Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux, east Anchorage, has organized with the Democrats.
A statement from a new House majority indicates the House will go Democrat, with the help of three Republicans who have thrown in with what was the Democratic minority: Gabrielle LeDoux, East Anchorage; Louise Stutes, Kodiak; and Paul Seaton, Homer.
Bryce Edgemon, a Democrat from Western Alaska, is House Speaker and Neal Foster-D and Paul Seaton-Musk Ox R, are co-chairs of Finance.
LeDoux will be Rules chair, and Stutes is majority whip. Les Gara is vice chair of Finance while Chris Tuck is Majority leader.
The Independent-Democrats’ House Minority Press Secretary has also been given a new role: House Majority Press Secretary.
The 18-member House Republican minority will now be the position to demand budget cuts before the Democratic majority can reach its hands into the constitutional budget reserve or enact taxes. Several observers say that it will be just as difficult for the Democrat-led coalition to lead as it was for the Republican one, during tough fiscal times.
Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock said he is ready to look for Republican candidates to challenge incumbents LeDoux, Stutes, and Seaton in the next election cycle.
Rep. Cathy Tilton, District 12 conservative, retained her seat with 66 percent of the votes cast.
Nov. 8, 2016 came and went, and was a big night for conservatives in America:
They overcame a media that was “all-in” for the Clintons. They won three more governorships, bringing the total to 33 Republican governors.
Republicans took the majority in the Iowa Senate and Kentucky House. New York Republicans took the Senate.
Republicans retained control of the Maine Senate, Minnesota House, North Carolina House, and Washington Senate.
Republicans increased their majorities in Indiana’s Senate, Michigan’s House, New Hampshire’s Senate, Ohio’s Senate and House, West Virginia’s Senate, and Wisconsin’s Senate.
In Alaska, voters gave a decisive victory for conservative leadership: Senator Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young retained their seats handily. Murkowski won with a 15 percent margin in a ticket that had conservative powerhouse Joe Miller running as a Libertarian. Miller drained off nearly 30 percent of the votes cast, but Murkowsi won with 44 percent in a race that had six candidates on the general election ballot. Margaret Stock, an independent, could not do better than 13.75 percent.
Rep. Don Young won with a 14 percent margin. His challenger Steve Lindbeck’s vote total closely tracked those being cast for Hillary Clinton during the long night when politicos waited patiently for the Division of Elections to release results. In other words, people who voted for Hillary also voted for Lindbeck.
Of the statewide candidate, Young has always received the most votes since 2002. With this election, he becomes the second-longest-serving member of the House, and the longest serving Republican in the House.
Young is close with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, and can use his role as Dean of the House Republicans to help educate the president-elect about what is important in Alaska. Rep. Young will be serving under his ninth president.
With Murkowski winning and a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate, she increases her influence and will continue to negotiate energy policy as chair of the Energy Committee, but now has a better chance of helping Alaska with a Republican president. Presumably, the new president will not hold against her the fact that she withdrew her support for him with just weeks to go before the election.
Alaskans also voted for Donald Trump by a 15 percent margin.
At the state level, Republicans retained control of the Senate, in spite of massive spending by Democrats and union-fueled groups to unseat Sens. John Coghill and Cathy Giessel. With freshman senator-elect David Wilson, Republicans won all three open seats.
Republicans retained control of the state House, 21-19. Although Democrats tried to plug themselves in as independents in a number of races and Republicans were outspent, but retained eight open Republican seats, losing none.
Two incumbent Republicans were defeated. One, Rep. Liz Vazquez, was defeated by Jason Grenn, a once-Republican who ran as a non-aligned candidate, with the backing of big-union dollars.
The other, Juneau Rep. Cathy Munoz, was defeated by radical Democrat Justin Parish, after the Juneau Empire manufactured a series of political hit pieces on Munoz, which took their toll on the moderate Republican. Parish is a Les Gara-style Democrat.
Overall, Gov. Bill Walker, who worked hard to get a Democratic majority in the House and to disrupt the Senate with union boss Vince Beltrami, picked up Representative-elect Dean Westlake of Kotzebue, Justin Parish of Juneau, and possibly Jason Grenn of Anchorage, although the jury is still out on whether Grenn will fall under Walker’s spell. Walker picked up not a single seats in the Senate.
Newest Joe Miller mailer, dated Nov. 5, has a ballpoint pen edit to the legal disclaimer. The mailer is from leftover, discarded material from the 2010 elections. The return address on the opposite side is the old Republican headquarters address on Fireweed Lane, which has been razed.
The Alaska Republican Party received notice today that the Federal Elections Commission has accepted its complaint against Libertarian candidate Joe Miller for his unauthorized use of old election postcards that somehow got into the possession of the Miller campaign.
The postcards were left over from the 2010 election, when Miller received the primary Republican nomination, but was beat in the November general election by Lisa Murkowski’s campaign. Murkowski ran as a write-in Republican.
“In accepting the complaint, the FEC Office of General Counsel acknowledges there is a potential violation within the jurisdiction of the FEC and the complaint was proper,” said Stacey Stone, Alaska Republican Party legal counsel.
Tuckerman Babcock, Alaska Republican Party chairman, said he plans on amending the complaint to include additional offenses related to other mailers that have since surfaced.
“Unfortunately, Joe Miller’s campaign continued to break the law even when he knew that complaint was filed. The decision to use old Republican party mailers from 2010 to manipulate and mislead Alaskan voters, was not authorized by the party and we believe is a clear violation of election law,” he said.
The Miller campaign must file a formal response to the GOP complaint within 15 days.
In a separate complaint, District 18 Republicans from midtown and Spenard in Anchorage, lost their lawsuit against the State of Alaska’s strict campaign contribution limits.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess wrote in his decision that limits on campaign contributions do not infringe on free speech or equal protection rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Judy Eledge files a complaint over the candidacy of AFL-CIO Boss Vince Beltrami, who was certified for the ballot although he did not turn in enough signatures to qualify.
A citizen living in District N has filed a complaint with the Division of Elections over the candidacy of AFL-CIO Union boss Vince Beltrami, who filed as an independent candidate for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Cathy Giessel.
As reported in Must Read Alaska last week, Beltrami only submitted 70 signatures of the 188 required to be certified for the ballot. (On Friday, Must Read reported he needed 170; see below for a rationale of the adjusted total needed.) And yet the Division of Elections waved him through as a candidate.
Judy Eledge, a Republican activist, filed the complaint this morning after learning of the wrongful certification of Beltrami in Must Read last week.
Eledge said she realizes that the election is on Tuesday and there is little she can do at this point, and yet she wants the complaint on the record. Here’s a copy of her complaint:
Support documentation by Ray Kreig, which shows how 188 signatures are needed to qualify as an independent candidate in District N:
The line to vote early at the Gambell Street Division of Elections office in Anchorage is 50 voters deep and a 20-minute wait to get in the door, where the line continues. But the mood was upbeat at 2 pm Monday.
Early voting also robust in Wasilla at 11 am. h/t Ryan McKee.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WILL BE WATCHING: The U.S. Department of Justice will have 500 observers on the ground in 28 states, including a few in Alaska to ensure that ballots are available in Native languages: Bethel Census Area, Dillingham Census Area, Kusilvak Census Area, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area. But will they be able to ensure voter fraud doesn’t occur as it did in the primary? Meh.
POLL WATCHERS NEEDED: We can’t count on the federal observers to protect our elections. If you see anything amiss on election day at your precinct, contact Suzanne Downing.
ELECTION WORKERS UNPAID? Overheard at the Lakefront Hotel were disgruntled temporary election workers who still haven’t been paid for working the August Primary Election. The pay is low, but for people in rural Alaska, it’s significant. Given the heavy politicization of the Division of Elections of late, maybe they are only paying out when the precinct results meet with the Walker Adminstration’s approval. We’re joking, of course. Sort of.
ALASKA’S FACEBOOK ELECTION: While you are busy unfriending all your Hillary supporter “friends”, and they are busy unfriending you, what on earth will your Facebook feed look like on Nov. 9? Will it go from nonstop politics back to rescued puppies and guacamole recipes? We hope so.
From the political consultants we hear this election cycle in Alaska has seen the most robust use of social media in Alaska political history. It’s unprecedented. The cost of social media is a fraction of radio and television for a state House or Senate race. The ability to target people in their exact locations is the new gold standard.
MARGARET STOCK, MARK BEGICH, PAY TO PLAY: As seen in this snip from the latest FEC report, Margaret Stock has paid tens of thousands to Mark Begich’s consulting firm. And over the weekend he recorded a robo-call for her. Does that look like a paid endorsement? Would that even be legal? Not so much…
(Editor’s note: A note today from Mark Begich tells us to “get your facts straight.” His company is Nothern Compass Group, he writes. But we also found this:
We break with tradition and offer the following endorsements:
PRESIDENT: DONALD TRUMP. The man has the ability to learn and grow. We’re giving him a chance. The alternative is unsupportable.
U.S. SENATE: LISA MURKOWSKI. We have a strong team in Washington — the strongest in years. Let’s keep them going.
U.S. CONGRESS:DON YOUNG. Because we don’t do politically correct either (and because he has more energy for the job in his little finger than his limp Democratic challenger.)
BALLOT MEASURE ONE: Vote NO.Read our view here. If we want people to act as citizens and take the responsibility attached to citizenship, why do we keep lowering the bar? Read this from Anchorage Daily Planet. Read what the Frontiersman has to say. And realize that the New Venture Fund dark money group just dumped another $210,000 to convince you to vote for it.
BALLOT MEASURE TWO: Vote YES. It allows state debt for the purpose of postsecondary student loans. It’s not a big problem.
JUDGES: Vote NO on retaining Justices Joel Bolger and Peter Maassen because of a decision they made to invalidate a law requiring doctors – with some exceptions – to notify the parents of minor children getting abortions.
FOLLOW THE NEWS: GOPAC will keep you up to date with election results from critical races around the country. Follow the GOPAC Twitter feed here.
Vince Beltrami shows off his July 21 letter qualifying him for the Nov. 8 ballot, as signed by Josie Bahnke, Director of the Division of Elections. Photo from his campaign web site.
BELTRAMI DIDN’T TURN IN HALF THE SIGNATURES REQUIRED
When Vince Beltrami filed signatures to run as an independent candidate, he came up short. He had 70 verified signatures. He needed 170.
But the Division of Elections certified Beltrami anyway, ignoring state law:
AS 15.25.170. Required Number of Signatures For District-Wide Office.
“Petitions for the nomination of candidates for the office of state senator or state representative shall be signed by qualified voters of the house or senate district in which the proposed nominee desires to be a candidate (equal in number to at least one percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the proposed nominee’s respective house or senate district in the preceding general election.) A nominating petition may not contain less than 50 signatures for any district.”
The 2014 election for Senate District N had approximately 17,000 votes cast. The 1 percent needed is 170 qualified signatures, not 70 and certainly not 50.
Beltrami is running against Sen. Cathy Giessel, who was deep in her work as a lawmaker when Beltrami filed for office. She may not have noticed that her challenger came up with too few signatures, and because the Legislature was in session, she couldn’t work on campaign matters. She cannot check his filings nor have her staff check them while in session.
No one else thought to look into the matter until David Nees, a retired math teacher who is an parttime aide to Rep. Liz Vazquez, started poking around.
The Division of Elections has had a bad year for performance. It had to have one of the legislative races, District 40, decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, and numerous election irregularities have cast doubt on the Division’s competency or commitment to fairness.
Division of Elections will not release a copy of the signatures on Beltrami’s petition, but the photo above shows that the division sent Beltrami a letter on July 21 confirming his spot on the General Election ballot.
Bob Sivertsen just blew through the door, covered in rain.
And by “blew,” the writer means there were 60-mile-knot winds behind him, and rain battering sideways in waves. Ketchikan style.
It’s a classic November gale in Southern Southeast Alaska, but that didn’t stop Sivertsen and a band of merry volunteers from going out and waving signs on a street corner.
They also waved at an Alaska Airlines jet passing over — a jet that simply couldn’t land in the weather.
“I love these November storms. I like to sleep with the rain pounding on the roof,” Sivertsen said.
Born in Territorial days in Ketchikan, Sivertsen was raised in what was a strong timber and fishing economy. That’s why when he got out of high school he went to work in a spruce mill, sawing up timber. His mom was half Aleut, having been relocated from the Aleutian chain down to Southeast during World War II. She attended the Wrangell Institute. His dad’s side of the family came over from Norway.
And like his father, Sivertsen spent 38 years working for the City of Ketchikan. He started riding on the back of a garbage truck. In those days, the garbage truck crew had keys to nearly every gate in town, as there was no real curbside service.
As Solid Waste Supervisor, Bob Sivertsen was featured in a “Tougher in Alaska” series on the History Channel.
“We’d even go up into the homes of the elderly and get the garbage cans from under their sinks,” he recalled. “We’d also carry groceries up the stairs for people.”
That job led to a 38-year career with the city that included the Street Department.
Sivertsen remembers driving a flatbed through town on snow and ice days and shoveling sand onto the roadways, stopping for snowball fights with the neighborhood kids, or pushing cars that were stuck in a berm.
The sidewalks were shoveled by hand by city workers like him back when it was common for Ketchikan to have two to three feet of snow for weeks at a time.
Bob met his wife Terry while she was working at a pizza restaurant. Married for 43 years, they have three children and eight grandchildren. Family has always been important, so much so that when the building of the Trans Alaska Pipeline came along in the 1970s, Bob chose to stay in Ketchikan.
“I just couldn’t see being away from my family, even for a high-paying job,” he said.
Instead, he coached his children through soccer and basketball, relishing the role of father and husband. He would not change a thing.
After 38 years, he retired from the city, and filled a vacant spot on the Ketchikan City Council, where he currently serves as vice mayor.
Through all of it, what he has enjoyed most is meeting people all over Southeast Alaska. Sivertsen is a quiet extrovert: He love people, but he’s not out to be the center of attention in any room.
That’s Bob Sivertsen driving the forklift as he moves a totem pole to a new location, circa 1970s.
“Over the years I’ve met a lot of wonderful people, and whether they are supporting me or not, Southeast Alaska is just a very resilient region, with strong people. We’ve been able to work through downturns in the economy and fishing slumps. This is a great community,”
Only four days remain before voters make up their minds for Republican Bob Sivertsen or Democrat-Independent, Rep. Daniel Ortiz. Will Ketchikan return to conservative values or stay with Ortiz, who recently was given a D grade by the NRA?
The race for House District 36 is on, and Sivertsen is heading back out into the gale to knock on doors and ask people to put their confidence in a guy who has made commitment to family and community the hallmarks of his life.
