LISTEN AS SHE TRIES TO STOP HERSELF FROM CALLING A WOMAN A ‘HER’
Alyse Galvin, running for Congress for Alaska under the Democrats’ banner, posted a video interview she did in Oakland, Calif., where she corrects herself after referring to a young woman as a “her,” and finds fault with homeschooling.
The proper terminology is to call someone a “they,” Galvin tells the viewers, scolding herself.
She is running against Congressman Don Young in a bid to represent Alaskans in the U.S. House.
In the half-hour coffee shop interview, Galvin reaffirms the need to dismantle the patriarchy, how Christian homes are bad environments, how homeschooling needs to be regulated, and how “gender theory” should be systematically enforced in schools.
Alaska pollster Ivan Moore says candidate Mike Dunleavy has stretched his lead in the sprint for governor of Alaska.
Dunleavy gained two points in support over a poll released in late September. As of Oct. 6, Dunleavy is now winning a comfortable 46.5 percent of likely votes.
Mark Begich has dropped from 29 percent to 22.6 percent, according to Moore, swapping places with Bill Walker, who went from 22.9 percent to 27 percent.
As for the undecided voters, they remained within a margin of error at under 4 percent.
When paired one-on-one, Dunleavy would crush Begich by nearly 14 points — 54.5 percent to 40.8 percent, and would clobber Walker by 10 points — 52.9 percent to 43 percent.
Moore’s polls tend to skew in favor of Democrats. In April, Moore had Walker at 51 percent and Dunleavy at 44 percent. That was before Begich joined the race in June.
But in 2014, Moore was wildly off, showing Begich beating Dan Sullivan by 6 points in late October, while all other polls showed Sullivan winning for Senate. He ultimately won by 2.2 points, making Moore’s poll off by more than 8 points.
But even if there is an 8-point miss, the Moore poll still has Dunleavy winning in any match up.
A community kickoff event for the Anchorage Climate Action Plan (CAP) is planned for Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 6 pm at the Loussac Library.
The Municipality of Anchorage partnered with the University of Alaska Anchorage to create a plan to reduce the city’s contribution to cause climate change and identify ways to adapt to climate impacts.
Pizza and ice cream will be served. To learn more about the Anchorage Climate Action Plan, visit www.muni.org/ClimateActionPlan.
On a side note, the carbon footprint of a scoop of ice cream — including cows, transportation and freezing the product — add up to roughly a quarter of a pound of carbon dioxide. A slice of pepperoni pizza has a carbon dioxide equivalent score of 644.
In a city with rampant crime, high taxes, high unemployment, and an extended recession, the focus of the city government appears to be what the city can do to reduce the climate impact of its 300,000 residents.
Gov. Bill Walker unveiled the State’s final climate change plan last month, which consisted primarily of more planning. Originally the state plan was to include a carbon tax, but that plan is on hold.
Other cities around the nation have unveiled such plans, which typically include:
Cataloging greenhouse gas emissions by source, such as buildings, transportation, electrical generation.
An emission reduction goal, often expressed as a percentage based on a baseline year.
Various strategies to achieve the needed reductions in greenhouse gases.
While shocked Alaska Republicans mull their response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s break with her party in opposing Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, other Alaskans may start wondering what it may mean for the state.
Alaska GOP chief Tuckerman Babcock says he intends to convene the party’s entire state central committee to decide what to do about her voting “present” during the confirmation. The party can huff and puff, but its options are limited. Reprimand. Pull party support. Write a report or letter. None of that is likely to ruffle her skirt. The reality is that she is not up for re-election for four more years – an eternity in politics.
While a steaming GOP sorts out what it wants to do, the rest of us – including Republicans – should be very concerned about her decision. The federal government, after all, spends billions in Alaska and controls almost 62 percent – 224 million acres – of Alaska’s 375 million acres.
It also has its fingers in almost every aspect of Alaska life: Crucial land management and resource extraction decisions that will affect the state for decades to come; access issues; military bases and regulatory controls. Then, there areas such as fish and wildlife management and trust relationships with Alaska Natives. The list seems endless.
In the battle to retain her District 15 (JBER-Muldoon) seat, Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux fell short in her 30-day fundraising report. Far short.
She raised just $15,000, and has had to loan her campaign $10,000 from her personal funds. The woman who is known as a fundraising Goliath has never had to do that before.
That personal loan gives her a cash advantage over Jake Sloan, who is running an unusual write-in campaign against the powerful House Rules Committee chair who has been identified as running a corrupt Primary campaign.
LeDoux
A State investigation is underway and one of LeDoux’s lead campaign operatives from California died of a stroke as soon as the veil came off of the voter fraud that was associated with LeDoux’s primary win. That death has complicated the investigation.
Write-In Jake Sloan raised nearly $19,000, which is 22 percent more than LeDoux raised since the primary. But has a hill to climb in that he is running a write-in campaign against a well-known incumbent and because LeDoux has spent $103,000 overall to get re-elected.
However, LeDoux spent most of it in the primary, which she lost on Election Day and which she won with the help of questionable absentee ballots. Her funds are somewhat depleted, which is why she needed to loan her campaign running money.
Sloan has to build name recognition, buy signs, and educate voters to write in his name and fill in the bubble. And he has less than a month to educate those voters.
But Sloan is encouraged by the fact that during the primary election, Rep. LeDoux lost with regular voters to Aaron Weaver, who never ran an actual campaign. LeDoux only won because of the enormous absentee ballot effort she ran with the help of the now-deceased Charlie Chang.
Many of those LeDoux votes turned out to be fraudulent, and others who voted for LeDoux may now regret their vote after learning about the possibly criminal capers involved to stack the ballot box for LeDoux. One of those fraudulent votes was from Mr. Chang, who was a resident of Fresno, Calif.
LeDoux has also lost her key campaign supporters and is now relying on the help of a former Alaska House legislative aide who has moved to Georgia but who her campaign flew back to Anchorage to manage LeDoux’s campaign. One hopes he has good life insurance — Thomas Brown. He used to work on her staff when she served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee. He’s now on her campaign payroll.
Sloan, on the other hand, is relying on his wife Leigh, and an ever-expanding list of volunteers who are going door-to-door with him.
Several legislators have walked the neighborhoods with Sloan, including Rep. Tammie Wilson of North Pole, who drove down for the occasion. Purple Heart recipient Passert Lee of the Hmong community, has also helped Sloan get introduced to the Hmong community, many of whom were victimized by the LeDoux campaign in the Primary.
On NextDoor.com, which is a neighborhood social media network that is widely used across Anchorage, a flurry of complaints has arisen over somebody putting LeDoux signs in people’s yards — signs that are clearly unwelcome, according to the multiple reports that have been posted.
A chubby black bear wandering up the ramp to Alaska’s Capitol prompted the Alaska Legislature to dryly post on its web site that the bear was in violation of the building’s “no pets policy.”
The bear’s visit to the building on Thursday was part of its tour through downtown Juneau, where it sauntered down Main Street in broad daylight.
A whaling captain and crew member from Utqiagvik (Barrow) have been lost in an whaling accident. They had a successful whale hunt and were bringing the whale back in when the boat capsized.
Details are not available yet as the community is gathering and family is being notified.
These are the first whaling deaths in as many as 20 years in the North Slope community.
“North Slope Borough Mayor Harry K. Brower Jr. Is asking that media respect the wishes of the whaling community and whaling captains of Utqiagvik as the community mourns the loss of two crew members,” said a statement from the community this morning.
STATE’S LAW ENFORCEMENT COMMUNITY WANTS A NEW BOSS
The Alaska Public Safety Employees today announced it is endorsing Mike Dunleavy for governor.
It is the only public employee union to endorse the insurgent populist candidacy of a former rural school teacher who has risen to challenge both a sitting governor and a former U.S. senator.
PSEA Local 803 represents Alaska law enforcement personnel in a variety of labor and employment matters at the State and municipal levels. The PSEA membership includes: State Troopers; State Fish and Wildlife Protection Troopers; Airport Police and Fire Officers at the Anchorage and Fairbanks International Airports; Court Service Officers; Deputy Fire Marshals; Police Department Employees of the City and Borough of Juneau; Public Safety Employees of the City of Unalaska; Police Department Employees of the City and Borough of Sitka; Police Department Employees of the City of Fairbanks; Police Department Employees of the City of Ketchikan; Police Department Employees of the City of Soldotna; and Public Safety Employees of the City of Dillingham.
Crime has been a big campaign issue in the governor’s race, with Alaskans feeling under siege by criminals. The rate for violent crimes, including murder, rape, robbery and assault, increased 7 percent in 2017, and property cries, such as car theft and burglary, rose 6 percent year over year. Crime shows no sign of abating in 2018.
Doug Massie, Local 803 DPS chapter president, said “Now more than ever it’s critical we have a governor that puts public safety first. Mike Dunleavy has lived in rural Alaska. Mike Dunleavy knows that until Alaska is safe, we won’t move forward socially and economically. PSEA trusts Mike Dunleavy to put Alaskans’ public safety first.”
Dunleavy said, “There is no greater issue for any governor and any state than public safety. We’re already having discussion about ideas that we can move forward. It’s going to be a partnership to ensure the public safety we need.”
“We’ve got some of the highest crime rates in the country. The individuals behind me are on the front lines, and they need resources and personnel,” Dunleavy said. The first item in the budget process will ve public safety, he said, “because it is job number one.”
“I look forward to working with public safety officers on addressing recruitment and retention problems. We must ensure our officers in harm’s way have the support they need to do their jobs effectively,” he said.
The decision to back Dunleavy happened through polling of the membership and the political action committee that discussed the candidates and their records at length, Massie explained.
“I’ve known him as a senator and had discussions with him years ago — and he is saying the same things now as he did then, and that is you have to stick to your constitutional mandates, like public safety.”
The Anchorage police union endorsed Mark Begich. None of the public safety unions has endorsed Gov. Bill Walker.
On Saturday, Anchorage police received a number of calls from shoppers at Walmart, saying killer Scott Brodine was sitting outside the store. Officers arrived and took him into custody without incident.
Brodine, 50, had walked away from his halfway house, the Clitheroe Center, early Wednesday morning. He was finishing a 90-day drug treatment program, and police said he was not a danger to the community, even on the loose.
But the public might have felt differently, knowing that Brodine had brutally beat to death his roommate in 1993 and was supposed to be serving a 50-year sentence behind bars, not in a halfway house.
The Department of Corrections places inmates into halfway houses to integrate them back into society. Brodine appears to have served 23 years of a 50-year sentence. He is in the Anchorage Correctional Complex as of Oct. 7.
