Must Read Alaska launched a simple “yes, no” poll on Friday morning, asking readers how they want Sen. Lisa Murkowski to vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for U.S. Supreme Court.
You can take the poll here, but hurry — it ends in just a few hours:
ELIMINATED THE STATE WORKER LIVE-ABOARD SYSTEM
BY ART CHANCE
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
Reading Must Read Alaska’s Sept. 17 story on the new Alaska Class ferries made me thankful I’m an old retired guy living in Anchorage and I don’t have to care about the Alaska Marine Highway System, also known as the hole in the water that Alaska throws money into.
The Alaska Class ferries were intended and designed to be “day boats,” boats without hotel accommodations for either the passengers or the crew. They’re called day boats, but they could run night or day.
The purpose of the vessel is not to make long continuous voyages; they run something like an airliner runs. The Alaska Class can go here and there. It can change crews when necessary due to law or union contract. It can even run 24 hours a day, but it does so with a crew that doesn’t live aboard the vessel.
The Alaska Class was designed and built with great fanfare for the express purpose of providing day boat service in Northern Lynn Canal, the heart of AMHS service. Another day boat service was once contemplated for Northern Lynn Canal, the Fairweather Class fast ferries. The important fact here is that the State has never been able to implement true day boat service anywhere in the system. The Fairweathers are an expensive failure, and now the Alaska Classes have failed before they’ve ever even made a revenue passage.
I had the misfortune of being tasked to try to bring the Fairweathers into service. The Fairweathers are, or were, state-of-the-art high-speed craft code catamarans capable of 40 knot speeds in anything like good seas.
The Fairweathers are too high-tech to be beautiful in any traditional sense. But they are technological marvels, and they’re junk as transportation instruments. They’re too small to handle peak summer loads in either Northern Lynn Canal or Prince William Sound, so they have to have another conventional displacement hull vessel assigned to the route with them, which causes both vessels to run at less than full capacity.
Even the conventional vessels can’t break even unless they’re full, and the fast boats that guzzle diesel at 800 gallons per hour absolutely must run full to be at all economically viable.
Now we’re told that since the Walker Administration killed the Juneau Road project, there is no need for day boats in Northern Lynn Canal, so they’re going to modify the Alaska Classes to provide hotel accommodations for the crews and run them as conventional vessels.
There is a word for this, but Suzanne edits out my occasional profanity.
At the 15-1/2 knot speed of the Alaska Classes, it is about four hours from Auke Bay to Haines, another hour and a half to Skagway with Haines layover time, an hour in Skagway for loading and boarding and back to Juneau in about five hours.
That is an easy schedule for a 12-hour day for the crew including tie-up time in Auke Bay. Everybody goes home and rolls in their sweet baby’s arms overnight and starts the process again in the morning. The airlines have been doing it this way for the better part of a century.
The real issue is that the marine pirates, excuse me, marine unions don’t like running ships this way. That was the biggest problem with bringing on the Fairweathers; we wanted to run them like airliners and the unions wanted to run them like 19th century sailing ships.
We tussled with them a bit, tied up the boats a time or two; I even went to Seattle to meet with them, since almost none of them actually live here.
I offered the pirates a 25 percent across the board wage increase if we could write the work rules. They were never willing to concede anything on their rapacious work rules, but I sure heard a lot about that 25 percent for operating the fast boats.
We never were able to get anything like airline-style work rules where the crew would tie up the boat and an overnight maintenance crew would take care of any necessary work on the vessel. We were catching hell from the Juneau Empire, the Cordova Times, the Sitka Daily Sentinel, and the Democrat house organ, the Anchorage Daily News about not bringing the greenie/lefty technological marvels into service.
I was scheduled to bargain with the Engineers and the Masters and I was sitting home with no airspeed, no altitude, and no ideas. I wish I still had a copy of my middle of the night email to Jim Clark, Gov. Frank Murkowski’s chief of staff; basically I told him that oil had been above $50 a barrel for three months or so and we had money, so I thought the best alternative was to throw some money at the (fine gentlemen) and get ourselves off the front pages. Clark told me not to ask him, but to tell him if I could get a deal with them. The rest is history.
The marine highway needs new management. You’ll never be able to run it efficiently or economically if you recruit only from the military and other Jones Act shippers; these are people for whom the cost is no object. They never even think about what something costs.
Back then, I was always being prodded to explore contracting out various functions on the vessels. But what needs to be contracted out is the management of the Alaska Marine Highway System. There are plenty of companies around the world that run shipping lines effectively.
We need to put people in charge who have never had a government job.
Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska, formerly of Juneau and now living in Anchorage. He is the author of the book, “Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance,” available at Amazon. He only writes for Must Read Alaska when he’s banned from posting on Facebook. Chance coined the phrase “hermaphrodite Administration” to describe a governor who is simultaneously a Republican and a Democrat. This was a grave insult to hermaphrodites, but he has not apologized.
The IBEW and a slew of Democrat regulars request your presence at a fundraiser for candidates they are offering up as “independents.”
They include Gov. Bill Walker, who first was running in the Democratic Primary, but who fled that ballot when Mark Begich challenged him as a Democrat. In 2014, Walker and Byron Mallot forged a ticket that had the blessing of the Alaska Democratic Party.
The star attractions include Rep. Jason Grenn, who pretended to be independent when he ran in District 22 but caucused with the Democrats. Also on the fundraising invitation is Daniel Ortiz of Ketchikan, cut from the same cloth as Grenn. Chris Dimond, a carpenter’s union guy from Juneau and Shawn Butler, of House District 29 in Kenai, close out the list.
Hosts are all union Democrats or those who have a history of only working with Democrats, including AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami, who tried to pass himself off as an “independent’ two years ago, but lost badly to incumbent Sen. Cathy Giessel.
Commerce Commissioner Mike Navarre has taken leave into order to campaign for Gov. Bill Walker.
Navarre sent a memo to employees this week saying he’ll be off duty through the Nov. 6 election: “I intend to focus a significant amount of my personal time and energy in the coming weeks on the upcoming election. As such, I have decided to take a leave of absence until early November so I can focus on advocating for the candidates and issues that are of great concern to me.”
Of concern to Navarre is shoring up support for Gov. Bill Walker, as he struggles in third place in a three-way race. Navarre, who has only been Commerce commissioner for 11 months, is a longtime advocate of a state income tax, one of Walker’s key initiatives of his fiscal plan.
Navarre is the former Borough Mayor of Kenai, and is doing something that others in the Administration have not done: separate himself from his official duties while he campaigns. That shows character. But whom can he influence? Navarre may be known in Kenai, but his name recognition is weak elsewhere in the state. And he lacks stature without his former chief of staff Larry Persily by his side.
Filling in for Navarre at Commerce is Deputy Commissioner Fred Parady.
Watching the television news report the other night about the standing-room-only Anchorage public hearing on hotly contested Ballot Measure 1, it was hard not to laugh.
The measure appearing on November’s ballot, and drafted by an organization calling itself Stand for Salmon, an environmentalist-heavy bunch, would be devastating for Alaska’s economy and future development, its myriad detractors point out. Alaska already has some of the world’s best environmental protections for fisheries, they say.
Opponents of the measure were the majority of speakers at the hearing, which apparently miffed the group’s president, Ryan Schryver
“Our opponents are primarily deep pocketed, foreign mining and oil companies,” Schryver told the KTUU reporter. “And they’ve been able to pay people to show up at these types of events.”
Foreign mining and oil companies? Really? If we are going to talk about Outside money in this fight, let’s talk about who supports the ballot measure – and where they come from.
Paul Easley, a member of the Alaska Policy Forum board of directors, wrote in the Anchorage Daily News:
“A quick look at the measure’s APOC financial filings makes clear that many of its member groups have ties to multimillion-dollar anti-resource development campaigns taking place around the country.
http://www.anchoragedailyplanet.com/133008/home-grown-hardly/
NAKED POLITICAL AMBITION ON DISPLAY
Earlier this week, Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott spoke publicly about how they were “leaning” against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh for U.S. Supreme Court. Mallott was concerned particularly about the “process.”
[Read: Walker, Mallott weigh in on Kavanaugh]
Today, they are solidly opposed to Kavanaugh. What has changed since Monday?
Walker and Mallott, two struggling public figures hoping for a reelection miracle, may have seen some poll numbers that disturb them. They’re tacking left, trying to “out-Begich” Mark Begich, the Democrat in the race.
Begich, running several points behind Mike Dunleavy, has already come out against Kavanaugh. And Walker is now dragging along the bottom in third place, and trying to claw back the most hard-left votes from Begich.
Walker and Mallott said unequivocally in their press release this morning that they are clearly on the side of Big Labor, with a veiled reference to a recent court decision that allows public employees to not join a union:
“We oppose the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“One of our top priorities as Governor and Lieutenant Governor is expanding affordable healthcare access to all Alaskans. We supported increasing the number of people eligible to receive health insurance by increasing the pool of those who have access to Medicaid, and we have also championed protections for Alaskans with pre-existing health conditions. Another priority of our administration is protecting the rights of working Alaskans. Mr. Kavanaugh’s record does not demonstrate a commitment to legal precedent that protects working families. Key aspects of our nation’s healthcare and labor laws may be at risk if Mr. Kavanaugh receives a lifetime appointment.
“Mr. Kavanaugh’s appointment could also jeopardize the Indian Child Welfare Act, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and other laws that enable tribal self-determination due to his overly narrow view of the relationship between federal and tribal governments. Alaska is home to 227 tribes, nearly half of all tribes in our nation.
“Finally, we believe a thorough review of past allegations against Mr. Kavanaugh is needed before a confirmation vote takes place. Violence against women in Alaska is an epidemic. We do not condone placing someone into one of our nation’s highest positions of power while so many key questions remain unanswered.”
WHAT IS THEIR ANGLE?
Walker is reaching out to his voting base. This has less to do with persuading Sen. Lisa Murkowski to vote against the Kavanaugh confirmation than it has to do with Walker’s own ambitions. It’s almost as if the Democrats are finally having their primary — in the General Election.
The governor’s statement refers not once to the importance of upholding the U.S. Constitution or rule of law, but instead treats the Supreme Court as if it is a super-legislative body, rather than an independent judicial panel weighing cases against constitutional principles and established case law.
At a time when crime is at record levels across the state, and when Alaska has the highest unemployment in the nation, the statement by the governor may backfire.
Why? Plenty of Alaskan voters are wives, mothers, and daughters, and they do not hate men, as the Dianne Feinsteins of the world appear to do. Plenty of women are thinking “What if Brett Kavanaugh was my son and this was happening to him?”
Mike Dunleavy, the Republican candidate for governor, was more circumspect in his statement:
“This is an unfolding event with many moving parts, but an established process exists to fully vet Supreme Court nominees,” he said. “I have every confidence in our delegation and the process to do right by Alaskans and the American people. Meanwhile, my campaign remains focused on making neighborhoods safe, rebuilding our economy, and paying Alaskans full dividends.”
AND WHO IT IS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU
A large donation came in the door on Tuesday at Dunleavy for Alaska, the independent group working to elect Mike Dunleavy as governor.
Former gubernatorial candidate Scott Hawkins became the fourth-largest contributor to the independent expenditure group, with a $20,000 check.
“It was not my destiny to continue in the race for governor this year,” said Hawkins, who dropped from contention in June to focus on his health. “Nonetheless, we desperately need a fiscally conservative, pro-business leader in Juneau. Mike Dunleavy is the clear choice. Only he can end the hard-left, budget-busting governance of the past four years. I encourage my friends and colleagues in the Alaska business community to meet my challenge and respond in kind.”
“Terre Gales (chairman for Dunleavy for Alaska) and his team delivered a historic landslide victory in the primary. I am pleased to help them do it again in November,” Hawkins said.
“Scott Hawkins is a class act and we are thrilled to have his support. With a little over a month to go this donation will help us reach voters with Mike Dunleavy’s uplifting message about Alaska’s future,” Gales said this morning.
Dunleavy for Alaska has raised $766,614 so far this year, with most donations coming in from Alaskans at amounts under $500. Much of it has been spent increasing the name recognition of the former Arctic educator, who became a state senator before launching a bid for governor.
As for the national polls, the state is increasingly leaning Republican as the election gets closer, with new polling data released on Tuesday:
Meanwhile, the Dunleavy for Alaska group, responsible for the brightly colored and iconic campaign signs, rolled out a new mama moose design for those who are collecting the whole set:
The Victory 2018 team was announced today by Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock. These are some of the key leaders who will be all-hands-on-deck for the GOP victories around the state this fall, including the marquee candidate, Mike Dunleavy for governor.
Above are photographed left to right in back, Joseph Lurtsema, social media director, Tuckerman Babcock, Jamie LeMaster, special assistant. From left in front is executive assistant Rina Salazar, outreach director Sharon Jackson, and special assistant Jeannine Blueford. Not photographed is Josh Walton, ARP executive director; Myranda Walso, Victory 2018 finance director; and Darren Deacon, rural outreach director.
The Alaska Republican Party Anchorage headquarters is open Monday through Friday, 9-2.
The Fairbanks Republican Victory office is open 11-7, Monday through Saturday:
Mike Dunleavy answers a question about whether he would repeal SB 91, while Mark Begich and Bill Walker ponder their response. Gov. Walker was a no.
WALKER BACKTRACKS ON SANCTUARY CITIES ANSWER
According to an informal sidewalk poll conducted at the exit of Wednesday’s gubernatorial forum at Anchorage’s Coast International Inn, 60 percent said candidate Mike Dunleavy won the debate by, 40 percent gave the win to Mark Begich, but not a single participant said that Gov. Bill Walker won.
The three major candidates for governor appeared before 125 Alaskans from the real estate and home mortgage industry in a lunchtime forum that some observers say was the best one yet.
The questions ranged from curbing crime to the Permanent Fund dividend calculation, and most of the answers were ones the candidates had offered at other debates. But there were surprises:
During the “Yes or No” paddle round, the first question was whether candidates support “sanctuary cities,” where illegal immigrants can hide from federal authorities.
Sanctuary cities: All three held up their “No” paddles, but toward the end of the forum, Walker clarified his answer and said he didn’t support President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. That left his answer in the yes-no paddle round unclear.
Common Core: On whether they support the education program known as Common Core, it was Dunleavy and Begich not favoring Common Core, and Walker favoring it.
Medicaid expansion: Further Medicaid expansion in Alaska had Dunleavy opposing it, but Begich and Walker supporting it.
Logging in the Tongass: Dunleavy favored more logging in the Tongass, while Begich and Walker did not.
Ballot Measure 1: Dunleavy and Walker will vote no on Ballot Measure 1, while Begich will vote yes.
Walker thought he would take the gloves off and ask Dunleavy why he hadn’t attended all of the debates and forums that Walker and Begich had been to over the past few weeks.
The answer was not what Walker had hoped for. It was the smack-down of the day from Dunleavy:
“I think Mark Begich is wondering that same thing, when you skipped out on the primary,” Dunleavy said.
“I’ll tell you where I’ve been. I’ve been to 25 town halls, debates and forums, 36 fairs, festivals, and sporting events, 212 meetings with Alaskans and 100 radio call ins.
“I participated in a hotly contested primary process while you skipped it and Senator Begich has been absent from the discussion for four years.
“I’ve been part of 19 debates in the primary or general. The folks next to me have been to 8 total, each. I’ve been talking with the people of Alaska and listening to their concerns.
“I’d suggest you get out there before Nov. 6th and hear what they have to say,” Dunleavy said.
The applause was spontaneous.
Most of the attack questions from Begich and Walker were pointed at Dunleavy.
In the end, the sidewalk poll sampled 25 percent of attendees, asking them: “Who do you think won the debate?” The result was:
Dunleavy- 15
Begich-10
Walker-0*
* Must Read Alaska did not ask First Lady Donna Walker to take the poll as she left the building, but that would have given Walker a 1. The poll was taken as people exited the banquet room, and the question was asked of as many people as possible.
