Rep. Paul Seaton of Homer is headed home to the Democratic Party. He filed today as nonpartisan to run in Democratic Primary for House District 31, Homer.
Seaton lost support of District Republicans and then the entire Alaska Republican Party turned against him when he turned on the Republican House majority and formed a coalition with House Democrats. That won him a powerful seat as co-chair of the Finance Committee, where he tried to enact several income taxes during his two-year reign.
Seaton sponsored HB 115 last year, with the silent backing of Gov. Bill Walker. It would have created a wide-reaching progressively structured income tax on individuals, partners, shareholders in S corporations, trusts, and estates. The Senate majority Republicans were able to stop it from going into law but several hearings were held in the House and the governor pushed hard to get it through.
Last year, Seaton crammed the operating budget into the capital budget toward the end of session, and hoped to ram it through the Senate, with no success. This year, he led the charge to send an education funding bill over to the Senate, but it had no funding attached to it. He did succeed in adding a $500,000 Vitamin D study to the budget.
Others running for District 31 include Republicans John Cox, Sarah Vance and Hank Kroll. While Homer is a Democratic stronghold, the district reaches into conservative areas near Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula.
In February, Alaska Republicans “invited” Seaton to switch to the Democratic Party. That story is linked below.
Beat-up jerseys. Battered football helmets and cleats. Black-and-white images, and the sound of a tough game and then static for seconds on end. The ads for Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott continue to baffle viewers.
Only it’s not football. The fast-paced footage is of a rugby game in Anchorage. But back in the locker room, the ad producer, John-Henry Heckendorn, set it up as though it had been a football game.
He was hoping you wouldn’t notice.
One has to slow the video down — way down — to see the striped socks and uniforms, the shirts and logos that are clearly part of the Anchorage Rugby League’s summer season filmed at the Anchorage Park Strip.
After the Walker campaign posted it on Facebook three days ago, the public has not been kind:
“Not feeling it. My gas is more expensive, crime is at an all time high, services are lacking, and my property taxes are expanding faster than the bloated budget. Where is accountability and having a state government which lives within their means? You have lost my vote!” said one viewer.
The campaign for Walker-Mallott has had to remove as many as a third of the comments under the video, deeming them too negative or too crude. Or may they are simply too true: Did others notice it was recreational rugby, not the NFL?
View the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJgpV1poHhU
A REVIEW OF WALKER SOCIAL MEDIA VIDEO EFFORTS
The first video that the Walker-Mallott team placed on social media in April featured his critics as clowns, criticizing Walker of shoveling snow.
Highest unemployment in the nation? Not Walker’s fault. Biggest busted budget? Not his fault. Took the Permanent Fund dividend? Not his fault. Crime astronomical in your neighborhood due to his pushing SB 91? Not his fault. Critics were cheap suits, while Walker continued to shovel show.
Walker’s second campaign video went to the dark side — stark black-and-white images with shadowy figures, still photos, and mournful music. It has a mafioso feel to it.
But in his third video, the message seems to be: “Vote for me because I’m trying.”
Filmed at a rugby game, and then faked out in a locker room? This campaign video is rich in metaphor.
Whether Alaskans think their quarterback should remain on the field or, like Colin Kaepernick, be benched for taking a knee instead of standing with the team, will be a question for the Big Game on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Senate Seat M –Assemblyman Felix Rivera is filing as a Democrat for the seat being vacated by Sen. Kevin Meyer.
His filing paperwork is not posted yet, but Sen. Berta Gardner sent out a note to that effect.
Rep. Chris Birch and Bekah Halat are Republican candidates for Seat M, South Anchorage. Hunter Dunn is the other Democrat.
Senate Seat Q – There are more ins-and-outs here. Larry Cotter, who filed several weeks ago for the General Election as a petition candidate for the Juneau Senate seat, is out. That leaves Don Etheridge as a petition candidate for the general and Democrat Jesse Kiehl for the primary, for the seat being vacated by Sen. Dennis Egan. Kiehl is Egan’s legislative aide and is on the Assembly. Etheridge is a former Assembly member. A poll shows Kiehl with a slight advantage over Etheridge, but with Cotter out, it’s a new ballgame.
Kevin McKinley, left and Adam Wool.
District 5 – Kevin McKinley, a Republican, has filed against Rep. Adam Wool, the Democrat incumbent. Both business owners, McKinley owns a tattoo and piercing business, while Wool owns a nightclub.
District 9 – Rep. George Rauscher, who filed for Senate Seat E, has filed for his House seat (9), to leave Sen. Mike Shower a free lane to re-election for his seat, to which he was appointed when Mike Dunleavy resigned to run for governor. (Randall Kowalke is a Republican who has filed for Senate Seat E earlier this year).
Rauscher’s statement:
“Quite a few months ago, Senator Dunleavy vacated his Senate Seat to run for governor and I declared to run for his vacated Senate Seat E. Governor Walker appointed Mike Shower to fill the remaining portion of Senator Dunleavy’s term. Just recently Mike Shower has decided to run for that seat. It is in the best interest of my District, and the future of the both the House and the Senate, that each of us continue to serve in the seats we now hold. I look forward to representing District 9 all this summer with the same intensity, presence and effectiveness as I always have.”
Pam Goode, a Republican, has months ago filed for the District 9 seat, so this means a primary race. Goode ran for the seat in 2016 as a Constitution Party candidate.
Vicki Wallner, a leading community organizer in the Mat-Su, also filed for the seat yesterday. It’s unclear if she’ll remain in now that Rauscher has filed. She had been considered to fill the Senate seat vacated by Dunleavy, but Gov. Walker passed her over.
Immediately after Rauscher filed, his House Valley colleague, Rep. David Eastman, District 10, threw the full weight of his political action committee’s support for Pam Goode.
“The challenges Alaska faces today require changing not only the way we do business as a state, but also sending courageous men and women to Juneau We are pleased to announce our first endorsement of the 2018 election season. Pam Goode is a candidate who will put Alaskans first and has the courage to say ‘NO’ to the special interests in Juneau. She is running to represent the people of the Copper River Valley, Delta, and the Mat-Su in the Alaska House of Representatives,” Eastman wrote on Facebook on behalf of his Alaska Conservative Leadership PAC.
District 10 – Susan Kay, a Democrat, attempted to file for the House seat but was denied by Elections because she is not on file at the Alaska Public Offices Commission. Rookie mistake.
Rep. David Eastman, a Republican, holds that Mat-Su Valley conservative seat. Another Democrat, Patricia Faye-Brazel also filed, and Democrat Neal Lacy had already filed.
District 23 – Still no sign of Rep. Chris Tuck, the Democrat incumbent. Forrest McDonald and Connie Dougherty are the Republicans in the race.
District 31 – Rep. Paul Seaton has not filed nor said what party he is filling with.
District 32 – Dennis Harris, a Democrat, has filed candidate registration with Alaska Public Offices Commission, but the 27-year-old hasn’t said for which office. He lives in Kodiak and the seat available there is the one held by Louise Stutes, a nominal Republican. There is an undeclared petition candidate in the race, Sandra Katelnikoff-Lester, going to the general election. Interestingly, Dennis Harris as the same middle name “Paul” as the well-known Bernie Sanders-style Democrat of Juneau fame. But there’s a big age difference.
District 34 –Andi Story, a Democrat and school board member, is filing to run for the seat being vacated by Rep. Justin Parish, a North Juneau Democrat. She’ll file today at the Mendenhall Valley Library. Already in the race is undeclared Rob Edwardson, who is Parish’s legislative aide and is a nonpartisan hoping for the Democrats’ primary ballot, and retired police officer and Assembly member Jerry Nankervis, a Republican. It looks like Juneau Democrats think they have a better shot with Story than with Edwardson.
Check back with Must Read Alaska later today for more updates, and share this story on your Facebook feed.
WHITE-KNUCKLE GAME OF CHICKEN BETWEEN BEGICH AND THE GOVERNOR
The most powerful politician in Alaska today is not Gov. Bill Walker, but Mark Begich.
So powerful, that Walker has, with 30-odd hours until the deadline, not yet filed with the Division of Elections to run on the Democrats’ primary ballot, as he announced publicly and confidently he would in April. He’s watching Begich’s every move.
Why? He is worried that Begich, a registered Democrat, will jump in and file, and if Begich does, Walker will have to retreat to the “petition ballot” as an undeclared candidate. He’ll be a man without a party again, but this time, the Democrats will drop him, unlike their full-throated support in 2014.
Between now and Friday, Mark Begich and Bill Walker are locked in a battle of wits, as the Dread Pirate Roberts and Vizzini were over the “Iocane” poison battle of wits over goblets of wine in the film, The Princess Bride:
HERE’S HOW IT COULD PLAY OUT
Today, Walker will join a panel of gubernatorial hopefuls at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association conference in Anchorage. It appears that Mark Begich will not be on the stage, but Mike Dunleavy, Scott Hawkins will.
Meanwhile, on the Republican side, Mead Treadwell is readying his paperwork for the Alaska Public Offices Commission, and Mike Chenault is said to be dropping out of the governor’s race today. (Must Read Alaska was not able to reach Chenault and Treadwell for confirmation. Treadwell was flying back from California, where he was attending the wedding of his former speechwriter, Michaela Goertzen.)
Must Read Alaska will cover the AOGA debate-forum, which is expected to be seen by hundreds at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR — DEEP SPECULATION
After the debate, Walker will either stay in Anchorage or fly to Juneau and pace while he waits to see what Begich will do. If Begich files for the Democrat primary, Walker will yield that field to him and go directly to the general election as a petition candidate — a man with no party.
Both Begich and Walker are likely to have watchers stationed at each of the six offices of the Division of Elections, cell phones in hand, watching to see if the candidates arrive, and reporting back to their camps.
Begich is not returning calls to the media, which is unusual for him; he always returns calls.
If Begich files as a Democrat, he’ll need a lieutenant governor candidate to file as well. Currently, no Democrats have filed for lieutenant governor. (Mallott is a Democrat, but wedded to the decision of Walker). Begich will need one. Who will it be: Sen. Bill Wielechowski? Rep. Ivy Spohnholz? Or someone from Fairbanks? Election office watchers will need to keep their eyes peeled for likely applicants.
If there is no Democrat lieutenant governor candidate, but Begich files, the current lieutenant governor would need to issue an emergency order to relax the rules and allow the Alaska Democratic Party and Begich to appoint a replacement.
By filing, even if he loses, Begich helps the Democratic Party take back its power from the uncontrollable “no party” group that has taken it over. Begich would then be in a position to run for Senate in 2020.
Walker will not likely drop out right away, but Begich appears to have a poll that he likes the looks of for a three-way race.
Begich could simply file by mail, and skip the drama. So long as his application is postmarked before 5 pm, he could outsmart Walker and not appear anywhere near an Election office on Friday.
THE WILD, WILD LEFT
Walker has embraced the Democrats as his own over the past three years, hiring Begich alumni into leading positions, establishing a climate change panel, and embracing taxes for Alaskans and businesses. He’s socialized the gasline project and expanded Medicaid so that one third of Alaskans are now part of the system. He’s done everything the Democrats have told him to do.
All that, and even announced he will run in the Democrats’ primary. It could all slip away in the next 30 hours.
Wilderness is important. The Gwich’in people are important. The Inupiaq people are important. Caribou, indoor plumbing, whales, jobs, health, colonization, and rampant alcoholism. Even sex and the price of coffee.
It is all important and it was all was spoken into the federal record last night in Anchorage.
The opinions varied: Drilling in the 1002 Area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will either bring death or destruction, or it will bring life, prosperity, revenue for the state, more stability for the Trans Alaska Pipeline, and more jobs.
In three-minute segments, dozens of Alaskans and a few Canadians stood at the microphone at the Dena’ina Center to address a panel from the Bureau of Land Management during the second “public scoping meeting” for an expedited environmental impact statement.
Some wore kuspuks, others were in “Alaska casual” business attire. Before them sat a panel of BLM officials, headed by Joe Balash, lifelong Alaskan and Assistant Secretary of the Interior.
NO-LEASE OR PRO-LEASE
The first stop had been in Fairbanks, where a similar hearing was held. There, the “no lease” crowd outnumbered the pro-lease crowd 50-1. Anchorage’s meeting was more balanced. There were the requisite protestors outside the Dena’ina Center before the hearing began, but no disruptions of the proceedings.
It was the exercise in modern governance, where proceeding on a project of any size includes the ability for opponents to protest and plead with regulators.
And so they did.
The ANWR argument has played out for decades between pro- and anti-development camps over a 22-million-acre portion of the coastal plain that is rich in oil.
The area is also rich in wilderness for a handful polyester-wearing outdoorsy types and their polypro kayaks. A desolate gravel-and-ice area of the Arctic, it is key to the life cycle of caribou.
The 1002 land has long been set aside for responsible oil development, but the environmental community has fought it for decades. Then, in December, the majority Republicans in Congress ordered that leases be opened for the coastal portion of the wilderness. The move was an historic victory for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young. President Trump signed the legislation that made it so.
A SAMPLING OF THE TESTIMONY
A representative from the Wilderness Society told the panel, “The Arctic refuge is an amazing wild landscape of more than 19 million acres, and is home to polar bears, wolves, migratory birds, and the porcupine caribou herd, now numbering more than 200,000 animals. Oil and gas drilling would have devastating impacts on this pristine and fragile ecosystem because of the massive infrastructure that would sprawl throughout the coastal plain to extract and transport oil. Drilling the arctic is dangerous.”
A Gwitch’in representative said the refuge must remain untouched in perpetuity. Bernadette Dementieff called the government corrupt and said that two out of three Americans oppose drilling in the caribou calving grounds.
“It’s time that we start being heard and start listening to the American people and the First Nations of this country,” she said. “The people whose lives are forever going to change. The prices of food there [in the Arctic] are extremely high. It’s $20 for a can of coffee, $40 for a steak, three bananas are $12. We take care of ourselves, and that’s what our food security does for us.”
She continued, “You’ve been hearing from people from here in Anchorage talking about [how] they want drilling. But they’re the last people that will be affected. You need to listen to the people in the northern communities that are going to be affected, whose lives are going to change. I know your minds are made up, and some of you could care less and don’t even care about me or my people at all. But I will follow you to every meeting if I have to. You need to understand that drilling in the calving grounds of the porcupine caribou herd is a direct attack on the Gwich’in Nation and our culture and our way of life.”
Guides and wilderness pack rafters from Anchorage talked about the importance of preserving the area for tourism, and how many tourism jobs are created by wilderness.
Haley Johnston, a program manager for an adventure travel company, said she has traveled the refuge both for work as a guide and for personal trips.
“Annually, this sector employees over 72,000 people and contributes $7.3 billion to the state’s economy. Tour plays a huge role. According to the Alaska visitors statistics program, in summer 2016, over 1.8 million people visited Alaska. On average, each visitor spent $1,057 while in state.”
Brad Meiklejohn, speaking on behalf of the American Packrafting Association, said the refuge is a sacred wild place on a crowded planet and he has spent months there, exploring every river.
“The Arctic Refuge is a major reason that I live in Alaska. Members of the American Packrafting Association come from around the world to experience the Arctic Refuge. Many others never visit the refuge, but it’s important to them that it’s there. For me, and thousands of others like me, it’s our refuge,” said the aging adventurer who has spent much of his adult life in pursuit of touching untouched places.
“This story isn’t about caribou or oil. It’s about restraint. Restraint is an underrated virtue these days. Who could be against ease and comfort and convenience, bigger cars, and yet another strip mall lined with Jack in the Box and Home Depot? It’s hard to go against our base desires of greed and hunger, but we’re usually glad when we find the courage to say no,” he said.
That didn’t set well with one Native speaker, Glen Solomon of Kaktovik, which is in the 1002 Area. He faced the Gwich’in speaker at times during his remarks, and at other times turned and addressed the urban pack rafters and guides.
Glen Solomon of Kaktovik, talks about how much better life has been with sanitation and opportunities.
“Just to hear all these people talking about tourism, rafting down the river and everything, and you’re making a bunch of profit. I am not Gwich’in. This is where I’m from. This is where my ancestors were buried. This is where I was brought up. And just to hear the Gwich’in people trying to say that they are the caretakers of the ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it’s where I’m from. The 1002 area is my land.”
For Solomon, another irony had not escaped him: “And just to have them [Gwich’in] try to develop back in the ’80s, they leased out 180,000 acres of their land for oil and gas development, and it was a bust. And just to have them try to put a stop to us developing on our own land, it just kind of stabs you right in the back. Because we would like to live like everybody else, get to have the resources to make profit, to make infrastructure in my village, to have jobs like everybody else, and just to have these people say,’ no, you can’t develop on your land’ — that hurts. That really hurts. That’s like stabbing somebody in the heart and saying you can’t live.
“I don’t want to live in a third world country. I have done that before. Getting honey buckets, spilling them into 55-gallon buckets growing up. Going, getting water. We got running water, we got flushed toilets, thanks to oil and gas. We got schools. We got clinics. It helps out a lot for our communities throughout the whole North Slope. And, you know, I love my people, I love my land, I love my animals. I’m a whaling captain. For the past three years, I have caught oil for my community to feed my people.”
Marianne of Barrow describes her life growing up in the Arctic.
Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, spoke in favor of the project, as did Curtis Thayer, president of Alaska Chamber of Commerce, and Marleanna Hall, executive director of the Alaska Resource Development Council. They spoke of jobs and economic prosperity that energy development has brought the state, and that oil and traditional lifestyles are compatible. Technology improvements have shrunk the footprint of the projects in the Arctic and are protecting the land.
A Gwich’in man named David said he had been a North Slope worker for years and wasn’t impressed with jobs going to out of state to white people.
“You guys talk about revenue. You talk about jobs. You see all of these people that’s talking about working up a slope 30, 20 years, all these white people. Guess what, a lot of those people that work up there, they don’t even live in Alaska, they lived down the lower 48, so they make all that money, and they leave here. I work eight weeks out of the year, just enough to pay off my credit card. Why? Because the next 10 months, I don’t work.” That appeared to be something he felt worked well for his way of life.
Another Gwich’in man, Samuel John, said that the process had no respect for the Gwich’in people. He said when there is an economic collapse, the Gwich’in people will feed everyone on the BLM panel — but only if there are any caribou left.
Sen. Cathy Giessel speaks about the harsh life in the villages that she witnessed as a child.
State Sen. Cathy Giessel delivered a different perspective. She said the porcupine herd of caribou is thriving, not diminishing.
She summarized a study that documented the health of northern Alaskans from 1980 through 2014.
Describing the hard conditions of the villages she saw when she was a child, she relayed how the people on the North Slope have increased their life expectancy at the highest rate of anywhere in the United States since 1980 — an 8- to 13-year average increase for every person living there.
“We usually hear the typical oppositional outcry when projects like this are considered, that there will be devastation and destruction. But in fact, those things don’t happen. In fact, resource development has brought health and prosperity to Alaskans living in these areas, as well as the rest of the state,” Giessel said.
That wasn’t the experience from a young man from St. Paul Island. The man named George said, “When you bring oil to our lands, you also bring your people and your ways. And our women, our women are taken, and they are raped, drugs are brought to our children, and alcoholism plagues us due to these ways. You want to put oil in our lands, you put oil in us. What you do to our land is what you do to your women, and that is what is going on. Our women are getting raped as the land is getting raped.”
George of St. Paul
Speaker Roman Diall also got up into the sex analogy business in his remarks: “It’s like virginity, once it’s gone, it’s really gone.”
He continued, “But just because I have sex doesn’t mean I condone rape. The oil pad will only have, somebody said, like 1/100th a percent of the Arctic Refuge. Well, you know, would a father sell that 1/100th of a percent of his daughter’s skin that would command the highest price?”
Roman Diall of Anchorage
This women-as-property moment is when Must Read Alaska checked out for the night. After all, the environmental impact process continues for the next several months and a piece of property needs her sleep.
Just before 1 am on Memorial Day, Michael R. A. Pope was said to be standing with a group of men in the Russian Jack neighborhood of Anchorage, when a disturbance broke out. That’s when he shot off several rounds before leaving in a red Dodge Ram pickup.
Police received calls from neighbors who were hunkered down on San Fernando Street, a neighborhood of stick-built apartment complexes.
A police officer spotted the truck driving through the Costco parking lot on Debarr Road, which is only couple of blocks away, and attempted to stop it in the Northway Mall parking lot, but the driver, 34-year-old Pope, was having none of it. He attempted to evade, ramming several police cars and a civilian Subaru in the process.
He then jumped from his truck and ran, with officers in pursuit. Eventually they used the taser on him, but it had no effect, and he continued running toward the 3200 block of Penland Parkway, where he ran into a patrol car. He fought the officers trying to contain him and they took him to the ground as he resisted arrest. Eventually they used handcuffs and leg irons on him to get him to stop resisting. The police took him to the hospital to be evaluated before being taken to jail.
Three patrol cars and the Subaru were damaged. As officers looked inside the truck, they saw a rifle in plain view. As a convicted felon, Pope is not allowed to possess a firearm.
He was also found to have absconded from probation/parole from an earlier violation.
Pope was issued citations for No Insurance and Driving on a Revoked License. He was remanded at the Anchorage Jail on charges of Assault III, Fail to Stop, Reckless Driving, Resist by Force, Misconduct Involving a Weapon I, Leaving the Scene of an Accident, Misconduct Involving a Weapon III, Operating Under the Influence, and Criminal Mischief IV. He also had an outstanding felony warrant for Operating Under the Influence.
Pope has a string of prior encounters with the law. In 2003, he pled guilty to eluding a police officer, driving without a license, underage consuming. In 2004, it was car theft in Wasilla, and then violating probation conditions. By 2008, it was misdemeanor harassment. He was in and out of jail in 2012 on various charges, and continued to have run-ins with the law.
Then there were charges and court proceedings over sexual abuse of a minor, indecent exposure, and related charges whereby he became a felon. Life has definitely been going in the wrong direction for Pope.
SIX COP CARS IN SEVEN DAYS RAMMED BY PUNKS
Just last week, another incident occurred where a suspect rammed three police cars in an effort to escape, and also wrecked the Suburban he was driving, which was reportedly stolen.
The State Division of Elections has been a hopping place today. Some of the recent filings listed here were expected, others not so much.
Among highly anticipated actions is whether Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott will officially withdraw from their petition for the General Election and formally file in the Democrats’ primary, as they announced they wouldearlier this month. So far, there’s been no sign of the two, although the governor has returned from China.
It appears Walker/Mallott are strategically waiting to see if Mark Begich files for governor and, if so, who might also run for lieutenant governor as a Democrat. If Begich jumps in, Walker/Mallott would still have the option to go straight to the General Election.
Also not filed for the primary with the Division of Elections is Scott Hawkins or Mike Chenault, both who have registered to run for governor with the Alaska Public Offices Commission and who are running active campaigns.
Republicans Mike Dunleavy and Michael Sheldon have both qualified for the ballot with the Division.
Here are some candidates who filed:
Senate Seat A – Sen. Pete Kelly now posted on Division of Elections’ web site as a candidate for his Senate seat, but his challenger, Rep. Scott Kawasaki has not yet filed with the Division, although he has with the Alaska Public Offices Commission.
Senate Seat I – Jim Crawford, a Republican, has filed for the seat being vacated by Sen. Berta Gardner. It’s a district that covers much of midtown Anchorage from Spenard to the U-Med District.
Crawford has a long history with the Alaska Republican Party and politics in Alaska. He served as chairman of the party, was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention, and was the chairman of the Trump campaign for Alaska. He’ll face Elvi Gray-Jackson, a Democrat in a district that leans left.
House District 9 – Valerie Delaune, a Democrat, has filed for the seat now occupied by George Rauscher. Another Republican has filed for that seat: Pam Goode.
House District 13 – Danyelle Kimp, a Democrat, has filed for the Eagle River seat being vacated by Rep. Dan Saddler as he runs for Senate seat G. Craig Christenson, a Republican, had filed for the seat several weeks ago.
District 18 – Harriet Drummond, a Democrat incumbent, has filed for her midtown seat. She faces Anthony Lekanof, a Republican who filed earlier. Many had wondered why Drummond had not filed, but she cleared up the mystery by doing so today.
House District 22 – Jason Grenn, nonpartisan, finally filed a nominating petition for his current seat for Southwest Anchorage area, which means he intends to go to the General Election and skip the primary, as a man without a party. The question had been whether he intended to challenge Sen. Mia Costello, but he may have answered that question today, unless he is pulling the old last-minute “switcharoo” trick on her.
Liz Vazquez has also filed for House District 22. She is the Republican who was unseated by Grenn. Her primary opponent, Sara Rasmussen, has filed already, and Dustin Darden, a Democrat, has filed as well.
House District 29 – Wayne Ogle, a Republican, has filed for the Kenai seat being vacated by Mike Chenault, who is running for governor. Ogle will face Ben Carpenter in the Republican primary. Shawn Butler is the Democrat in that race.
Carole “Kitty” Hapner filed for U.S. House as a Democrat. She lives in South Dakota. In other curiosities, former Rep. Zach Fansler had filed officially with the Division of Elections and has not withdrawn, even though he was forced out of the Legislature. Tiffany Zulkosky took his place as a representative and has announced her run.
Another pending curiosity is why Rep. Chris Tuck, a Democrat, has not filed for his seat representing House District 23. Connie Dougherty and Forrest McDonald have both filed with APOC and the Division of Elections; both are Republicans.
Candidates must file by 5 pm June 1 and withdraw by July 2, if they don’t plan to be on the primary ballot.
Reps. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Jason Grenn, of Alaskans for Integrity.
EXTENSIVE FLOUTING OF ALASKA CAMPAIGN TRANSPARENCY LAWS
“Alaskans for Integrity” may be run by a group of Democrats in Anchorage. But they are running on funds that come from all over the nation — every place except Alaska.
The group is sponsoring a ballot initiative that would make it hard for many lawmakers to hold down meaningful jobs outside of their elected office, changing them from a citizen Legislature to a professional one — only those who could afford to serve would run.
The goal appears to be to target any legislator who works in oil or mining, preventing them from retaining jobs — or if they do so, preventing them from voting on legislation related to taxes on their industry, or on the industries in which any immediate family members work.
WHO IS BEHIND IT?
Rep. Jason Grenn, an Anchorage nonpartisan who aligned with House Democrats in Juneau, and Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a solid Democrat, are the lead sponsors of the Integrity initiative. And the campaign behind it is soaking up a lot of money, almost all of it from Outside the state.
So while it looks Alaskan, it’s not. As of May 24, the committee had brought in $311,000 and no group had formed to oppose the measure. The largest contributors include a Massachusetts group called Represent.Us, which has put in $215,086.38.
A second big contributor is an admittedly Democrat surrogate group: End Citizens United, which put $12,131 into the Alaskans for Integrity campaign. End Citizens United, based in San Francisco, receives funds through the ActBlue app, just like Alaskans for Integrity does.
The rest of the money comes from individual donors in dribs and drabs — $3, $5, or $50 donations from people from New York to San Francisco. And a remarkable number of them are not legally reported to the Alaska Public Offices Commission. They are listed as “Unemployed.”
But reviewing the donors, it’s clear they are employed — they are just not saying how and who their employer is. Anyone donating $50 or more must indicate employer and job title.
There are dozens of $50 donations from people everywhere but Alaska who say they are unemployed but, according to Must Read Alaska’s crack research department, are definitely employed.
An example of just one snapshot taken from the pages upon pages of donations that are in blatant violation of Alaska’s transparency laws:
To review the thousands of non-transparent donations the group has received from Outside, follow this link.
A national campaign to collect money for this Alaska “anti-corruption” law has reached far and wide through the high-tech world of online fundraising and by use of the ActBlue tool. Yet it appears the founders of the Alaskans for Integrity cannot even follow the simplest rule from the Alaska Public Offices Commission, which is transparency about donors.
ACT BLUE, BUT NOT ACT LIKE JKT
Alaska’s campaign finance laws are clear: Donors must list their names, addresses, occupations and employers. The only exceptions are for random dollars that show up that cannot be traced to someone, but must be disclosed as anonymous, and are given a second look by APOC staff. If a campaign has too many anonymous donors, that will be a red flag.
Kreiss-Tomkins, one of the sponsors of the Integrity initiative, has a history of sloppy reporting. After MustReadAlaska questioned whether he was too busy, too disorganized, or simply a scofflaw on his report to APOC earlier this year, he hustled to fix the dozens of errors.
Kreiss-Tomkins report showed he had received more than $3,000 from out of state, which would have been a violation as a candidate; he also showed receiving a donation in February from a political action committee, also illegal; and received $1,000 in illegal donations from ASEA, the State employees union. He also had listed four donations twice on his APOC report.
The majority of his donors on his original filing omitted their job titles and employers, and many addresses were missing or clearly false, listing hometowns such as “Stanwood, Alaska.” Clearly, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins was having trouble dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in his campaign finance reports.
By the time he corrected those problems, which appeared to be double entries, his $8,833 in donations were whittled down to $6,944, about a 22 percent error rate in his reporting. In the end, he made sure his out-of-state contributions came in just under the $3,000 limit, a legal squeaker for the lawmaker who attended Yale University but who left before graduating to run for the Alaska House.
WHAT DOES THE ‘INTEGRITY INITIATIVE’ DO?
The measure would make changes to laws related to state legislators’ conflicts of interest, prohibiting lawmakers from taking or withholding official actions that could substantially affect the financial interests of them or their immediate family, employer, or the employer of an immediate family member. It would also prevent lawmakers from voting on matters that impacts a person who gave more than $10,000 to the legislator or legislator’s immediate family in the preceding year.
For example, if a lawmaker’s parents own a liquor license, that lawmaker might not be able to vote on anything relating to alcohol laws in Alaska.
Under the initiative, legislators would be required to declare to a legislative committee any conflict of interest before voting on any matter that could have a significant financial impact on the legislator or the legislator’s immediate family or the industries in which they work, above and beyond the effect on the general public; the legislator would have to request to be excused from the vote, but could vote if a majority of members in the chamber voted to allow it.
There are other provisions in this sweeping initiative that relate to per diem, and whether lobbyists can pay for meals. The measure would prohibit legislators from receiving per diem allowances during a special session until a budget bill was passed.
ISN’T THERE A LAW THAT JUST PASSED THAT DOES THIS?
Yes. In fact, it passed on May 11.
In 2018, both the House and Senate passed HB 44, that mirrors the Alaskans for Integrity ballot initiative. The cosponsors were Reps. Gabrielle LeDoux, Scott Kawasaki, Chris Tuck, Louise Stutes, Ivy Spohnholz, Justin Parish, Zach Fansler, Geran Tarr, Harriet Drummond, Les Gara, Daniel Ortiz, Andy Josephson, and Kreiss-Tomkins. Grenn was not on the list.
In the Senate, only Sen. Bill Wielechowski was a sponsor, although the measure passed easily. HB 44 was amended by Sen. Kevin Meyer to mirror the initiative’s language.
The governor can now either sign it, allow it to go into law without his signature, or veto it.
If he signs it, the Dept. of Law must decide if the new law is so similar to the ballot initiative that the initiative is no longer valid. Gov. Bill Walker is expected to issue a statement in the coming weeks about what his administration will do next.
WHAT HAPPENS TO ‘ALASKANS FOR INTEGRITY’S’ MONEY?
If the measure doesn’t go forward to the ballot, Alaskans for Integrity will be free to use the money how it wants, and it will likely peel off whatever remains to support political action activity relating to accountability. In other words, the group will likely use the money to oppose Republicans who it doesn’t think lives up to its accountability and transparency standards.
But meanwhile, as this report hits, the group will likely have to spend a lot of staff time chasing down hundreds of donors and establishing their jobs and employers. After all, it’s about transparency in elections.
The Division of Elections working group, during one of its first meetings in May, 2017.
STATE ELECTION POLICY WORKING GROUP TO CONSIDER PROPOSAL FROM ONE OF ITS OWN
The Anchorage League of Women Voters has sent a resolution to the State of Alaska asking it to adopt the mail-in ballot for the General Election.
It’s not clear from the resolution if the League wants only Anchorage to be able to conduct the General Election with a mail-in ballot, or if the League expects the entire state to “go postal” in November. The resolution sent to the Division of Elections leaves that open to interpretation and seems to suggest a hybrid of regular and mail-in voting for areas outside of Anchorage. But Anchorage would be all mail-in, as it did in the Municipal Election in April.
The wording “supports the State of Alaska utilizing the Municipality of Anchorage new vote-by-mail system beginning with the State of Alaska elections in 2018;”
It’s the first public push from mail-in ballot proponents to get the entire state on the system.
Changing the voting system, however, would require a change in state statute, which is not likely to happen this year, as the Legislature has already adjourned.
Even if statute is changed, it took Anchorage a year and a half to prepare for mail-in voting — and even then it did not go off without a hitch. Hundreds of ballots were returned undeliverable and cost overruns were extraordinary: It squeezed the taxpayers for more than $1 million, twice what it had cost to provide a traditional election.
That works out to $12.61 per vote cast, not to mention the tens of thousands of dollars in postage that voters had to pay themselves if they wanted to mail in their ballots, rather than drop them in regional drop boxes.
But the Anchorage League of Women Voters is undaunted. A quick skim of the voting registration of the board of the organization explains why it’s eager to move to mail-in ballots:
Five of the League’s board members are registered nonpartisans: Joyce M. Anderson, Cari Zawondny, Tina DeLapp, Carol Dickason, and Diane Mathiesen.
The other five are registered Democrats: Margaret McDonagh, Beth Nordlund, Shirley Pittz, Pat Redmond, and Schawna Thoma.
The Division of Elections Policy Working Group that is considering changes to elections will be meeting at 9 am on June 13 and will consider the request from the League, among other topics.
Talk show host Amy Demboskihas said there is a loophole that could allow such a change to take place without a broad public process. The lieutenant governor and Division of Elections has the authority to enact emergency regulations to change election procedures, but it’s unclear what constitutes an emergency.
One such emergency happened in 2006, when a lieutenant gubernatorial candidate, former state legislator and Soldotna mayor Ken Lancaster, dropped out of the race in mid-September and the Division of Elections issued an emergency regulation to give his running mate, Andrew Halcro, the ability to name a new running mate. He named Anchorage Assemblywoman Fay Von Gemmingen.
The Division of Elections Policy Working Group has been meeting for over a year, but little is known about the membership of the group or their work. Their meetings are generally not advertised, and few Alaskans are aware of the changes that may take place under Lieutenant Gov. Byron Mallott with the advice of this panel of election advisers.
Joyce Anderson, who chairs the Anchorage League of Women voters, serves on this working group, as do others noted in this Must Read Alaska story from May, 2017.
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