The invitation to the Jan. 7 Inaugural Party in Anchorage.
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS STARTS JAN. 7 IN ANCHORAGE
Just 24 days remain until the 58th Presidential Inauguration, but the festivities start in Anchorage with the official Alaska Republican Inaugural Gala in just two weeks.
Jan. 7: The Anchorage party is billed as “The Power of Red,” at the Petroleum Club. It’s a fundraiser for the state party to kick off momentum for the next big election cycle in 2018, and is definitely black tie, but organizers are encouraging everyone to wear a bit of red.
Tickets are $200 per person, and it is likely the social event of the winter, but it’s limited to 100 people. Contact Josh Walton at 227-5785 to reserve your tickets.
The Alaska gala takes place prior to the official presidential inauguration so that legislators heading to Juneau and those heading to Washington, DC would have the opportunity to attend, said Dawn Linton-Warren, the head of the gala committee.
Ladies, it’s a chance to see if the sequins are still firmly attached to your gown and is one of the few occasions you’ll have to wear that spangled dress in Alaska in 2017.
JAN. 20: Word has it an event is being organized for Anchorage on the day of the inauguration, but details were not available this weekend.
View of the Washington Monument and the Mall from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month.
WASHINGTON, DC EVENTS
Jan. 19: A reception hosted by the Alaska delegation, from 3-5 pm in the House Transportation Committee room that Rep. Don Young secured. It’s an occasion for those who have requested tickets through any of the three delegation offices.
Jan. 19: Donald Trump and Mike Pence will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery. A welcome concert is planned at the Lincoln Memorial.
Jan. 19: An Alaska Inauguration Celebration, with honorary cohosts Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, at the Washington Plaza. Tickets are free and invitations are being sent to those on the list who have obtained tickets to the swearing-in ceremony (awarded by lottery by the Alaska delegation). Event sponsors will have tickets as well. Mike Robbins at Steelhead Productions was hired to handle the event, which will be an Alaska extravaganza with Native dancing and drumming, Hobo Jim, Alaska beers and seafood, and historic photos and artifacts on display. Contact: [email protected]. To get a room at the Plaza, use this link and get $400 off with the event discount code. Normal room rates appear to be close to $1,000 a night, with a four-night minimum.
Jan. 20: Parade and Swearing-in ceremony. Full schedule of events is at this link. The best place to see the parade? From the balcony of the Canadian Embassy, (501 Pennsylvania Avenue), if you can get yourself an invitation. Word has it that Sen. Sullivan’s Chief of Staff Joe Balash has one, but word also has it he is going to be busy that day.
Jan. 20: The Senate immediately convenes after Trump is sworn in to vote on cabinet appointments. The questions are: Which one will Democrats allow to be confirmed, which do they require a roll-call vote for, and which ones do they want to debate? Typically the incoming president will get at least his “big four” appointees: Justice, State, Defense and Treasury, but Democrats are said to be gearing up for a bruising fight. In 2009, six of Obama’s appointees were confirmed and the only one requiring a roll call vote was Hillary Clinton for State.
Jan. 20: Native Nations Inaugural Ball at the Native American Museum on the National Mall. The 7 pm event is in support of the National Native American Veterans Memorial.Tickets are $750 and can be found at this link. Contact Jerry Ward for more information: 907-887-3677.
Jan. 21: Best of the West Inaugural Ball. A combined event by the DC “societies” of Western states. Tickets are $100 and are available from the Alaska State Society. Many attendees from Alaska will be stopping in at this event, which is steps from the White House at the Old Ebbitt Grill Atrium.
HOW MANY ALASKANS HEADING TO DC?
Jerry Ward, who managed the Trump campaign in Alaska, says he thinks 1,000 to 2,000 Alaskans will head to the nation’s capital for the inaugural festivities. He arrived at that number by counting up the tickets the delegation had available by lottery, and those he knows are available from the Trump organization itself.
In 2014, Michelle Obama started a Twitter campaign to try to save 276 Nigerian girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram in Nigeria. The publicity stunt received a lot of press attention but fizzled quickly. Most of the girls have never been found, although a few ultimately escaped.
CHAMPION OF AGGRIEVEMENT, AND A MOVIE RECOMMENDATION
Michelle Obama has a cult following and they’ll follow her right out of the White House.
Those who love her for her fashion sense, strength, independence, and veggie lunch snacks will continue their admiration her as she steps back into a quasi-civilian life next month. Her speaking fees will be staggering, she’ll have servants and Secret Service protection, and her children will attend ivy league universities, like their parents before them.
But for a minority of Americans, the drama queen has worn her welcome. Michelle Obama lost many of us at the outset, when she said in 2008: “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”
She had no good explanation for saying such a thing. A firestorm erupted around her and her husband: Why would she not be proud of her country? Is America really that bad or is this her way of saying she hates America? Or perhaps America is only praiseworthy when she and her husband are in charge.
The Obama campaign brushed it off by explaining Michelle was proud that people voted, but many wondered how a hospital lawyer at a high-octane Chicago firm, who attended both Princeton and Yale Universities, could give anything but full-throated support to a nation such as this.
Last month, she did it again. After Donald Trump was elected president, Michelle Obama was in mourning: “We are feeling what not having hope feels like” she told Oprah Winfrey.
“Hope is necessary. It’s a necessary concept,” she went on. “And Barack didn’t just talk about hope because he thought it was a nice slogan to get votes. He and I and so many believed that … what else do you have if you don’t have hope? What do you give your kids if you can’t give them hope?”
It is as though only one vision — the Obama vision of America — can prompt hope in a nation. After eight years of her husband’s presidency and his “fundamentally transforming” America into a nation of government dependents, all is lost: For the first lady, once she and her husband leave the building, there is nothing to hope for.
Many Americans have the good taste to not criticize a first lady. After all, few of us could hold up to that kind of scrutiny of our looks, our language, and our lapses of judgment. Criticizing first ladies is a bit of a national pastime as we judge their hair, their choice of day wear, and their children. Mrs. Obama has endured criticism that often has a racist tinge.
But Michelle Obama has no cause to complain about Americans. Her approval rating remains above 64 percent, according to recent polls. The mean bloggers are relentless, but the predominant mainstream media has given her a hall pass to say just about anything:
Beyonce is her role model for girls.
People criticizing her sometimes-angry demeanor are being racists.
“I wake up every morning in a house (the White House) that was built by slaves.”
“There’s nowhere in the world I can go and sit and have a cup of coffee.”
Living in the White House is like “living in a cave.”
Mrs. Obama is as aggrieved as a multi-millionaire in a cashmere sweater can be this Christmas. She reflects and upholds the politics of identity that has cleaved us into a nation of racial separatists, where wrongs can never truly be atoned for and old wounds, real or imagined, must be scratched open time and again.
It’s not politically correct to say so, but Michelle Obama is not a champion of achievement, but aggrievement.
REAL ROLE MODELS ABOUND
And yet, it’s Christmas and an inaugural season is ahead. Whining Michelle Obama is nearly in the rearview mirror.
There are role models out there for girls, be they black, brown, or pinkish. This Christmas take your family to see a family-friendly movie, Hidden Figures, which will be in all theaters in January, and a select few on Christmas Day. It’s rated PG.
A group of mathematically inclined women, who were African-American and had plenty to overcome during the Jim Crow era, became part of the space program that sent John Glenn into orbit. Their story is remarkable, as told in the book that inspired the movie.
Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson are depicted in the movie as three of the brains who calculated like computers and whose hands worked the slide rules behind one of the greatest achievements in space exploration, helping America win the Space Race.
These math geniuses started with the government’s aeronautical program during World War II, stayed with it, and would live to launch Americans into space. Those are truly some role models.
There are stories of inspiration everywhere this Christmas. We take comfort that Americans dream, and achieve, no matter how humble their beginnings and no matter how great the adversity seems, our nation is on the right path.
Unlike the Doctrine of the Oppressed coming from the White House over the past eight years, Hidden Figures is a story that has played out in every field across America, to our nation’s proud advantage.
Sen. Bill Stoltze, center, surrounded by, left to right, Sen. Charlie Huggins, Rep. Cathy Tilton, Sen. Mike Dunleavy, former Sen. Rick Halford, Rep. (Sen.-elect) Shelley Hughes, and Rep. Dan Saddler, at the Chugiak Eagle River Senior Center. (Amy Armstrong, Eagle River Echo Photo)
IT’S THE BILL STOLTZE DINING ROOM
About 150 people gathered at the Chugiak-Eagle River Senior Center on Monday to surprise retiring Sen. Bill Stoltze with the naming of the dining room after him.
Yes, he was surprised.
“You never see Bill show that much emotion, but it really touched him,” said Rep. Cathy Tilton, who organized the event and serves on the board of the center.
In spite of bad road conditions on the Glenn Highway, the center was filled with political friends, and neighborhood and community supporters.
Stoltze is known to stop by the senior center almost every day to share a cup of coffee with residents.
EAGLE RIVER GETS NEW NEWSPAPER
Speaking of Eagle River, a new weekly newspaper has emerged. Amy Armstrong is the editor and the paper is community focused and lively, so don’t bother telling her that newspapers are dead. Read all about it.
FINANCE SUBCOMMITTEE RUMBLINGS
Word out of Juneau is that the new Democrat-controlled majority is doing things differently when it comes to Finance subcommittees. We’re chasing it all down but here’s what we’ve heard so far:
Rep. Sam Kito will be chair of the Finance subcommittee reviewing the Department of Labor budget.
Kito, a Juneau Democrat, is frequently seen escorting Commissioner of Labor Heidi Drygas.
Rep. Louise Stutes is said to be the new chair of the Fish and Game Finance Subcommittee, which is going to be interesting because Deputy F&G Commissioner Kevin Brooks endorsed her for her seat during the most recent election cycle — using his official title.
Someone filing an ethics complaint about this will have to go through Rep. Chris Tuck.
Saying he wants to go in a new direction, Gov. Bill Walker has fired the executive director of the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
Lauree Morton, recognized as one of the nation’s leaders in the field, was asked to resign by Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan this month.
Jayne Andreen was named temporary head of the agency. She was director for the council from 1994 to 1998 and worked with the Alaska Division of Public Health in the area of health promotion.
The move sent shock waves through the domestic violence and sexual assault prevention field, where Morton is considered an effective and nonpartisan leader.
Morton, with a long history of advocacy and grant writing, joined the council as a grant writer in 2007 and became executive director in 2011. Before that, she was executive director of the Tundra Women’s Coalition in Bethel and executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
Sources who asked to remain anonymous said the council itself was taken by surprise at the governor’s actions, which they perceived as politically motivated. The council has received no policy change requests from the governor and Morton had always earned positive performance reviews.
Additionally, they said, Walker already controls the direction of the council because he appoints five of the nine members. They are commissioners or their designees. If he wanted a change, it was as simple as ordering a new direction.
Morton reports to the council members. By state statute, the council hires the executive director, but state law does not speak to who fires her. The council itself is embedded in the Department of Public Safety, and her position evidently serves at the pleasure of the governor.
Speculation across the field is that Walker will ask the board to hire Amanda Price, who works in his office as a senior advisor on public safety issues.
The governor may be looking for places for his senior staff as he attempts to reduce the size of his office and deflect criticism for some of the high salaries he is paying his staff.
The council’s stated mission is to provide crisis intervention, perpetrator accountability, and prevention services to Alaskans victimized or impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault. It has been engaged in a major Alaska Victimization Survey since 2010 to understand a baseline for how many Alaskans are victims of these crimes.
There were 8,055 fewer victims in 2015 than in 2010, according to the study, which may speak to the effectiveness of the previous administration’s Choose Respect Initiative. Choose Respect has been abandoned by Gov. Walker in favor of an as-yet unarticulated direction.
Leading the state: The Alaska House of Representatives is now led by a Democratic majority with Anchorage-based Gabrielle LeDoux, center, and two other Republicans (not pictured: Paul Seaton, Homer; Louise Stutes, Kodiak) having switched their voting loyalties to be part of the new caucus.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS IN DRIVER’S SEAT
The Democratic-controlled Alaska House majority caucus has released the updated, corrected list of their committee membership. They’re followed by the Republican House minority’s committee assignments:
STANDING COMMITTEES
Rules – Chair Gabrielle LeDoux; Vice-Chair Matt Claman; Sam Kito; Louise Stutes
Finance – Co-Chair Paul Seaton; Co-Chair Neal Foster; Vice-Chair Les Gara; Jason Grenn; David Guttenberg; Scott Kawasaki; Dan Ortiz
Resources – Co-Chair Andy Josephson; Co-Chair Geran Tarr; Vice-Chair Dean Westlake; Harriet Drummond; Justin Parish.
Community & Regional Affairs – Co-Chair Zach Fansler; Co-Chair Justin Parish; Harriet Drummond; Dean Westlake
A Dec. 15 memo from the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities commissioner tells his workforce to brace themselves for a sea change:
Marc Luiken explained that he is moving almost all of the design work out of the department and into the private sector. Seventy-six design jobs will be eliminated in the 2018 fiscal year’s budget, which starts July 1.
Luiken has a goal of operating with more contract staff and fewer in-house engineering staff, allowing design and construction work to scale up and down based on federal funding. He doesn’t want the State to maintain a large stable of engineers and other designers.
“The department currently contracts 55% of all design work and will strive to send all design work to contractors by FY2019,” Luiken wrote.
Luiken did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
COST SAVINGS OR COST TRANSFER?
It sounds like a cost-saving measure, but is it? Not necessarily, according to a study by Louisiana State University and Texas A & M University.
Their report, released in 2014, reviewed the widespread trend of privatizing engineering services, and concluded that transferring all these roles to the private sector creates no cost savings.
The study notes that factors that favor privatization include:
more timely delivery of products
more products delivered within the same time period
greater innovation and efficiency prompted by market competition
development of a more vibrant private sector
Factors that do not favor privatization include:
cost of administering contracts with the private sector
loss of technical expertise within the public sector agency, thereby reducing its ability to fulfill its responsibilities
loss of independent quality control of state projects
loss of interstate and federal collaboration and liaison opportunities such as the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, peer review programs, Federal Highway Administration participation in state programs, and collaborative research, including technology exchange with other state DOTs and public agencies and research conducted at state Transportation Research Centers
GROWING COMPETENCIES VS. CALCIFICATION
Alaska DOT currently contracts about 55 percent of its design work to private companies. Because dollars for transportation and infrastructure projects are usually passed through from federal transportation grants, those contracts don’t necessarily go to the mom-and-pop engineering firms, but often to the big international companies that happen to do work in Alaska, such as HDR and CH2M Hill. There can be no in-state preference when it comes to federal dollars.
The design contracts still need oversight, so for every four state jobs that are transferred to the private sector, one job of overseeing the contract (or a handful of design projects) must remain at the department.
But DOT is experiencing a brain drain, according to those familiar with the department. The long-time employees with 30 years of experience are leaving due to retirement, and several dozen jobs will be moved to the private sector. There is not a core group of up-and-coming people with the experience to manage several design projects at once.
Most of the jobs that will be moved into the private sector will come from Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau offices, where the bulk of design work is done.
“The big thing is whether there is enough core competency left internally to administer the work,” said one source close to DOT. “Someone has to know enough about the work so they can assess the value of what the state is getting from consultants.”
Design is typically 10 to 20 percent of a project’s budget, so cost overruns can run through the money quickly. It takes senior-level experience to identify problems and head them off before they become costly mistakes.
At the same time, DOT is a massive department with more than 3,000 employees. Such bureaucracies typically develop calcification as employees seek to protect their jobs. Reducing the size of bureaucracies can be disruptive but also have the benefit of encouraging efficiencies.
Maybe this is an area where DOT is getting it right and trying something new. It would be nice to see the same mindset applied to the Alaska Marine Highway System, where privatizating contracts could deliver much greater cost savings and make the operationof the sytem more financially sustainable.
The commissioner’s memo to employees, in its entirety:
Today, Dec 15, the Governor released his SFY 2018 budget. Our operating budget reflects a reality that is facing all state agencies and all Alaskans. DOT&PF fared well on some fronts and faces challenges on others.
In the budget narrative you will read:
The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is embarking on an aggressive plan to get more projects completed from the available federal transportation funding by shifting to private contractors not only for construction but for the design phase as well. The department will increase work to the private sector while shrinking internal design staff. This has the added advantage of bolstering the private sector economy. By operating with more contract staff and fewer in-house engineering staff, the department will balance public and private sector specialized expertise and be able to quickly scale up and scale down based on available funding.
Including this budget component, there are 11 Department of Transportation and Public Facilities components with design staff. Among the 11 components there are 76 design position eliminations in this budget. These reductions represent the initial phase of the plan to maximize the use of private design contractors while reducing the proportion of design work done in-house to among the lowest in the nation. The department currently contracts 55% of all design work and will strive to send all design work to contractors by FY2019. Department of Transportation positions that remain after this initiative will be responsible for project management and contractor oversight as opposed to hands-on engineering work. During the Governor’s FY2018 amended submission, and in subsequent budget cycles, more design positions will be identified for deletion.
This narrative reflects the expectation that DOT&PF will transfer a significant portion of our design work to the private sector. As noted above, 55% of our design work is already sent to the private sector. Governor Walker and the Office of Management and Budget staff expect a majority of the remaining work will also be transferred to private sector consultants. This offers a significant challenge for our department and a departure from our current business model. We will work together to make this transition as seamless as possible.
As we transition, I am committed to two critically important goals:
First, we will honor and care for our people as changes are implemented. Please remember, your Leadership Team and I rely on and value greatly the quality, experience, and contribution of all of you. Our One DOT&PF is real and we will continue with the themes of trust and teamwork as we go forward. We will do everything in our power to be collaborative, transparent, and respectful.
Second, we must navigate an aggressive transition timeline while minimally impacting our federal program. We must be able to continue to produce quality project designs in a manner that allows us to obligate our annual federal program.
Finally, I want to speak to you from my heart and say that even as our practices change, our mission and our core values remain constant. Thank you for all the great things that each and every one of you do for our department and for our state.
Alaska Gov. Bill Walker enjoyed time with President Barack Obama on the president’s 2015 trip to Alaska.
OBAMA WAS GAMING WALKER IN 2015
In hindsight, perhaps President Barack Obama’s visit to Alaska in 2015 was the worst thing ever for the state’s economy. Some Alaskans said so at the time. Others didn’t believe it.
The time the president spent touring the state, at times with Gov. Bill Walker in tow, may have actually inspired him to lock down Alaska for good. It happens to many tourists who come to Alaska: They just can’t bear the thought of an oil rig in such a beautiful place.
But looking at documents released by WikiLeaks, it’s now evident that the president is merely completing what he intended to do all along.
Last year, he was simply playing Alaska’s governor. The trip to Alaska, it appears, was only to give himself cover for what was to come, while appearing to follow a deliberative process.
Over the past year, Obama has taken increasingly drastic measures to shut down fossil fuel development in Alaska. The Walker Administration has stood by, not even wringing its hands.
Obama locked up a third of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, the ANWR Coastal Plain, and massive sections of the Arctic Ocean. Less than two weeks ago, Obama created a special zone in the northern Bering Sea, which he is calling a “resiliency zone.”
Obama’s rationale is contradictory. On the one hand, he says the Arctic lacks the needed infrastructure, but on the other hand the “resiliency zone” designation works to kill the Northwestern Alaska port proposals that would provide some of that infrastructure. It is the perfect “Catch 22.”
Gov. Walker, after each of these decisions, said he was disappointed.
Today Obama’s march against fossil fuels continued when he issued an 11-hour order — long-expected — to indefinitely end oil and gas development in all of the Chukchi and almost all of the Beaufort Sea.
The Beaufort and Chukchi seas contain an estimated 23.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and 104.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Obama’s action uses the authority granted to him by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, which says the president may, “from time to time,” withdraw federal waters from oil and gas development, if they are not already under lease.
In this case, Obama has shut down an entire planning area and he says it is permanent. That’s never been tried before.
Obama says the Arctic is too sensitive and the risk of a spill is too great. But if that’s the case, why did he leave any area available for drilling?
ALASKA’S GOVERNOR IMPOTENT
Gov. Walker tried in vain to make friends of Obama and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. Today even he expressed further disappointment, issuing this long-winded statement:
“This unprecedented move marginalizes the voices of those who call the Arctic home and have asked for responsible resource development to lower the cost of energy to heat houses and businesses. For centuries, the Arctic has provided food for those in the region. No one is more invested than Alaskans to ensure that the habitats within the Arctic are protected. To lock it up against any further exploration or development activity is akin to saying that the voices of activists who live in Lower 48 cities have a greater stake than those to whom the Arctic is our front yard and our back yard. During my phone call with Secretary Sally Jewell earlier today, she acknowledged that she and her team at the U.S. Department of the Interior took into consideration the requests that Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Andy Mack and I made during multiple meetings with her in Washington, D.C., and in Fairbanks. We highlighted the areas of the Arctic most likely to provide revenue to the state. These efforts are reflected in that those regions were not included in the administration’s final decision. However, this concession is not satisfactory because the administration has already failed to include these same areas in its most recent five-year leasing plan.” — Gov.Bill Walker
Those are not exactly fighting words. Indeed, they are mild in light of the gravity of this decision.
Plenty of things are “not satisfactory.” The Obama Administration’s rollout of Obamacare was not satisfactory. The president’s handling of border security is not satisfactory.
But shutting down a state’s economic future is an act of hostility.
To date, Walker has not challenged this president on any of his Alaska-related decisions, from subsistence to Indian Country to timber, mining, or oil and gas.
Governor Bill Walker on Air Force One with President Barack Obama.
Rather, the governor hitched a ride back to Alaska with Obama on Air Force One in 2015 to try the charm offensive. His former Chief of Staff and ally Jim Whitaker was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention for Obama’s nomination, speaking against the McCain/Palin ticket there and in commercials.
Walker’s Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott is a diehard Democrat. Walker has met several times with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Since the Knowles Administration, there’s not been an Alaska governor who has tried so hard to work with Democrats.
But nothing he has done has resulted in a gain for our state, as the blows to Alaska’s economic midriff just keep coming.
Rex Rock, president and CEO of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, a Native Corporation, was far more blunt in his criticism of Obama:
“We will fight this legacy move by the outgoing president with every resource at our disposal. This decision will not stop our climate from changing, but it will inhibit our North Slope communities from developing the infrastructure, communications capability and technology necessary for growth. It’s a move which was made without any consultation from the largest private land owners in the U.S. Arctic and yet we will be the ones forced to live with the consequences.” – Rex Rock, CEO, ASRC
WIKILEAKS: THIS WAS CLEARLY THE OBAMA PLAN ALL ALONG
President Obama never intended to allow drilling in Arctic waters. One only needs to wade in the shallow waters of WikiLeaks to find the real mission of the Obama Administration when it comes to the Arctic.
A 2015 memo from David Hayes, who ran Obama’s Arctic Energy Task Force, cheers the fact that the single well that Shell was allowed to drill ended up being a dry hole. In a note to Obama adviser John Podesta, Hayes wrote:
Shell’s dry hole in the Chukchi obviously is huge and welcome news. Perhaps the best part of this is that the Bush-era leases in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas that were purchased for $2+ billion in 2006 are now likely to expire before any new finds are confirmed. As a result, a future Administration should avoid the need to spend billions to buy out leaseholder’ interests in order to prevent future Arctic offshore drilling. (You may recall that in the Clinton Administration, there was a buy-out of existing leases in Bristol Bay; that was the only way to ensure that those leases would not be developed. — David Hayes
The goal, it is evident from the Hayes memo, was to frustrate oil companies, Shell in particular, with every roadblock possible, until the company left and the leases expired.
The Wikileaks-released memo proves the Administration was not an honest broker while dealing with Shell Oil; it always intended to take back the leases, but without paying for them.
ALASKA’S DELEGATION: UNITED TO FIGHT
The congressional delegation for Alaska issued joint statements — strong statements, compared to our governor’s — that assure Alaskans they’re going to look to the next administration to undo the unprecedented acts of federal overreach that have occurred this month:
The only thing more shocking than this reckless, short-sighted, last-minute gift to the extreme environmental agenda is that President Obama had the nerve to claim he is doing Alaska a favor. For him to suggest to the people of the Arctic that they must rely on a nonexistent government working group and $9 million a year in charity as a substitute for real economic opportunity is a slap in the face to countless Alaskans. President Obama has once again treated the Arctic like a snow globe, ignoring the desires of the people who live, work, and raise a family there. I cannot wait to work with the next administration to reverse this decision. – Sen. Lisa Murkowski
“This announcement by the Obama Administration is an affront to our representative democracy. Make no mistake – the President betrayed Alaskans today – especially those living in the Arctic – who were not consulted, and instead gave one final Christmas gift to coastal environmental elites. This decision is not about environmental protection or the economics of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic. This is hopefully the last act of a callous presidency, one that lacks any regard for America’s economic future and the hardworking families of Alaska. Presiding over a lost decade of economic growth for America, Obama’s legacy will not be one of transparency and inclusion of affected stakeholders, but instead one of executive overreach at the command of extreme special interests with agendas far removed from and unsympathetic to middle-class Alaskan families and other hardworking Americans. – Sen. Dan Sullivan
Frankly, this is a cowardly move by a lame duck President – eight years to take this action, yet it comes at the 11th hour with little to no support from Alaskans. I’ve been adamant with this administration; Alaska is not and should not be used as the poster child for a pandering environmental agenda. This decision only strengthens our resolve – as a resources oriented state – to overturn the heavy hand of government and empower our people and communities with new social and economic opportunities. The groundwork is already being laid to overturn this terrible decision. – Rep. Don Young
Juneau protestors objected to Alaska’s Electoral College casting votes for Donald Trump.
In the end, several electors across the country went rogue.
But in spite of the anti-Trump protests, liberal media hype, and the “fake news” reports that “only 37” Republican electors would need to break rank in order to throw the election, the electors who didn’t follow the will of the voters turned out to be mainly Democrats.
The rogue Democratic electors didn’t cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton as they were instructed by their states’ laws. Clinton actually lost more ground.
Three in Washington State voted for former Secretary of State Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American from North Dakota fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Those four represented one quarter of Washington’s electoral votes.
In Maine, one Democratic elector tried to vote for Bernie Sanders, but was called out of order and finally switched his vote to Clinton. That happened in Minnesota and Colorado, but the electors finally came around.
The Texas electors, all Republicans, pushed Trump over to the win category on Monday afternoon, casting 36 votes, giving him enough electoral votes to formally win the presidency. One Texas elector cast a vote for John Kasich, and the other for Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman. In the vice presidential race, 37 votes went to Mike Pence, and one vote was cast for Carly Fiorina.
In Alaska’s capital city, the three electors gathered at the State Library, Archives, and Museum building near downtown Juneau, and a short ceremony ensued before former Gov. Sean Parnell, Carolyn Leman and Jaqueline Tupou signed the several documents and passed them over to the director of the Division of Elections, Josie Bahnke.
Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Alaska Trump Campaign Manager Jerry Ward, standing. Alaska’s Electoral College, left to right: Jacqueline Tupou, former Gov. Sean Parnell, and Carolyn Leman.
The Electoral College event, which is usually low-key, was captured by 360 North television, which ended it coverage with a parting shot of newly elected Juneau Rep. Justin Parish, a Democrat, comforting a colleague as though the two were at a funeral.
Rep.-elect comforts a friend after Alaska’s Electoral College votes in Juneau.
Protestors in Juneau were few, and appeared to be mainly retired people shivering in the damp 35-degree weather.
But in the hours leading up to the event, Rep. Geran Tarr of Anchorage threw a long pass. She sent out a press release on her official state letterhead requesting that electors consider national security concerns before casting their vote.
Tarr asked elections to consider delaying their vote until an investigation into Russian interference in the election could be conducted.
Tarrs’ statement said:
Alaska State Representative Geran Tarr (D-Anchorage) is calling on the members of the Electoral College to examine their options and voice their support for an investigation into Russian government interference into our Presidential election.
“It has become clear that the Russian government meddled in our Presidential election by using cyber-terrorism in an effort to help Donald Trump be elected President,” said Rep. Tarr. “I want the members of the Electoral College to consider their responsibility to the nation before they vote today. They should join President Obama and Senate Majority Leader McConnell in calling for a complete investigation of the Russian hacking.”
Rep. Tarr is hopeful that electors will consider all their options, including delaying today’s Electoral College vote.
“I find it truly frightening that more and more evidence is pointing to Russian interference in our election,” said Rep. Tarr. “This is about the national security of our country and making sure we don’t allow a foreign government to influence a Presidential election in the United State.”
DEPARTMENT OF SALACIOUS: Kay Brown has retired after five years leading the Alaska Democratic Party as executive director. Before that she was the communication director, and she also served in the Alaska House of Representatives for several terms. Brown is leaving quite a legacy, including work on redistricting.
Democrats performed a national search for a replacement and came up with Jay Parmley, who will start on Feb. 1.
But Parmley has some accusers in his past.
Parmley was chair and executive director of the Oklahoma Democratic Party from 2001 to 2005, and executive director of the South Carolina and North Carolina Democratic Parties. That’s where things started going sideways.
The Daily Caller had a story about how his ex-girlfriend, who was perhaps one of his college students, said he infected her with HIV.
An ABC station in North Carolina ran a story about Parmley and sexual harassment at the North Carolina Democratic Party.
Turmoil in North Carolina’s Democratic Party has been no secret, thanks to some salacious details leaked to the press from a staffer’s sexual harassment complaint in 2012. The party’s then-executive director, Jay Parmley, resigned after accusations from another male staffer but denied any wrongdoing. The party chairman eventually left as well.
In March, current chairman Randy Voller described the party as “broke” and said it was evaluating whether to shut the doors on its Raleigh headquarters.
On his own blog, Parmley writes: “Jay Parmley is an asset that any political party would be grateful to have on their side. Luckily for the Democratic Party he has been committed to their cause since he was a youth. Jay Parmley has been affiliated with a number of Democratic organizations over the years including Young Democrats of America, the Democratic National Committee, South Forward, and Democracy for America. He is a member of the State Democratic Chairs Alumni Association, American Society for Public Administration, University of Oklahoma Alumni Association, and Technology Student Alumni Association.”
Elsewhere on the web, it’s noted that Parmley has served as executive director of more state Democratic parties than anyone in party history—all in the South.
DEMOCRATS REDEFINING
Alaska Democrats have all but abandoned their brand in Alaska in favor of a one-size-fits-all “Independent Democrat” style candidate, having pushed for and won with a non-aligned Bill Walker as governor, as well as Rep. Dan Ortiz, Ketchikan, and Rep.-elect Jason Grenn, Anchorage.
The Alaska Democratic Party also pushed in support of the non-partisan candidacy of Margaret Stock for Senate over their own candidate Ray Metcalfe. An ADP mailer sent out after the August primary made no mention of Metcalfe’s landslide win of the Democratic nomination.
Meanwhile, Kay Brown came under fire earlier this year when WikiLeaks published internal memos that made it appear Brown was working hand in glove with the Democratic National Committee to sway the primary toward Hillary Clinton and away from Bernie Sanders.
Sanders ended up getting 82 percent of the Democrats’ vote during their caucus primary process. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Brown lost her job over that scandal, and Alaska Democrats were none too pleased with Brown, either.
Josh Walton, Alaska Republican Party Executive Director
REPUBLICANS HAVE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TOO: In the other camp, Josh Walton, well-known in Alaska political circles, received the approval of the State Central Committee to serve as the executive director of the Alaska Republican Party.
He was home schooled in Alaska, is a graduate of Hillsdale College, which is a private libertarian school, and he has a masters degree in quantitative research methods from Claremont Graduate University, School of Politics and Economics. Read the press release here.
Jan. 20: Native Nations Inaugural Ball at the Native American Museum on the National Mall. The 7 pm event is in support of the National Native American Veterans Memorial. Tickets are $750 and can be found at this link. Contact Jerry Ward for more information: 907-887-3677.
