MEANWHILE, PRO-LIFE ALASKA ISSUES ITS ENDORSEMENTS — INCLUDING RAUSCHER
Former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman on Monday wrote a letter to Pat Martin, head of Alaska Right to Life, admonishing him for Martin’s scorched earth tactics against pro-life candidates.
Leman, a well-known pro-life advocate who has championed the rights of the unborn his whole life, wrote specifically in defense of Rep. George Rauscher, who is running for his seat in District 9, which stretches from the Mat-Su Valley to Valdez and Whittier.
Rauscher lost the blessing of Martin and Alaska Right to Life, which has said he isn’t pro-life enough.
Working with Rep. David Eastman to oust Rauscher and install Pam Goode in the District 9 seat, Martin sent out mailers revoking its endorsement of Rauscher, as well as killing the endorsements he had earlier given to Rep. Cathy Tilton and Rep. DeLena Johnson, both Valley Republicans.
George Rauscher
The Alaska Right to Life group had already revoked its endorsement of Sen. Cathy Giessel, another staunch pro-life advocate. None of these legislators have done enough, Martin said.
Only David Eastman retained the endorsement of Martin’s group.
However, the Alaska Right to Life organization is no longer affiliated with the National Right to Life organization.
The new affiliate for National Right to Life, called Pro-Life Alaska, has given Rauscher and other advocates for the unborn its endorsement; the entire list is at the bottom of this story.
I am very disappointed in your message. George Rauscher is our friend in the pro-life battle. When we attack our friends, we defeat ourselves. Your baseless attack reminds me of similar criticism directed at me when I was first elected to the House nearly 30 years ago. Even though I was one of 14 members in the minority in the House, the Alaska Right to Life leader said I wasn’t doing enough. He later apologized to me–and I believe the record is clear that I was one of the most effective pro-life legislators in Alaska during the past three decades. No, we haven’t yet won the battle, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying.
If you are trying to demonstrate that you can defeat a strongly pro-life legislator who doesn’t do things exactly your way, you just might. But think hard about who the district will have as a replacement. Your strategy is flawed.
Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, under the guidance of campaign manager John-Henry Heckendorn, delivered to the Division of Elections some 5,000 signatures apiece this afternoon.
The campaigns had paid signature gatherers acquire them so the two can appear on the November ballot.
The two will not be taking part as candidates in Tuesday’s primary, although each of them could, in fact, vote. Just not for themselves.
They both live in District 33, downtown Juneau, but Walker is registered at his Anchorage home in District 21, where Republican Marilyn Stewart is unopposed in the primary, and Democrat Rep. Matt Claman, the incumbent lawmaker, is also unopposed. There’s not a lot of motivation for him to vote.
There are no Republican candidates running in District 33, but Mallott could vote for Democrats Tom Morphet, Sara Hannan or James Hart for House, for the seat being relinquished by Rep. Sam Kito.
Walker is an undeclared voter, which means he can vote either ballot, and Mallott is a Democrat.
The two needed just 3,200 signatures each from registered voters, and they had to get them into the Division of Elections no later than Tuesday, Election Day. Arriving a day early gave the two plenty of time to spare. It’s also the governor and first lady’s wedding anniversary today.
A paid signature gatherer for Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott stands outside the REI store to gather signatures so the two can appear on the ballot in November.
Heckendorn directed the two to walk into the Division of Elections on Gambell Street in Anchorage not once, but twice, so that more photos could be taken of the historic occasion.
The two had three helpers with them delivering boxes, 11 total, but the boxes may have been lightly loaded for the staging value. Both of the aging men easily carried three of them apiece through the doors of the Elections office, while the others trailed within camera range.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan paused while helping to raise a totem pole last week, and took a selfie photo. The photograph of him taking the selfie is priceless and was provided by Johnny Rice, who attended.
The pole, being raised in Klawock on Aug. 18, is known as the “Veterans Totem Pole,” and was carved by U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Native carver Jonathan Rowan. It’s now in place by the boat ramp.
Aaron Isaacs Jr. helped foster the project, which honors the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and those missing in action. The pole, which may be the first to honor veterans, was 30 years in the making, with Isaacs raising over $60,000 from multiple private donors, pancake feeds, as well as the Department of Defense.
Veterans with ties to Southeast were invited to attend and began arriving in Klawock last week to take part in the ceremonies around the raising of the pole.
(Courtesy Sen. Lisa Murkowski)
The pole depicts, among other things, a Vietnam War-era U.S. Army soldier with a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes poking out of his helmet. It also has a representation of the U.S. flag given to families at a the funeral of a veteran.
To see the pole being pulled into an upright position, watch the video here:
Jon Katchen, a well-regarded lawyer familiar with Alaska land, access, and oil and gas issues, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the U.S. District Court for Alaska. He was nominated by President Trump for a judgeship on April 12.
Katchen was a law clerk for President Donald Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, who is now retired from the Third Circuit. Katchen is not saying why he withdrew his name, but the political process for confirmation is a known deterrent for nominees.
In private practice in Anchorage at the office of Holland & Hart, Katchen has represented clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, federal District Court of Alaska, the Alaska Supreme Court, the Alaska Superior Court, the Office of Administrative Hearings, and the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
For the State of Alaska, he served as senior counsel to Alaska Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan; and special assistant to then-Attorney General Sullivan.
He earned his J.D. at the prestigious University of California Hastings College of Law, and has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Boston College. He was key to the resolution of the Point Thomson decision, one that Gov. Bill Walker fought when he was not yet governor.
HE TANGLED WITH FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE OVER USE OF FEATHERS
Archie Cavanaugh, Tlingit Raven from the G̱aanax̱teidí clan of the Xíxch’I Hít (Frog House) in Klukwan, has died, it was reported by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. He was 67.
He recruited and played jazz with the late Jim Pepper, another legendary Native American musician who made the music scene in Alaska in the 1970s with his smooth saxophone and his classic song Witchi Tai To.
Cavanaugh was also an artist in the Tlingit tradition.
In 2012, federal agents fined Cavanaugh $2,000 for including raven and flicker (woodpecker) feathers on a hat and headdress for sale.
The agents confiscated the feathers, as well as a rifle that Cavanaugh had inherited from his father, which he used for hunting game. Flicker and ravens are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty and Lacey Act, which ban the sale of some bird parts.
Sealaska Heritage Institute has been working with the Alaska delegation in D.C. to amend the federal laws and include protections for Native Artists who have historically worked with bird feathers. Congressman Don Young introduced a bill that was passed by the House Natural Resources Committee in April to amend the Fish and Wildlife laws. The institute hopes to restore the feathers seized by federal agents to the headdress crafted by Cavanaugh.
On Cavanaugh’s father’s side, he was a Was’ineidí yádi (child of the Was’ineidí clan). He had three Tlingit names: Shaas Táak, given to him by his late great uncle, Harold Donnelly of Sitka, and Shkein and Ldaagoohaa, adopted names given to him by the Ḵaach.ádi clan in Kake. He was born in Wrangell and raised in Kake.
Sitka Sentinel Publisher Thad Poulson jokes with Congressman Don Young in the offices of the newspaper.
UPDATE: CORRECTION ISSUED BY NEWSPAPER
Editor’s note: The Monday edition of the Daily Sitka Sentinel included a correction of the information that had been given to readers in the Friday edition of the newspaper. The original story is below:
A DIRECTIVE TO READERS THAT HURTS REPUBLICANS ON THE EVE OF THE PRIMARY ELECTION
The Daily Sitka Sentinel is telling its readers that only Republicans can vote on the Republican ballot on Tuesday, Aug. 21, but that any voter can vote the Democrat ballot.
That is incorrect.
The fact is that any voter who is not registered with another party can vote the Republican ballot, and it has been this way for more than 20 years.
The Sentinel is the only newspaper in the Baranof Island city of 8,800. The historic newspaper, publishing since 1940, is a family-owned and family-run operation, with publishers Thad Poulson and Sandy Poulson at the helm since 1969.
But although they have reported on hundreds of elections, they produced a story that might be expected from a rookie, but not from longtime Alaska publishers.
Could the newspaper’s report suppress votes in the Republican primary? In District 35, of the 15,107 voters, some 2,892 are registered Republican, but 9,043 are undeclared or nonpartisan. These are the people being told by their newspaper to pick the Democrat ballot.
Why would the newspaper publish such an inaccurate explanation of the voting process?
Thad Poulson has not remained politically neutral as a publisher. A registered nonpartisan, last month Poulson donated the maximum allowed — $500 — to the campaign of Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who is unopposed on the Democrat primary ballot but will face a Republican in November.
In 2016, both Thad and Sandy Poulson donated $500 each to Kreiss-Tomkins.
Poulson has also donated in this election cycle to the campaigns of Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, according to the Alaska Public Offices Commission:
On the Republican ballot for District 35, which also covers Petersburg, Angoon, Craig, Kasaan, and other small villages, two people are running in the Republican primary for a chance to oppose Kreiss-Tomkins in November: Richard Wein, who is a City Assemblyman in Sitka, and Kenny Karl Skaflestad, the former mayor of Hoonah.
Kenny Karl Skaflestad, running as a Republican for House District 35.Richard Wein, running as a Republican for House District 35.
Tuckerman Babcock, the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party responded to the unfortunate story in the Sentinel: “That level of sloppy reporting is either a result of fake news from the publisher or willful ignorance. There is no excuse for it. All nonpartisan and undeclared voters are welcome to vote the Republican ballot across Alaska.”
For more information on voting, check out this story:
UNMANNED AIR FORCE RECON AIRCRAFT LANDING IN ALASKA FOR THE FIRST TIME
Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an RQ-4 Global Hawk, landing during Red Flag Alaska exercises on Thursday at Eielson Air Force Base.
It was the the first time an unmanned RQ-4 has landed in Alaska during the simulated combat training exercise, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The RQ-4’s reconnaissance capabilities were being incorporated into the simulated combat exercises called Red Flag Alaska, the Pacific Air Force’s training exercise that is conducted with more than 100 aircraft and units from the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Great Britain.
The RQ-4 pilots were directing the operation of the aircraft from Beale Air Force Base, outside of Marysville, Calif.
A last-minute attack mailer on candidate Al Fogle, running for House District 26, showed up in mailboxes on Saturday. Recipients were treated to a smear telling recipients that the man is gay, a father of children, and supports the use of condoms. It’s all done in a way that makes Fogle look unfit.
But it has backfired a bit on the Joe Riggs’ campaign, which was responsible for the mailer. Some recipients sent it to Must Read Alaska and said it was just dirty campaigning.
Not all appreciated that the attack included Fogle’s family, which includes two adopted children. Generally, candidates are advised not to bring in the children or spouses of the family of an opposing candidate into an attack.
In fact, in addition to being a parent, Al Fogle is also a war veteran, having served in the Iraq War as a member of the U.S. Army. He attended the University of Alaska Anchorage and received a bachelor’s degree in finance, with a minor in criminal justice. He is an employee benefits consultant at Northrim Benefits Group and is president of the Alaska Association of Health Underwriters.
Al Fogle
“The Joe Riggs mailer attacking Albert Fogle is a largely a non-issue based hit piece that is really just a cheap personal attack. I am very disappointed in Joe Riggs’ campaign tactics,” said Tuckerman Babcock, chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.
For the chairman of the Republican Party to weigh in during a contested primary is a sign that the ugly campaign tactic went too far.
Earlier in the year, Babcock warned candidates that he would not tolerate excessive personal attacks of other Republican candidates. Usually, he likes to let candidates sort out their policy differences, and this is the first time he has weighed in publicly on such an attack.
Some Republicans feel that being gay should preclude people from serving in office, while others feel that sleeping arrangements are a matter of personal liberty. The Republican platform supports a definition of marriage being between one man and one woman. But the Republican platform also supports individualism, personal responsibility, and privacy. And plenty of single mothers have run for office as Republicans without having their names smeared because the party supports children being raised by a mother and a father.
The GOP platform also supports adoption.
There are 4,119 registered Republicans in District 26 and another 8,327 who are undeclared or nonpartisan and may vote in the Republican primary.
Three Republican candidates have filed for the seat being vacated by Rep. Chris Birch as he makes a bid for Senate: Al Fogle, Joe Riggs and Laddie Shaw.
UNION BOSS AND HIS WIFE CALL JAMIE ALLARD VOLUNTEER A ‘CREEP’
With the wife of a union boss running against Army veteran Jamie Allard for House District 14, things have gotten “union nasty.”
The union boss has called a volunteer from the Allard side a child stalker and plastered it all over Facebook.
Laborers 341 Union Boss Joey Merrick got into a sign dispute with a volunteer from the campaign of Army veteran Jamie Allard.
The volunteer, Mark Halterman, started tracking Joey Merrick as he posted signs for his wife around Eagle River; the Allard campaign has been monitoring whether those signs were permitted by property owners. That’s when the trouble began in earnest.
The confrontation started on a street corner, but spilled over onto Facebook.
Kelly Merrick, the candidate, posted an accusation on her page, alerting the public to the man who she characterized as dangerous, and told people if they saw him to call the police, as he was stalking children. She posted his photo and the license plate from his car.
Mark Halterman, the volunteer who felt his good name had been smeared by the Merricks, shared what happened:
“Kelly Merrick is staging an attack on me over social media, claiming I am a pervert. She’s got a picture of me sitting in my car in my neighborhood (a picture that was taken by her husband Joey Merrick),” Halterman wrote.
“I was observing her husband Joey Merrick place signs back up on Meadow Creek after my wife had alerted that they were coming down. The day before we had seen a neighbor down the street remove a Kelly Merrick sign from his yard and we stopped to ask why. We were told his parents own the home and were out of country and they hadn’t approved the sign placement. He also alerted a couple of doors down a sign had been placed in a deceased woman’s yard. He was pretty sure Kelly Merrick didn’t have permission to place it in her yard. I have lived in this neighborhood for over 23 years and I have observed candidates place signs on right of ways and other locations where signs shouldn’t be placed.
“Now, Kelly is claiming I was stalking the children while doing a lit drop. This is all because Joey confronted me for watching him place signs. I didn’t see the children when watching Joey, they were unsupervised and around the corner. I took no photos of anyone and was just observing Joey. When he saw me, he stopped placing signs and he drove around the corner. I drove up the street and stopped to text my wife to alert her about what I had seen. While sitting on Chain of Rock Joey Merrick approached me in his vehicle, a truck, at a high rate of speed demanding to know what I was doing. I stated it was none of his business. He told me I needed to quit creeping out his kids. I then told him that if he believed what I was doing was illegal he should call the police department. He sped away and I drove home.
“To my shock and surprise I woke at 6 am yesterday and was alerted by my daughter that the picture taken by Joey Merrick was posted on the Eagle River Crime Watch and Eagle River Repeat Offenders Facebook Pages. The photos and posts were posted by someone named John D. Rathert. When asked he stated Joey Merrick did indeed take the photographs he posted.
“After several complaints were sent to the Eagle River Crime Watch, the post was removed from that site. Numerous requests were made to the Repeat Offenders Site asking that the post also be removed. As of this time the post is still up.
“After being deleted from the Eagle River Crime watch page, Kelly Merrick posted the picture on her personal Facebook page stating ‘this creep was following my kids yesterday as they passed out campaign flyers. When my husband approached him, the man said mind your own f-ing business! If anyone knows who this is please inform law enforcement. We can’t take a chance for one more child to be a victim. We must be vigilant!’ And she listed my plate number and a full description of my car.
“I find all of this incredibly concerning because Joey Merrick knows who I am. We met around the middle of July and talked for a good amount of time. At that time, Joey attempted to place a big campaign sign for his wife at a downtown business in Eagle River. The owner was out of town when he tried to place the sign, so I had Joey place the sign in the shop until the new owner returned.
“As we talked Joey alerted he was friends with the deceased man who had owned this property. I explained to Joey the owner was out of town and I was keeping an eye on the shop. I told him I lived a few minutes away. He asked if he could place a sign in my yard. I told him I already had a sign for one of Kelly’s opponents. I find interesting that now he doesn’t know me and would stoop so low as to have one of his buddies put out information on social media that he knows to be untrue. I am requesting that anyone posting this fabricated story stop sharing it.”
Joey Merrick
Over the weekend, Kelly Merrick appears to have removed her accusation from Facebook, and the crime watch page removed the accusation.
Also over the weekend, a magnetic campaign sign for Allard was stolen from the car of one of her top volunteers. Now, Allard’s volunteers worry the sign will be put to nefarious uses by the other side just before the primary.
“I am stating for the record that someone stole one of Jamie Allard ‘s magnetic campaign signs from my car door while we were out campaigning early yesterday. I don’t want it used for nefarious things that would come back on her. Because frankly, at this point, there are powerful people doing anything to stop her from winning. But – win she will!” said campaign volunteer Kristen Bush.
The Allard side is also expecting more hit-job mailers to arrive in mailboxes and more negative radio spots that there will be no time to refute.
JOEY MERRICK HEADS THE ‘STAND FOR ALASKA’ GROUP
Joey Merrick is running his wife as a Republican for House District 14. His army of union members are “volunteering” to help her flip the Eagle River seat to union control, critics say.
Mr. Merrick was appointed by Gov. Bill Walker to the board of directors of the Alaska Gasline Development Agency.
Mr. Merrick, who is donating nearly $70,000 of union political action committee money to Democrat-leaning “Musk Ox Coalition” members Reps. Daniel Ortiz, Jason Grenn, Louise Stutes, and former Rep. Jim Colver, in an effort to keep the House under Democratic control, is also the co-chair of the Stand for Alaska committee, a group that is opposing an initiative that would shut down development in Alaska. But by putting Democrats in charge, is Merrick working against the interests of Stand for Alaska?
While his wife is a homemaker with no political experience, Joey Merrick has been engaged in politics for a long time. He as high-profile as they come. Claiming a campaign volunteer for the opponent of his wife is stalking children has attracted the concern of industry allies, some of whom have called Must Read Alaska to raise the topic.
UNION BOSS VINCE BELTRAMI JUMPS INTO FRAY, HITS BELOW THE BELT
Merrick is not alone in his tactics. The latest hit mailer against Jamie Allard came from Vince Beltrami, head of the AFL-CIO for Alaska, of which Laborers 341 is a member group.
In it, he accused candidate Allard of having a record of financial missteps. But his mailer only referred to court cases, leaving readers no information about what actually happened.
Of the four cases, three were dismissed entirely and the fourth was a small claim that Allard herself filed against someone who owed her thousands of dollars. She dropped the claim when the case got kicked up to District Court and the money she might collect would have not been worth the attorney costs.
The only case that occurred in Alaska was a claim from Ford Motors that Allard had not made a payment. The case was dropped when she proved she had, in fact, made the payment. The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought back to court:
But in the AFL-CIO hit mailer from Beltrami, these cases were portrayed as examples of financial mismanagement by Allard.
Apparently, truth can’t get on its shoes fast enough to keep up with the lies that sprout in the closing hours of a “union nasty” campaign.
Allard said she planned to attend church on Sunday with her family for some soul nourishment. Being a candidate is unlike anything she has experienced. But as an Army veteran, she has fought tougher battles.
LIES ABOUT NRA GRADES
And now, NRA candidate grades are being pulled into the fray. Kelly Merrick put a post on her Facebook page saying Jamie Allard received an F from the National Rifle Association. But Must Read Alaska did some research and discovered the following social media post comparing what Kelly Merrick said vs. the facts posted on the NRA web site:
ELECTION CAN’T COME SOON ENOUGH IN EAGLE RIVER
False accusations of child stalking. False accusations of financial mismanagement. Misrepresentation of NRA grades. If this is what it means to be represented by the Merricks, Eagle River voters will want to think long and hard about opposing Kelly Merrick on any of her votes, should she be elected.
After all, she has an army of union people who can take care of problems back in the district. It’s called “constituent relations.”
