Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Home Blog Page 1516

Money group forms to support Walker-Mallott with millions

Suzanne Downing
-
8
Money group forms to support Walker-Mallott with millions

GOVERNOR ALSO ROLLS OUT SOBERING CRIME STATISTICS

An independent expenditure group has formed to shore up the fortunes of Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott as they turn their attention to the General Election and a bid for a second term.

“Unite Alaska,” the name of the group, has prominent Alaskans as its chairs:

  • Barbara Donatelli is senior vice president at Cook Inlet Region, Inc., the Alaska Native regional corporation for Southcentral Alaska. She is a Democrat.
  • Jim Sampson, former Fairbanks borough mayor and founder of the Fairbanks Pipeline Training Center. He is the former head of the AFL-CIO. He is a Democrat.

According to the press release, Unite Alaska filed paperwork Wednesday with the Alaska Public Offices Commission to form an independent expenditure organization named Unite Alaska for Walker-Mallott.

“Unite Alaska intends to raise money and purchase advertising touting the Walker administration’s remarkable leadership during one of the most difficult times in Alaska’s history,” the press release said.

“Unlike his opponents, Governor Walker has a clear vision for Alaska,” Sampson said. “He has put us on the path to economic recovery and his continued leadership is essential to our future stability and growth.”

Most of the money raised for Unite Alaska is expected to come from an outside organization that is promoting non-party affiliated candidates. Unite America endorsed Walker after he visited the organization earlier this year in Washington, D.C.

“We are confident, based on the early outpouring of support for this effort, that we will raise significant dollars to support the Governor and Lt. Governor,” said spokesman Tim Woolston. “It’s clear that many of Alaska’s most prominent leaders, organizations and businesses are stepping up.”

Walker was a Republican before he became an undeclared and ran with the support of the Alaska Democratic Party in 2014. In 2018, he attempted to run in the Democratic Primary, but retreated when Mark Begich jumped into the race, and now is running as a petition candidate.

A man gathers signatures for Gov. Bill Walker’s re-election outside of the REI store in Anchorage on Saturday.

CRIME SOARED IN 2017

On the same day as the big reveal of his campaign support group, Gov. Walker and the Department of Law said that crime in Alaska has gone up by 6 percent year over year.

The governor and the state’s attorney general held a press conference to roll out statistics on crime, which include such highlights as Alaskans experiencing:

  • 1 car theft every two hours
  • 1 burglary every two hours
  • 1 larceny every 29 minutes
  • 1 assault every two hours
  • 1 rape every 8 hours
  • 1 murder every six days
Anchorage street scene on Saturday.

In 2013, burglary hit a 7-year low, and vehicle theft hit a 17-year low in 2011.

Since he took office and the economy has tumbled, crime has soared to record levels.

The 2017 Uniform Crime Report contains a comprehensive look at crime in Alaska.

“The 2017 UCR looks back at information a year ago or more and doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know,” said Attorney General Lindemuth. She and Walker touted the Walker Administration’s efforts to reverse the trend.

She suggests crime is up because of budget cuts and the opioid epidemic. She said property crimes will take a lower priority than violent crimes and Alaskans should not expect much response.

Donor to Kreiss-Tomkins lists job title: Slumlord?

Suzanne Downing
-
0
Donor to Kreiss-Tomkins lists job title: Slumlord?

A donor to the campaign of Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins lists his occupation as a “slumlord,” who is employed by “self.”

The Anchorage slumlord donated $25 to Kreiss-Tomkins, a Democrat now representing District 35 Sitka-Hoonah-Petersburg-Kake-Angoon.

Also among those showing on the reports of the Alaska Public Offices Commission as giving to Kreiss-Tomkins’ campaign is Thad Poulsen, the owner and editor of the local newspaper Sitka Sentinel, who gave Tomkins the maximum allowed by law: $500. Newspapering is evidently better business these days than slum lording.

While it’s unusual for a newspaper editor to donate to a campaign, thanks to the Alaska Public Offices Commission, Sitka readers know where the newspaper stands.

The Republicans running against Kreiss-Tomkins are Sitka Assembly member Richard Wein and former Mayor Kenny Karl Skaflestad of Hoonah.

Kreiss-Tomkins

Others who gave the maximum allowed donation of $500 to Kreiss-Tomkins include Larry Cotter of Juneau, who this year filed as a nonpartisan to run for the Senate Seat Q spot being vacated by Juneau’s Sen. Dennis Egan.

Toni Mallott, the wife of Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, made a $200 donation to Kreiss-Tomkins.

Kreiss-Tomkins has raised over $40,000 for his campaign but has spent little during the easy-going primary election. Skaflestad has raised $4,870, and Wein has raised over $10,000.

Earlier this week, Must Read Alaska was alerted to another unusual job title in the campaign finance reportings: “Pirate,” in support of the campaign of Ed Alexander for House District 6.

Pirate? Campaign reports come in, with ‘aargh’ donor occupations

 

 

Union bosses ‘invite’ laborers to work to elect Merrick’s wife, and his employee

Suzanne Downing
-
0

JOEY MERRICK, VINCE BELTRAMI WANT MEMBERS TO CALL ON BEHALF OF  KELLY MERRICK, ZACK FIELDS AND …

The last week of the primary election season is when fliers hit mailboxes and social media news feeds at a blistering pace.

In the flier above, laborers who are under the watchful eye of Joey Merrick, president of Laborers Local 341, are invited by Merrick and AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami to help elect Merric’s wife Kelly, who is running in the Republican primary for District 14.

Working the phone bank this weekend might be a condition of getting a job in the future. Merrick will surely be keeping tabs on who attends this “get-out-the-vote-for-my-wife” event.

Merrick and Beltrami also invite you to make phone calls to help elect Zack Fields in District 20. Fields, a loyal Democrat, is a labor organizer for Laborers 341. That means he reports to Joey Merrick.

And if you’re interested, you may also make calls to get out the vote for Nancy Dahlstrom, running for Dan Saddler’s Eagle River seat, and Jim Colver, who is Joey Merrick’s pick to replace George Rauscher for District 9.

Laborers who know what’s good for them will show up and make the calls, as ordered. The prevailing wage is pro bono.

Alaska Business Report Card is out

Suzanne Downing
-
2

CHECK HOW YOUR LEGISLATOR WAS RATED ON THE PRIVATE-SECTOR SCALE

The Alaska Business Report Card group released its grades for the 30th Alaska State Legislature.

The report is published every two years at the end of each Legislature. It is a tool for the group to analyze individual legislators on their efforts to provide a stable economic climate for business, responsible budgeting, and private sector growth policies.

At the beginning of the 30th Legislature, each legislator was provided a letter indicating which issues the ABRC would focus its grading criteria on.

The Alaska Business Report Card group looked for efforts that create a healthy and appropriately sized state government, one that strengthens Alaska’s economy. To clearly illustrate how ABRC grades are assigned, we have only two grading criteria:

1) RESPONSIBLE BUDGETING

  • Budget policy should focus first and foremost on reversing the unsustainable state budget growth of the past decade. A multi-year series of annual reductions in the state operating budget – including entitlement reform – will be required.
  • Create an endowment model or similar framework to use the Permanent Fund earnings to support essential services to avoid liquidating remaining state financial reserves.
  • Only after a reduction in spending and use of the Permanent Fund earnings should other revenue be considered

2) PRIVATE SECTOR GROWTH

  • Now more than ever, pro-growth policies designed to stimulate and expand Alaska’s private sector are critically important. Top priorities include:
    • Maintain a stable business climate for all business, especially our struggling oil and gas industry. Businesses will not invest in uncertainty and Alaska needs to be a reliable partner
    • Adopt policies that ensure a streamlined, efficient and adequately funded regulatory system that relies on sound science as the basis for decision-making.

Grades were compiled based on a broad range of legislation impacting Alaska businesses and the economy. Legislative performance was tracked with the introduction of bills, committee level, and floor sessions during the legislative sessions.

Legislators grades and very detailed information about the scoring can be found online at alaskabusinessreportcard.com.

The group formed in 2010 as a non-partisan effort to inform the participating organizations’ members companies, who together employ tens of thousand of Alaskans, on how elected officials work to ensure Alaska remains an attractive place for private sector investment, jobs, and economic growth. The ABRC is comprised of the Alaska Chamber, Alaska Wins, and the Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc.

Tens of thousands of voter addresses changed

Suzanne Downing
-
3
Tens of thousands of voter addresses changed

FILED FOR PFD WITH DIFFERENT ADDRESS? YOU MAY BE VOTING A QUESTIONED BALLOT

It’s not hundreds of voter addresses that were changed by the Division of Elections without the knowledge of voters.

It’s thousands — tens of thousands. In fact, just under 15 percent of the entire voting population of 567,403 have had their addresses changed by Elections.

An analysis of the July voter files compared to the similar batch of files from March show that some 84,000 Alaska voters have been assigned new addresses by the Elections Division. Most of them without their knowledge or consent.

Some of those address changes will be accurate. Others will have simply “moved” voters into districts where they don’t live and don’t vote.

Take the example of the fisherman in Naknek who lives is Anchorage some of the year, and uses that city address for his Permanent Fund dividend, but likes to vote in Bristol Bay, where his real interests as an Alaskan are.

Or the student at University of Alaska Fairbanks, who wants to vote in Fairbanks but gets her Permanent Fund dividend in Ninilchik. The Division of Elections has moved both of these individuals to voting in their PFD address’ district.

That 84,000 changed addresses represents a 500-600 percent increase from recent years, according to an analysis by David Nees, researcher at Alaska Policy Forum.

The matter came to light in a Must Read Alaska report about candidate Aaron Weaver, District 15, who is running for State House and discovered the State Elections Division had assigned him to District 20, which would make him ineligible to run or vote in District 15.

It was clearly a mistake, and it took a trip to the Elections office on Gambell Street in Anchorage for Weaver to sort it out. Must Read Alaska began hearing from dozens of other voters whose registrations were changed by the Elections Division. For some, it wasn’t a problem, because they keep a Post Office box in their voting district. But most do not, and with seasonal workers, this is a major headache that most haven’t learned about. They’ll find out when they try to vote.

DIVISION OF ELECTIONS RESPONDS

Division of Elections Director Josie Bahnke responded to a query from the Alaska Republican Party about the number of voters having been re-registered by the division into districts where they do not live.

Bahnke said the division sent notices to voters and it’s the responsibility of the voters to review the information and correct it, if they feel it is wrong.

Bahnke tried to explain how it happened in a two-page letter to the Alaska Republican Party:

“As you know, Alaska voters approved the PFD AVR (Permanent Fund dividend automatic voter registration) ballot initiative in November 2016, which amended sections of Alaska Statute Title 15 and Title 43,” Bahnke wrote. The ballot measure instructed the state to use the Permanent Fund Dividend application to automatically register people to vote and ensure the voter registration information is current. The law requires the automatic registration of eligible Alaskans to vote when they apply for their PFD.”

Unless they opt out, of course. Opting out is not intuitive, nor is it necessarily easy. You have to really watch your mail to know if the Division of Elections has reassigned you. Why would the State do such a thing? Most voters cannot imagine the government taking it in its own hands to reassign your voting address.

“The Division of Elections (“Division”) is simply implementing this law,” Bahnke wrote. “The Division is aware that voters’ registration information was updated if they made changes to their residence address through the PFD application process. As required by the law, the Division sent out opt-out notices in the mail to voters whose address on their PFD application was different from their voter record address, or to applicants who were not currently registered to vote.”

The opt-out notices may have languished in post office boxes or could have easily been mistaken as junk mail. Tuckerman Babcock of the Republican Party says this brings into question whether the Voting Rights Act is being violated by the Division of Elections. Should the government be allowed to change voting addresses without people’s permission?

Babcock says the entire process is not what was intended by voters who approved the Automatic Voter Registration initiative. Voters, in information pushed by the groups wanting the law to pass, were told that only unregistered voters would be automatically registered as voters under the new law and that they could easily opt out. Voters were not told that everyone would be assigned an official voting address that would need to correspond to the address they use on their PFD application.

But Bahnke says it’s the responsibility of the PFD recipient to make sure their voter registration information is still accurate:

“The mailer notified Alaskans that the information on their PFD application would be used to update their voter registration or register them to vote unless they opted out by declining the registration opportunity within 30 days. Voters who did not respond to the opt—out notice, were registered or had their voter registration record updated based on information they provided on their Permanent Fund Dividend application, as required by the law.”

Bahnke noted that the law reads: “the director shall, as soon as practicable and in accordance with a schedule established by the director by rule, notify by United States mail and any other means authorized by the director, each applicant not already registered to vote at the address provided in the applicant’s application (1) of the processes to (A) decline to be registered as a voter; (B) maintain an existing voter registration or be newly registered at a valid place of residence not provided in the applicant’s application; and (C) adopt a political party affiliation; and (2) that failure to respond to the notification shall constitute the applicant’s consent to cancel any registration to vote in another jurisdiction. (I) If an applicant does not decline to be registered as a voter within 30 calendar days after the director issues the notification, the application under AS 43.23.015 will constitute a completed registration form. The name of the applicant shall be placed on the master register if the director determines that the person is qualified to vote under AS 15.05.010, and the director shall forward to the applicant a registration card. If registration is denied, the applicant shall immediately be informed in writing that registration was denied and the reason for denial.”

The deadline for voters to register or update their registration for the Aug. 21, Primary Election was on July 22.

Bahnke says the division is instructing voters who didn’t want their registration to be updated for the Primary to vote a questioned ballot at their polling place, and their ballot will be reviewed by a Regional Review Board following Primary Election Day.

According to Nees, it looks like about half of the 84,000 reassigned voters will end up being legitimate changes, but that still leaves some 40,000 or more that may not be correct.

And that is a very big concern. Having tens of thousands of additional voters casting a questioned ballot could clog up the polls on Election Day, and having the delayed results of elections could take days in some close races.

The questioned ballots that would need to be evaluated would require ballot counting watchers from each party to oversee the work, tying up resources that campaigns could use elsewhere in preparing for what is a very short sprint to the General Election.

“None of this was contemplated by statute,”  Babcock said.

Unilaterally using one government form — a PFD application — to override all other government forms is yet another misstep in a series of troubling mistakes made by this Division of Elections in the past three years.

Look up your voter information at Division of Elections

 

Pirate? Campaign reports come in, with ‘aargh’ donor occupations

Suzanne Downing
-
0
Pirate? Campaign reports come in, with ‘aargh’ donor occupations

Demetrie Alexander of Fort Yukon, Alaska donated $100 to the campaign of Ed Alexander, a Democrat running for the District 6 House seat against incumbent Dave Talerico, who is a Republican. These two candidates will appear on the District 6 General Election ballot in November.

As required for all donors to political campaigns in Alaska, Demetrie had to reveal his occupation.

He listed his job title as “Pirate.”

Demetrie named his employer as “Porcupine River Timber.”

Demetrie, the former magistrate of Fort Yukon, has evidently turned to pirating in his later years. He is among the thousands of donors listed in recent Alaska Public Offices Commission reports from campaigns — with donors who reveal everything from being a “Former Gov.,” the job title listed for Bill Sheffield (who donated to the campaign of current Gov. Bill Walker) and a “maid,” the occupation listed by someone who gave to the governor as well.

Candidates are required to file their 7-day reports by today with the commission and are now on a 24-hour reporting cycle, when they must report all funds received every day so the public can see where the money is coming from in the last week.

Donlin gold mine clears big hurdle; permits come next

Suzanne Downing
-
3
Donlin gold mine clears big hurdle; permits come next

THOUSANDS OF JOBS ASSOCIATED WITH DONLIN

In one of the most impoverished areas of Alaska, where residents live a subsistence life that is heavily subsidized by government checks, two government agencies on Monday issued a joint record of decision for the Donlin Gold project.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District Commander Col. Michael Brooks and Assistant Interior Secretary Joe Balash signed the decision in Anchorage, signaling the end of an environmental impact statement phase for Donlin that started in 2012. The planning for the project has lasted 20 years.

The decision includes key permits to move forward, with the BLM issuing an “offer to lease” for the pipeline right of way to Donlin Gold, which will provide natural gas to power the project.

More than 10 Native villages in the area have passed resolutions opposing the mine in recent weeks. The latest village to sign the resolution was Chevak, where unemployment is 23 percent and rising.

The project would take four years to build and employ up to 3,200 workers during the peak construction, with $300 million annually into workers’ pockets. The construction phase would need 2,500 workers for the mine site and transportation facilities and 650 workers to build the natural gas line that would connect to a line from the North Slope.

Project construction jobs would be seasonal and include heavy equipment operators, site engineers, construction managers, laborers, electricians, pipe fitters, and iron/steel workers.

During operations, some 434 jobs would be filled in the first year, increasing to 1,000 jobs annually for the life of the mine, which is estimated to be 27 years. Total payroll would be $98 million per year.  Mine closure and reclamation would require fewer workers.

Calista Corp. is the owner of the subsurface mineral rights and is estimated to earn $1.5 billion over the life of the project. The royalties it receives would be shared with other ANCSA corporations under the provisions of ANCSA Section 7(i). Other payments to Native-held corporations, such as Kuskokwim Corp. and CIRI for rights-of-way leases and other considerations are included in the partnership agreements.

The issuance of the Donlin Gold decision and the initial project permits are significant milestones for the project, providing the foundation for the 100 or more permits required to build what will be one of the world’s largest and highest grade gold mines, with a total yield of 33 million ounces of gold.

YES FOR SALMON COULD KILL PROJECT

The ballot initiative that has been approved for November’s General Election could kill the project, however.

Ballot Measure 1 would designate all bodies of water in Alaska as salmon habitat, unless proved otherwise. It would require tougher standards for any development in areas that are considered to be part of salmon habitat, including entire watersheds and uplands.

Opponents of Ballot Measure 1 say that the measure is so strict it will bring any development in Alaska to a halt and dry up private investment in the state.

‘Actions speak louder than words’ when union boss beats up on a veteran

Suzanne Downing
-
8
‘Actions speak louder than words’ when union boss beats up on a veteran

LOOK WHO ELSE UNION BOSS VINCE BELTRAMI IS SUPPORTING THIS CYCLE

AFL-CIO union boss Vince Beltrami has piled on with an attack mailer criticizing a U.S. Army veteran for her voting record. Her offense is that she has the audacity to run for House District 14.

Beltrami’s attack message is that “Actions speak louder than words” when it comes to voting. Beltrami says she had time to file for her Permanent Fund Dividend, but not to vote.

Jamie Allard, who served for seven years in the Army, and then as a civilian with top-secret clearance on multiple overseas assignments, didn’t always have time or even the information for who to vote for in Alaska’s elections, since she was deployed overseas so much. She often didn’t get her absentee ballot in time. Veterans know how hard this can be.

Jamie Allard told Must Read Alaska she did file for that dividend, but didn’t always take it. She filed to maintain her residency in Alaska, even while she had to be gone for extended periods of time. And she had three months to file for her and her family.

But Beltrami is doing his thug routine in a flyer supporting her main opponent, Kelly Merrick, the wife of Laborers 341 Union Boss Joey Merrick. Joey Merrick is the guy who is spending tens of thousands of dollars of union money this summer trying to elect “Musk Ox” (fake) Republicans who, once elected, then go to Juneau and put Democrats in control of our State House. Like they did for the past two years.

It would look awkward — very awkward — if Joey Merrick’s union funded the hit on Allard in order to help his wife, Kelly Merrick. It would probably be illegal, in fact. So to maintain outward appearances, his buddy Vince Beltrami at the AFL-CIO is funding the hit for him.

This Beltrami criticism of a U.S. Army Veteran is from a guy who never put on any other uniform than a union jacket and doesn’t lift much more than a bullhorn these days:

Because of the nature of much of Allard’s work as an enlisted soldier and as a civilian working with countries in turmoil in Eastern Europe, she can’t speak about much of her assignments. But she is proud of her service, as she is of her Special Forces husband’s defense of American rights and liberty.

WHO DOES BELTRAMI SUPPORT, BESIDES KELLY MERRICK?

Whenever Beltrami is involved, it’s always wise to determine why he is supporting one candidate over another.

We pulled his personal (as opposed to his union) political contribution file for 2018, and it tells voters in Eagle River what they need to know about why he is supporting Merrick and beating up on Jamie Allard:

Now, take a look at who Joey Merrick is supporting for State House in District 9 — the old Musk Ox himself, Jim Colver. It’s in the fine print (and Must Read Alaska has added Joey Merrick’s photo to the mailer that arrived this weekend in District 9, where Merrick has spent $22,000 of union money to try to get Colver back in the House, as a reliable vote with the Democrats.)

 

Must Read Alaska ran into Colver chatting it up with Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and a group of Democrats this weekend in Spenard, rather than campaigning in his district. Having the kind of union backing he has, Colver perhaps didn’t need to knock on doors:

 

Joey Merrick is controlling nearly $70,000 in election money this cycle in support of Democrats and pseudo-independents such as Rep. Dan Ortiz and Rep. Jason Grenn, and Musk Ox Republican Louise Stutes of Kodiak. His real goal is to maintain Democrat control of the House of Representatives, with a little help from fake Republicans. Not coincidentally, he has a wife running for House in Eagle River District 14 as a “Republican”, named Kelly Merrick.

What can possibly go wrong?

Walker Administration’s political crackdown on signs continues

Suzanne Downing
-
2
Walker Administration’s political crackdown on signs continues

BUT IS ENFORCEMENT ARBITRARY AND CAPRICIOUS?

By its own admission, the Alaska Department of Transportation says the department’s crackdown on political signage has not hit the Walker-Mallott signs.

Gov. Walker knew about the crackdown and likely authorized it verbally, and he removed many of his own signs just before the State DOT got busy on sign removal last month.

Now, we are told by the Anchorage Daily News, the governor and lieutenant governor have had none of their remaining signs flagged and none has been confiscated by DOT.

The campaign sign Walker posted at the entrance of Matanuska Lake State Recreation Area has finally been removed, after weeks of criticism from Must Read Alaska over the governor’s misuse of state resources. It is unclear if he or his brother removed it or if the State Department of Natural Resources finally decided the boss had abused the privilege long enough.

Gov. Walker’s illegal sign using state property at the entrance to the Matanuska Lake State Recreation Area.

In the sign graveyard at DOT’s property behind State Troopers’ maintenance yard on Tudor Road in Anchorage, the area is littered with campaign signs of Republicans and Democrat candidates. Each of those signs costs as much as $350, plus volunteer or paid labor.

But no Gov. Bill Walker signs are to be seen there.

Walker was losing the sign war, and candidate Mike Dunleavy was winning it. When Mark Begich jumped into the race as a Democrat and started putting up signs, that’s when the crackdown came.

The Anchorage Daily News editorial board doesn’t see the problem. It thinks the signs have been handled fairly by the Department of Transportation. The editorial that appeared over the weekend says no candidate has been disadvantaged by the enforcement.

Not so.

The Dunleavy for Alaska group, according to APOC reports, has spent as much as $50,000 on signs, and it’s been a great success for that group, pushing Mike Dunleavy’s name recognition to what is now a respectable level.

And Mead Treadwell and Mark Begich, both who jumped into the race on the last day possible, wanted to get their sign game going to compete with Dunleavy and Walker.

Walker, through his surrogates at the Department of Transportation, has just cost his opponents a combined cash outlay of more than $100,000, by selectively enforcing the “no political sign” rule after their signs were already in place, an action he may have to defend on constitutional grounds.

Some campaigns moved their signs when asked to by the State. In reality, all they really needed to do was move them a few feet and tear off the survey tape. But being a scofflaw is something that is not easy to defend as a candidate, even one whose education informs him or her that this is a First Amendment issue.

More than 25 political campaign signs were torn down by DOT in recent days; the agency said it was because they were causing safety hazards.

Saturday in Soldotna: A Walker sign impeding visibility but not flagged by DOT.

But a review of many of the “disappeared” signs shows that’s not the case. Walker signs remain, such as at the Soldotna intersection in the photo above, while small, unobtrusive signs far off the road have been flagged for removal, such as the one shown here in Wasilla.

Sen. Mike Shower shows a campaign sign of his in Wasilla that has been tagged for removal by the Department of Transportation.

DOT spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy told the ADN that the sweep was not motivated by politics. The State’s official position is that the sign law hasn’t been enforced in recent years due to budget cuts, but that’s folklore. The political sign law has never been enforced in dozens of years, according to political observers who have been active for decades.

In late July, DOT workers started tagging signs around Anchorage, and then started removing signs that candidates left in place. At Raspberry Road and Jewel Lake Road, the state said it was a safety concern, although most of those those signs were clearly off the roadway. Only the Mark Begich sign actually appears to be obstructing a sight line:

Jewell Lake and Raspberry Road, before the Department of Transportation crackdown.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, DOT collected 14 Republican candidate signs and 7 Democrat candidate signs from around Anchorage. The most signs removed from any candidate belonged to Edie Grunwald, running for lieutenant governor, who lost four of hers to the DOT sign graveyard.

According to the Anchorage Daily News editorial, the campaigns have been treated fairly. That would require a written plan, not an ad hoc round-up done when it became evident that the election season was getting too hot.

Gov. Walker may have another strategy in mind: The signs build excitement and public knowledge of a primary election. He is not appearing on the primary ballot, however. Every vote for his opponents who are on that ballot will not be a vote for him. Low turnout will benefit him in November, and give him time to convince voters to give the Walker-Mallott ticket another chance.

Or you can go with the Anchorage Daily News editorial theory: “But in its crackdown on illegal signs thus far, DOT officials haven’t flagged every sign legible from the roadway, as they could. Instead, they have wisely opted to focus on ones that are obvious offenders and those that pose potential hazards, much as state troopers don’t try to pull over every speeding driver, only those most likely to present safety hazards.”

But the ADN may not be an honest broker of this matter because every sign that comes down means a possible advertiser and additional revenue for the newspaper.

1...1,5151,5161,517...1,708Page 1,516 of 1,708

About us

Must Read Alaska is news of people, politics, policy, culture, and happenings in Alaska.

Contact
4021 West Hill Road,
Homer, AK 99603
[email protected]

The latest

Sandy Szwarc: Rare earth minerals, Trump, and the Pebble Mine paradox

Columns 6
By SANDY SZWARC - PART 1 President Trump has been...

Mike Dunleavy: Why I support a return to traditional elections

Columns 23
By GOV. MIKE DUNLEAVY In recent years, we’ve seen several...

One arrested for defacing JBER welcome sign during Trump visit

The 907 24
The Municipality of Anchorage saw a total of eight...

© Must Read Alaska