views and counting.
It was a very powerful message for our nation.
If we all could turn over one new leaf and make good on a New Year’s resolution this coming year, my hope would be that we would tone down the rhetoric that seems to dominate our political landscape today.
And we would not be looking to be offended at every turn.
As Cal Thomas, noted syndicated newspaper columnist, has opined, “There are plenty of people who would love to destroy us. We shouldn’t help them by destroying each other.”
Watching the current Congressional battles over illegal immigration is a case in point.
In the politically-charged environment of Washington, D. C., one party assumes the other is cruel, uncaring, or even racist. The other party assumes the other doesn’t recognize the impacts and costs of allowing unfettered immigration to go unchecked. Both seem intent on making sure the other doesn’t get credit for any kind of solution.
So, we remain stuck.
Alaskans seem to have their own thorny issues, as well. From the PFD to resource development, there are many disagreements about how we should move forward.
We have a new governor and administration along with new legislative leadership that deserve an opportunity to govern.
Wild assumptions and baseless claims made in an attempt to sabotage them before they even begin work are not productive.
Our next legislative session may prove me wrong, but, Alaskans, by and large, have remained civil while willing to work through solutions.
We can start by accepting the premise that there is a solution to every problem. The solution may not be what everyone wants but it will reflect a compromise that Alaska needs to move forward.
If that happens, 2019 will be a year to celebrate.
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 as a 30-plus year member of Juneau Downtown Rotary Club and has been involved in various local and statewide organizations.
371 days without a vacation is long enough. It’s time to go sledding!
Must Read Alaska will be off the grid for a couple of weeks, returning in early January. I won’t be checking my messages starting Dec. 19. Yes, it’s going to be a cold-turkey kind of deal.
I appreciate all of the readers of Must Read Alaska. I value the advice, the words of wisdom, and the friendly criticism. I even appreciate those who send me notes with the subject line of “Typo.” Thank you! You’re a great editor!
I am grateful to regular senior contributors Win Gruening and Art Chance, as well as the guest contributors and subject experts who give readers different perspectives on the issues of the day.
And thank you to all of the supporters of Must Read Alaska for making it all possible. And the tipsters!
There will be plenty of news over the holiday, and I expect there will be some mischief. For now, however, the Must Read Alaska news site will look pretty much how it looks right now, without the daily updates.
JOIN ME IN READING
I’ll be reading a book over the holidays and encourage you to read along: Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s about how to improve by 1 percent each day.
British Cycling had only won a single Olympic Medal since 1908 and had not won the Tour de France in the 110-year history of the race, when it hired Dave Brailsford as its performance director. He implemented a strategy he called, “the aggregation of marginal gains,” the idea that a tiny margin of improvement in your habits can be like compound interest in savings.
If you’re of a mind, please read along with me and go for the “37.78 percent better” by this time next year. Meanwhile…
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!
EarthJustice, a perpetual lawsuit filer based in San Francisco, found fault with the federal government’s environmental impact statement approved for the Hilcorp Liberty project.
That proposed project is an offshore Arctic oil development being built in an area that is 6 meters deep in Foggy Island Bay, six miles offshore in the Beaufort Sea.
While no final investment decision has been made, Hilcorp proposes to build a gravel island to host a drilling operation. There are 18 of these drilling islands in Alaska, and this one has an expected production lifespan of up to 20 years.
Hilcorp is the lead company in Liberty, the largest undeveloped, light-oil reservoir on the North Slope, with an estimated 80-150 million barrels of recoverable oil. The peak production is expected to be between 60,000 and 70,000 barrels per day, within two years of initial production.
The field has a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years, and first oil is expected in 2023. Oil from Liberty would be piped into the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, where it would be subject to State royalties and taxes.
The fault with the project? It ignores climate change, say the lawyers of EarthJustice, which was formerly called the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
Ignoring climate change is not only not provable, it’s not illegal in the United States. It’s like saying that the environmental lawsuit group ignores its lawsuits’ damage to Alaskans, their jobs, families, and the state’s economy. Again, not provable and not illegal. Winning such an argument in court would, as a result, make ignoring climate change subject to legal sanction.
EarthJustice says the approval of Liberty’s environmental impact statement also violates federal laws because, in essence, the government’s logic for approving the EIS was flawed.
The lawyers assert that the project was rubber stamped by the federal government.
But was it rubber stamped?
Liberty began in 1982 with Shell Oil, and has a 36-year history of documentation attached to it. Hilcorp acquired the project from BP in 2014, after BP decided to put it on the back burner, in spite of the 150 million million barrels that could be recovered.
Hilcorp now has a 50 percent stake in the project, with BP retaining 40 percent and ASRC owning 10 percent.
The record of decision on the environmental impact statement was issued in October, 2018. Construction will require many more permits, and every single one of those will draw an EarthJustice lawsuit. If Hilcorp can run the litigious gauntlet, construction could start in 2020. First oil in 2023 means a project that will have been fighting lawsuits for 41 years.
The litigants also are challenging the project because they say it will endanger “imperiled polar bears.” Beaufort Sea-based polar bears have been in decline but scientists have linked that to the presence of fewer seals in the Beaufort, not to thinning ice.
The Hilcorp drilling platform includes an underwater pipeline that the litigants say is an oil spill risk that threatens wildlife and Arctic communities.
Recently a group of children sued the State of Alaska for its energy policy, saying the State was violating their constitutional rights by putting fossil fuel production above the safety of their lives. That climate change lawsuit was dismissed by a Superior Court judge and has been appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court. Our Children’s Trust is a national organization that is planning to sue governments over climate change in all 50 states.
Suing over climate change is a relatively new, but growing legal specialty that is based on speculation. Is oil production good for children or bad for them?
The Liberty lawsuit and the children’s lawsuit are weakly constructed and will likely lose. But the environmental justice industry hopes one of these lawsuits, or a part of a lawsuit eventually sticks and becomes case law upon which more lawsuits can be filed and won.
If the goal is to shut down the oil industry, such an outcome would also shut down Alaska’s natural gas potential, the entire Alaska economy, as well as the economy that is booming across the West due to new oil production technologies. The United States this year surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia and is now the world’s largest crude oil producer. Climate change lawsuits can only be successful if oil is somehow classified as an illegal substance that must be kept in the ground.
Must Read Alaska is going on vacation for two weeks and will return in early January. Thank you for reading and sharing this news site!
