Page 1668 – Must Read Alaska

Throwdown: District 40 election challenged

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September 16, 2016

A REVIEW OF PROBLEMS LEADS TO ELECTION LAWSUIT

Representative Ben Nageak, and attorneys Tim McKeever and Stacey Stone have filed a challenge to the Primary election results that were certified in District 40, the farthest north region of the state.

Rep. Nageak lost by eight votes to challenger Dean Westlake in the Democrat primary, which was found to be fraught with enough irregularities to have influence the outcome.

The challenge is based on several points:

SHUNGNAK DOUBLE VOTING

There were 50 votes cast in Shungnak – all 50 voters were allowed to vote both primary ballots — Republican and Democrat. The state acknowledged this as an error. The Division of Elections and the lieutenant governor took the position that since the House race was only on one ballot, no one voted twice and so this, while illegal, was ok.

However, the suit contends that the public has no way to know how many people would have chosen the Democrat (ADL) ballot if they had to choose, as they are everywhere else in the state. By choosing one ballot over another, they would either get to vote in the US Senate and House races or else the State House race, but not both during the primary. The Republican ballot is a closed ballot that is available to Republicans, undeclareds, and nonpartisans. This ballot has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

KIVALINA

Must Read Alaska has learned that in Kivalina seven voters insisted they were entitled to both ballots and they were given both but were required to file questioned ballots.

Both the regional review board and the state review board declined to count those seven double ballots. However during the recount the decision was made by the Director of the Division of Elections.

Four of those votes went to Westlake and 1 to Nageak.

Unlike Shungnak where the poll workers apparently made the mistake, in Kivalina the poll workers correctly thought it was wrong to vote both ballots, but the voters insisted, and the election workers relented.

Because the voters insisted on doing something illegal, the legality of those ballots is in question.

BROWERVILLE

Voters who were registered Republican were required to vote questioned ballots if they asked to vote the open-ADL primary ballot.

Luke Welles, a resident of District 40, also reported issues with voting and testified at a legislative hearing with details about having to argue at length with election officials in order to be allowed to vote just the open-ADL ballot.

Welles eventually cast the open-ADL ballot. His wife was forced to vote a questioned ballot, also open-ADL.

It’s possible some voters may have declined to vote the open-ADL ballot because of the extra hassle of filling out the paperwork for a questioned ballot.

BETTLES

Richard Thorne of Bettles was greeted by the election officials with the comment, “Oh here is Rick the Republican!”

He was not given the choice of a Democrat ballot. He was given a Republican ballot.This problem may have happened in other locations.

BUCKLAND

Several problems arose regarding special needs voters and the “personal representative” voting method. Only one voter indicated a party preference but all received the Democrat ballot in spite of the fact that some of these voters are non-declared and eligible to vote an R ballot.

The date the ballots were issued was not listed, likewise the date/time the ballots were returned was not listed.

The date of the signature by the representative was obscured on 11 out of the 12 ballots.

These ballots did not arrive in Nome until six days after the election.

It appears one of the official election workers took it upon herself to go out to find voters and allowed them to vote a special needs ballot without the voter requesting it. As a result, Buckland had more special needs ballots cast than Palmer or Wasilla, in spite of the population differences and the vastly greater number of aged people in Palmer-Wasilla, due to nursing homes in the area.

Buckland’s ballot box stuffing with personal representative ballots is enough by itself to contest the election, because if these are all discarded, then Nageak wins by 1.5 votes using the proportional method, i.e. Westake got 79.629% of the Buckland votes and that amounts to 9.5555555 of the special needs ballots. If the state allowed the one special need ballot collected by a non-election worker, Nageak wins by .759 votes.

NOME

During the regional absentee and questioned ballot review board session, four absentee ballots were misplaced. They may have been commingled with the questioned ballots and could not be retrieved. Election workers in Nome apparently consulted with their colleagues in Juneau outside the presence of the observers. They returned to the observers and stated that had been instructed to randomly select four questioned ballots and count them as absentee ballots.

Thus, election workers took ballots that were not necessarily legal to be voted and counted them as if valid, which is inappropriate.

WILLIAM OVIOK

William Oviok was allowed to vote in Barrow. It’s unknown if he is eligible, given he has a felony conviction and the fact that he was apparently not legal to vote in the mayoral election just a few weeks before.

However, he is a registered Democrat, but the poll workers refused to give him an open-ADL ballot. A Division of Elections employee later sent him an email apologizing for this and acknowledging that he should have been allowed to vote an open-ADL ballot.

MISTAKES ADD UP TO PATTERN

The law provides that the election is presumed valid and that mistakes by election personnel should not disenfranchise voters.

However some mistakes by voters and errors by election workers involved mandatory provisions of law and enough votes were involved that the outcome of the election could be changed.

OPTIONS

Today, the complainants asked the Alaska Supreme Court to review the process of the recount. They asked a Superior Court judge to review the process of the election.

In either case the courts could:

Order the count be changed in some way, by tossing out certain ballots.
Find the election was so flawed that a new election is necessary. If this option is selected it is likely the new election would be held Nov. 8.

None of the specific issues in the complaint has been litigated in Alaska before, according to our research. But there are clear violations of the law involved in most of the above problems. The problems were widespread, in several precincts, and involved enough ballots to change the outcome of the election.

Our original reporting on Aug. 18 peeled back the covers on voting problems in District 40. Other stories on Must Read Alaska can be found in the search box with keyword: election.

Alaska Dispatch New story of Aug. 19.

KTVA’s story of Aug. 22.

Juneau Empire’s story of Aug. 24.

Craig Medred’s report.

Where in the world is Byron Mallott

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 16, 2016

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LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BUSY NOT OVERSEEING ELECTIONS

Byron Mallott’s first test as lieutenant governor laid bare the inadequacies of his attention to training, oversight, and diligence when it comes to his singular job of ensuring fair and transparent elections.

Mallott did pay attention on election day when he traveled to Dillingham and a couple of rural precincts to observe and document the new, improved Yup’ik ballot.

But he did a disappearing act when numerous irregularities started showing up in one of the key districts that his Democrats had targeted for change. His party, for which he is the highest elected officer in the state, was attempting to take out Rep. Ben Nageak, a moderate Democrat, and install Dean Westlake, someone they could control.

For days Mallott was just nowhere to be seen, and his Division of Elections director was being torn to shreds over very questionable results.

By Aug. 24, Sen. Bill Stoltze, chair of the State Affairs Committee, had seen enough. Numerous instances of illegal voting were evident, and he called a meeting of the committee so that lawmakers could hear from the lieutenant governor, his director of the Division of Elections or their designees.

The hearing was set for Aug. 28 at 10 a.m.

On Aug. 25, Mallott responded to the request that he attend the hearing. No thanks, he said, in his letter to Sen. Stoltze> Mallott would not attend the hearing since the election was still being processed. He said the hearing was premature:

NO BYRON MALLOTT, BUT JOSIE BAHNKE SENT TO THE SLAUGHTER

The combined hearing of the Senate and House State Affairs Committee proceeded without Mallott, and without his chief of staff, Claire Richardson.

Josie Bahnke, director of Elections, sat in her Juneau office with unknown and unnamed staff members around her to help her as she fielded questions from what turned out to be a very polite committee.

It was clear to everyone in the hearing that Bahnke was simply over her head with an election that had warts all over it.

Where was Lt. Gov. Mallott that day?

He was at his home in Yakutat that morning, as he had been for a couple of days prior. He was taking some time off and had been showing his hometown to some philanthropists brought to the state by Diane Kaplan, President of the Rasmuson Foundation.

But the morning of the hearing, there was nothing on his calendar. Nothing at all.

That afternoon, Mallott toured the Yakutat Seafood Plant and met with some staff members from the Department of Fish and Game. He attended the Yakutat Fish and Game Advisory Committee. He met with the local U.S. Forest Service Staff.

None of those meetings are part of his official job description. The only thing the lieutenant governor is supposed to do is to oversee free and fair elections. And guard the state seal.

According to his travel authorization and expense reports, Mallott was off duty on Aug. 27 and did not come back on duty until noon, Aug. 28.

MALLOTT ZIPS OFF TO JACKSON HOLE

Prior to the State Affairs Committee hearing, on Aug. 18 Mallott met with Department of Justice representatives invited by the Governor’s Office to monitor the elections.

On Aug. 19, he met with Chief of Staff Claire Richardson and Division of Elections Director Josie Bahnke, and Libby Bakalar, the assistant attorney general who was assigned to the elections process. The focus was ballot translation for three census areas.

Mallott then issued a press statement saying that the double voting in Shungnak was not a problem because everyone had an opportunity to vote:

“With respect to the Shungnak precinct, the Division is aware of reports that the precinct workers gave voters both Republican and the combined Alaska Democratic Party, Alaska Libertarian Party and Alaskan Independence Party ballot. The Democratic Party allows any qualified voter to vote in their primary so anyone who voted in their primary was legally entitled to do so under party rules. Moreover, a candidate’s name appears on only one ballot, not multiple ballots, so no voter was able to cast more than one vote for any individual candidate.”

It is illegal to cast two ballots in Alaska. This is not a point of dispute, regardless of what the lieutenant governor is proposing, because if what he says stands as law, then everyone in Alaska should be allowed to vote both ballots. And that doesn’t happen.

Two days later, Mallott jetted off to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where his first meeting was with Khalid Alsweilem. The Saudi Arabian is Chief Counselor and Head of Investment at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, and has been published on the topic of “A Stable and Efficient Fiscal Framework for Saudi Arabia: The Role of Sovereign Funds in Decoupling Spending from Oil Revenue and Creating a Permanent Source of Income.”

Why would Alaska’s lieutenant governor meet with the central bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?

Mallott then met with venture capitalist Robert Grady, who has been introduced to Alaska before,

Grady is with Gryphon Investors. He previously was with the Carlyle Group. His expertise is in investment and debt capital markets. Grady is a name known to the governor’s office as a close friend of Alaska Dispatch News Publisher Alice Rogoff and Jack Ferguson, a lobbyist for the governor.

Grady was brought into the discussion last year when Ferguson was hired by Gov. Bill Walker to try to sell his new fiscal plan. Grady was vetting the various models being proposed by people like John Tichotsky, formerly at the Department of Revenue and now on the governor’s staff.

Mallott then met with economist Paul O’Brien, who has written extensively on Norway fisheries and economy. He attended some keynote addresses and dinners and then flew back home to Juneau.

Meanwhile, the evidence continued to mount that his election system had completely broken down in at least one important district: District 40, where Rep. Ben Nageak was fending off a same-party challenge from Dean Westlake.

‘YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN, JOSIE’

The lieutenant governor has left his Division of Elections director high and dry.

Inexperienced, facing mounting questions she cannot answer, Josie Bahnke has discovered that when good news happens, such as smooth voting on the Yup’ik ballot, Mallott will get the credit and the photo-op.

But if bad news happens, such as a Democratic Party-rigged election in District 40, it’s all on her.

Bright, shiny objects: What PFD is worth in ’82 dollars; mayor says lock doors

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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September 15, 2016

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INFLATION BITES

At some point in the next three weeks, The Alaska Permanent Fund dividend will be distributed to all eligible Alaskans. The amount was announced by the governor in June when he vetoed the funding for well over half of the dividend, and set the amount by fiat at exactly $1,000. It was a first.

One thousand dollars happens to be the amount of the very first dividend in 1982. Still not a bad haul for doing nothing but being an Alaskan.

KTUU did an analysis showing if Gov. Bill Walker had not vetoed the funding for the dividend, every Alaskan would get approximately $2,100 this year.

But to the point: $1,000 today is just $482 in 1982.

To keep up with inflation since 1982, this year’s check would have needed to be $2,481.

FIRST CUP OF IRONY: MORE TAX CREDITS SIGNED INTO LAW

While Gov. Bill Walker has vetoed millions of dollars in tax credits to the smaller oil and gas companies that came up to Alaska because of those incentives, he signed into law Monday a new set of tax credits.

The bill he signed, with House Speaker Mike Chenault looking over his shoulder, is to help reopen the Nikiski fertilizer company Agrium, which shuttered itself in 2011.

“This one is different than the other ones we’re doing up north,” Walker explained. “This is one the benefit to Agrium will be three, four, five million dollars with a maximum of five years, and the benefit on the revenue side is four, five times that.”

But will these tax credits be paid? What good is a tax credit if companies don’t know if they will really be honored?

MAYOR TO RESIDENTS: STAY IN BED, LOCK DOORS, SAY GOODNIGHT

Anchorage residents, who have already heard from Mayor Ethan Berkowitz’ administration that they should not walk alone at night and never be on the trails by themselves because it’s not safe, are now hearing that they should say goodnight to their parents and be sure to lock the doors.

Mayor Ethan was at the North Star Community Council yesterday when young girl told him her concerns about safety in the neighborhoods and how she feels unsafe.

“Make sure to say goodnight to your parents so they know where you are, stay in your bed, and make sure your parents have locked the doors,” Berkowitz advised.

Banishment, in the name of tradition

The 907

Suzanne Downing

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September 15, 2016

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BANISHMENT IS THE NEW BLACK

In 1994, two 17-year-old Tlingit boys robbed a young pizza delivery man in Everett, Washington, and beat him with a baseball bat for a bit of cash and a few slices of pepperoni pizza.

A Washington state judge was convinced by a Native American activist and possibly hustler named Rudy James to allow the boys to have the old-ways punishment of banishment for one year to an uninhabited island in Southeast Alaska with only a small stash of food and a few small tools.

And so the boys started their punishment, but the whole experiment fell apart quickly as they were soon seen in local towns of Klawock and Craig.

Eventually they ended up serving a stint of prison time, and they’ve both had several brushes with the law since the 1990s.

The victim? He came too close to death that day. He still has permanent hearing loss where the bat smashed him in the head.

“Never before had an American court allowed defendants to be punished by banishment. But a judge here in Snohomish County, north of Seattle, was assured that it was a traditional form of Tlingit justice, and it was hailed by some as a bold and innovative move in a criminal justice system gone awry,” reported the New York Times in 1994.

Many Southeast Alaska Tlingits looked askance at Rudy James’ claim that he was a Tlingit judge. He hadn’t even lived in Alaska for three decades, and they were embarrassed by the whole charade.

“Rudy James was just making this up as he went along,” Aaron Isaacs, of Klawock, was quoted as saying by the Times. “The biggest problem the native people have with this now is we are going to be held responsible for the promises of Rudy James.”

HERE WE GO AGAIN

Banishment is a punishment fashion that appears to be making a rebound in Alaska. Earlier this week the Alaska Dispatch News reported about several villages exercising their right to banish a person.

Derek Adams was 19 when he set fire to a house in the Yukon River village of Nunam Iqua. He had been awaiting trial since then, and took a plea deal to criminally negligent homicide charges in a Bethel court. It’s all pretty much behind him now, except for the three dead people that died that day in August of 2013.

Meanwhile, the village of Nunam Iqua has banished Adams. Out of self-defense, Alakanuk, and Emmonak banished him too.

Now Adams out of prison and homeless, because he can’t go to any villages near his home of Nunam Iqua. He’s hanging around Bethel because that’s what is going to happen to people who are banished — they’ll end up in the urban centers.

Tribal governments have spoken, and the State will have to decide if it will listen. Are State Troopers obliged to back up the banishment of a tribal government?

And why is this particular young man banished, but not the rapists in Nunam Iqua that have been reported on by CNN? A reporter spent time in the village and featured it as a place where every woman in town has reported as having been a victim of domestic or gender-based violence, rape, or other sex crimes. And a lot of the kids have been raped and beaten too. The ADN story leaves open the question about whether Derek Adams was also abused in the village from which he is now banished.

IF WALLY OLSON WAS ALIVE…

Walter Olson was a retired professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska at Juneau. Married to Marie Olson until his death last December, he was the foremost expert on Tlingit culture, and history.

He told New York Times reporter Tim Egan that there was neither oral nor written history of any banishment tradition among any Alaska tribes. Not a single one, he said.

“Under old Tlingit law, you could turn someone over to be a slave, or take their life. But banishment — no.” – Wally Olsen

Today, banishment is being revived as a form of tribal sovereignty and “traditional justice.”

Few if any in the legal community are making critical inquiries as to which tribes practiced it or if any did at all.

It sounds good. It sounds traditional. And for those who just don’t feel like mixing it up with a tribal government, it sounds like an issue you might not want to touch in this age of political correctness.

But it leaves the question: How many systems of justice shall we allow in Alaska. Are there going to be different standards for different people?

Because for some folks in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, Bethel, Kotzebue, and Nome, there is a whole cast of vagrants, drug addicts, gangsters, and troublemakers that the law abiding citizens of the city wouldn’t mind banishing.

It’s tradition, right?

Lindbeck ad is low energy

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 15, 2016

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LINDBECK TOUTS HIS JOURNALISTIC CREDENTIALS

Democratic sacrificial lamb Steve Lindbeck rolled out his first video ad this week and he looked peeved — or at least as peeved as a milk-fed veal calf without a bottle.

Lindbeck leaned on his credentials as a former journalist to say how hopping mad he is at Rep. Don Young.

Young, he says, accepted campaign donations from a company and then refused to intervene when that company decided not to do business in Alaska. As if Young should force a company like Crowley to bid on a contract when it has other plans.

It was Lindbeck’s best Bob Woodward impersonation.

Lindbeck might have wanted to think that strategy through because that ad doesn’t do him any favors. Journalists are supposed to stick to the facts, but since they don’t do so reliably, they’re losing the high ground with the public.

Gallup just released a new poll that shows how journalists have sunk to a new low of trust with the general public. That’s down eight points in just one year alone, and the lowest point since 1972. Not surprisingly, Democrats still trust the mass media, but Independents and Republicans? Not so much.

From a technical standpoint, the ad just goes in fits and starts. If it’s intentional, it’s just distracting. But it looks like they had to work at getting any usable footage with the candidate, who isn’t a natural in front of the camera. In fact, the whole thing seems kind of low-tech, low-budget and low-energy.

From an ethical standpoint, Lindbeck should blush: Using congressional authority to sway private contracts one way or another is a big no-no. Suppose Don Young had done so — he would have faced charges. Lindbeck knows that, but has taken the first few steps down the slippery road of political lying.

As evidenced by the Aug. 16 primary and his latest lackluster FEC reports, Lindbeck is struggling, but he’ll keep fighting and Rep. Don Young shouldn’t dismiss him entirely.

After all, we’ve seen what happens when the Alaska Dispatch News goes after a candidate. The evidence is beginning to mount that Publisher Alice Rogoff has chosen Don Young as her next big target, and she’s unleashed the hounds from hell on him.

Lindbeck has a lot of friends among those hounds, and the howling has already begun.

Another day, another new Walker hire

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 14, 2016

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ONE THIRD OF GOVERNOR’S CABINET HAS QUIT

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has hired Mark Wiggin as his new DNR deputy commissioner, starting Sept. 19.

screen-shot-2016-09-14-at-2-26-08-pm — *Mark Wiggin*

“Wiggin, of Anchorage, brings to DNR 36 years of oil field experience including 33 years in the Alaska oil field. He was a lead start-up engineer for the Alpine and Milne Point oil fields and during his three decades in Alaska, Wiggin served in engineering, operations, exploration, and project management roles for a number of high-profile developments including Lisburne, Alpine, Nikaitchuq, and most recently, Mustang,” according to the governor’s press release.

Until the end of this week, Wiggin is the engineering and development manager for Brooks Range Petroleum, where he has been since 2012.

A registered Democrat and active in state Alaska Democratic Party politics, he joins the governor’s team halfway through Walker’s term, and is replacing Marty Rutherford, who left in June.

Wiggin gave $2,000 in contributions to Mark Begich’s 2014 Senate bid, and is a r egular donor to the Alaska Democratic Party and ActBlue, a political action group that allows donors to funnel money to their specific candidates and liberal causes.

GOVERNOR STACKING UP WITH HARD-CORE DEMOCRATS

In addition to his large donations to Begich, Wiggin has made nice-sized contributions to a whole list of Democrats that include Eric Croft, Forrest Dunbar, Matt Claman, Tom Begich, Harriet Drummond, Ethan Berkowitz, Hollis French, Clare Ross, Harry Crawford Jr., Nick Moe, Paul Honeman, Starr Marsett, and Governor Bill Walker. He is a well-known go-to person for hosting Democrat candidate fundraisers.

Gov. Walker has endured the resignations of one-third of his cabinet in his first 18 months in office, losing his originally chosen attorney general (his law partner whom he hired back as a contractor), his commissioner and deputy commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, Education commissioner, Public Safety commissioner and Corrections commissioner. He also forced out and replaced the president of the Alaska Gasline Development Authority, and the vice president of AGDC resigned last month.

Governor Walker recently hired another hard-core Democrat — Hollis French, former senator and candidate for offices such as governor and lieutenant governor — as a commissioner from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

BROOKS RANGE – HOPING FOR THOSE TAX CREDITS

Brooks Range Petroleum, the company from which Wiggin hails, is a beneficiary of the tax credits the state has promised the small oil and gas explorers in recent years. The governor’s refusal to make good on the tax credits has burdened companies like Brooks Range, whose business models depended on the credits. Some observers are speculating that Wiggin is leaving because the company needs to downsize in the current difficult business environment.

Brooks Range has a discovery on the North Slope, but may not be in a position to develop it under the current regime of Bill Walker.

Murder, they wrote

Uncategorized

Suzanne Downing

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September 14, 2016

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STREETS, TRAILS BECOMING KILLING ZONES; VIOLENCE SPREADS

screen-shot-2016-09-14-at-1-05-22-pm — *Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz*

Mayor Ethan Berkowitz was sitting back, eyelids heavy, looking languid. The mayor, who normally spends much of the Assembly meetings in the back of the room, talking with friends and not paying attention to the proceedings, was in his seat.

The Anchorage Assembly meeting was being taken over by the topic of violent crime. This was not going well.

Fifteen months into his term as mayor, and this is what he’s identified with: Murder, mayhem, and an adorable little basketball court on top of a downtown parking garage that he’s had converted into a park where no vagrants — and no other Anchorage residents — are likely to go.

The cameras were on him now. The testimony continued from the angry public. City Manager Mike Abbott kept his eyes glued to his computer screen, not looking at the large crowd that had gathered in the Z.J. Loussac Library Assembly Chambers to express their worries to the Assembly.

Earlier this month, Berkowitz had to change up plans and meet with residents in the North Star neighborhoods, and they were hopping mad over the latest double homicide in a place where their children play.

Berkowitz was explaining that it’s complicated. It’s more than just murder, it’s just a lot of stuff, he was saying. Mike Abbott the city manager kept face down, looking at his screen.

One Anchorage resident from the Mountain View neighborhood was telling the Assembly that she is not a happy camper: “There are rapes, shootings, frequent gunfire.”

“People are not at ease in their homes, yards or streets. They are avoiding the parks and the trails.” – Stephanie Warnoch, to the Anchorage Assembly

Berkowitz shifted the blame to the state: “The State is drawing down the number of Troopers in the Anchorage area,” he explained.

Assemblyman Dick Traini also kicked the can over to the state. SB 91, the crime reform bill, was to blame: “They’re dumping the people who should be in prison out on the streets,” he said.

SB 91 was signed into law on July 11 by Gov. Bill Walker. The city was already well on the way to setting a new murder record.

“These are complicated problems and it requires a concerted community effort to move forward,” Berkowitz said, helpfully.

The public outcry was mounting. Earlier this month, two men were shot in the Valley of the Moon Park.

The city’s response was slow, but finally the official word was: Don’t go out at night alone. Be wary. Stay off the trails. After all, this is the second double homicide on a city trail. Is it a serial killer? The official word is simply: We can’t tell you.

screen-shot-2016-09-14-at-11-19-18-am — *Tommy Rumph*

Then, on Tuesday, just two block away from Valley of the Moon Park, Tommy Rumph, age 31, allegedly pulled a gun on Treavonne Owens and shot him dead at 15th and E streets at about 6:15 am, right next to Central Middle School. The late Mr. Owens had multiple gunshot wounds to his body.

SAFE AND SECURE BERKOWITZ

The Ethan Berkowitz whom voters chose was the “Safe and Secure” Berkowitz, the Harvard lawyer who could hold the floor of the Alaska House of Representatives with long soliloquies about oil and gas taxes.

When he ran for governor, he proposed allowing Alaskans to invest in a new “Great Alaska Gasline” as investors with their Permanent Fund Dividends. As politicians do, Berkowitz knows to talk about things that people are focused on. So when it came time to run for mayor, he focused on crime.

As mayor, can Berkowitz make people in Anchorage feel safe?

“We are as far from feeling safe and secure as we have been in many years,” said one Anchorage resident who would not give her name for publication. “The only thing we’ve gotten from the city is ‘don’t travel alone and night and don’t go on the trails. Since when is that acceptable?'”

DEATH TOLL: OFFICIALLY 26, PLUS TWO HIT-AND-RUNS

There are 22 homicide cases in Anchorage this year, with 26 deaths between them.

The rate is based on the FBI’s Uniform Crime Rate standard that doesn’t add in those hit-and-runs.

To the families of the deceased, a hit and run is murder, but it’s simply not counted that way year-over-year.

Of the 22 cases, 12 have been solved with charges lodged and arrests made; there are three cases where the assailant is known, but charges await prosecutorial review.

There are six unsolved cases (involving nine victims), where a suspect has not been identified, according to Jennifer Castro of the Anchorage Police Department.

Nine souls awaiting justice and an entire city on edge over murder and mayhem that has folks making sure their doors are locked and their children are not playing outside, where the bad guys have taken over.

TALK TO THE MAN

Mayor Berkowitz will have office hours in his Parking Lot Park, top of the 5th Avenue Garage, this Friday, Sept. 18, from 11 am to 1 pm, five stories above the killing zone. It’s a stone’s throw from where Treavonne Owens used to work in a popular downtown restaurant kitchen, and within view of where someone on Tuesday pumped Mr. Owens full of lead and left him to die next to a school — a school where children would arrive within the hour.

Residents of the city can also find him tonight, Sept 14, at the North Star Neighborhood Community Council, where public safety is an agenda item. The NSCC meets in the library of the North Star Elementary School at 605 West Fireweed Lane, and begins at 7 pm. Sam Moore is the president of the NSCC; reach Moore with your questions about the meeting at [email protected].

Bright, shiny objects: Party with Ann Coulter; Begich’s plea for attention

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 13, 2016

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PRIVATE PARTY PLANNED WITH ANN COULTER – TICKET INFO

With all that has happened on the “Hillary Health front” this week, what does Ann Coulter have to say about the Clinton track record of lies and deceit?

Let’s ask her ourselves! Author, lawyer, and political lightning rod Ann Coulter will be in Anchorage for a speaking engagement on Sept. 17 at the Egan Center in Anchorage. Tickets are going fast at Ticketmaster.

An after-party VIP reception with Ms. Coulter is where Alaskans can actually meet her, and at the same time help fund the operations of the Alaska Republican Party.

There are only 100 tickets available for the VIP party. Those tickets are here.

Coulter will have copies of her latest book, In Trump We Trust, available for purchase, and she’ll inscribe it for you. But wait! There’s more! You can also have your photo taken with her, which would be the social media throwdown of the year among your friends.

It’s a small crowd, so an opportunity to visit with her one-on-one. See you there.

Coulter is a frequent guest on many TV shows, including Hannity, Piers Morgan, Red Eye, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Fox & Friends, Dr. Drew, Entertainment tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Hannity, and The O’Reilly Factor.

SINGAPORE $LING

Word is that Gov. Bill Walker has paid $50,000 for his 15-minute speaking opportunity at the CWC World LNG & Gas Series: Asia Pacific Summit. We think it’s more likely that the $50,000 is the sponsorship that includes 15 minutes at the podium and the beverage break being sponsored by Alaska Gasline Development Corporation. The pay-to-play trip by Walker and entourage is set for Sept. 20-23.

MARK BEGICH TRYING TO STAY RELEVANT

Mark Begich is thinking about running as a write-in candidate against Lisa Murkowski. By thinking, he means he is polling to see what everyone else is thinking.

Liz Raines, reporter at KTVA, had the good sense to call Begich and let him put the rumor on the record, which he did:

“That decision I can make as, you know, as the time permits, but you know, the election isn’t until November,” Begich told her.

Is it a cry for help or a plea for attention?

“Mark Begich can never be taken for granted because he has a knack for staying two steps ahead of the truth,” said longtime political consultant Art Hackney. “He ran for U.S. Senate on a record as Anchorage mayor that only caught up with him after he was elected.”

Hackney added, “In this case, his record as U.S. senator has already caught up to him and he will have a hard time making the case that returning him to the Senate would be anything but a disaster for Alaska.”

“This is self-immolation,” said Frank McQueary, communication chair of the Alaska Republican Party. “Mark Begich, the guy who brought us Obamacare, the guy who is Obama’s handmaiden, has such a visceral hatred of Lisa Murkowski that he’s ready to throw himself upon the fire.”

As for Joe Miller, McQueary said, “He doesn’t the capacity any longer to raise the kind of money he needs to mount an effective campaign. At this point, the only one who might contribute cash to him would be Mark Begich.”

SALAD DAYS IN THE CAPITAL CITY

The featured speaker at the end-of-summer Salad Luncheon for Capital City Republican Women is John Moller, former rural advisor for Gov. Sean Parnell, and Kathy Hosford of Skagway.

The event is noon-1:30, Sept. 17, [contact for location: [email protected]] in Juneau. Moller and Hosford will discuss what it was like to be a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer.

How unions use members’ dues

Politics

Suzanne Downing

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September 13, 2016

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PART II: UNION ‘TRUSTS’ POUR MONEY INTO POLITICS

By ART CHANCE

The part of union money and influence that is little known and receives little attention is union “trust” assets.

In the private sector unions and employers participate in so-called “Taft-Hartley Trusts” to provide retirement benefits, health care, and in some cases other “fringe” benefits to union members.

The union and the employer negotiate the amount that the employer will contribute to the “trust,” and the trust is theoretically jointly run by the union and the employer(s).

The reality is that the trusts are run by the unions and employers take little interest. Many are bankrupt or have been placed under federal supervision, most are underfunded, but they represent a huge amount of money that doesn’t have the legal strictures that apply to dues money.

Rest assured that a lot of trust money was behind enacting ObamaCare, and a lot of trust money gets spent on lobbying and on conferences in warm, stylish places.

The structure varies in the public sector because it is a creature of state or local law, but the principles are the same.

The sheer amount of the money involved allows the unions to bully banks and credit unions and the numbers of members involved allow them to bully service providers. If the Bank of Podunk is contemplating providing financing for a commercial building, the union just calls the bank president and says: “If that project isn’t built union, we’re pulling our trust money out of your bank.”

Just to give some perspective, the Alaska State Employees Association has maybe 8,500 members. The State pays into a “trust” with which ASEA buys health insurance for the bargaining unit members. It is hard to find the exact amount the State pays, but I’m estimating about $1,300 per member per month.

That is $1 million bucks a month, $13-and -change million a year that ASEA, a small union by national standards, can run through whatever bank or credit union it chooses.

Bankers will do a lot of things for a depositor that runs that kind of money through their bank; think what they might do for a depositor that runs billions through their bank.

Then there are dues monies. It is black-letter law illegal to use compelled dues money to play politics and has been since 1986. But then, adultery is still illegal in lots of places; and that must be why nobody ever does it.

Only in the most corrupt “Blue” places do unions use dues money for direct political contributions or actions in support of a particular candidate. Even if you bought the governor or attorney general, if they know for a fact that you illegally spent dues money, then they own you. And if they own you and you oppose their agenda, the attorney general would make the union head’s life a living hell.

But what unions can do with dues money is “member education.” There is a blurry line between political action and member education. In the recent August 16 primary I had five visits from union activists campaigning for union-endorsed candidates, and only two visits from actual candidates — one Democrat, one Republican.

Since I was a union member during my State tenure for only a couple of years in the 1990s, I assume the unions were using the membership lists from the Alaska Retired Public Employees Association, which I was a member of for a year until it became apparent that it cared far more about Democrat politics than about retiree benefits. That was 10 years ago, but I’m still on the list of people that the unions have members out walking the streets to “educate.”

Unions can do almost all of the “ground game” side of politics using dues money, which saves the Democrats a tremendous amount of hard money. The Democrats can use all of their legal, or arguably legal, political money on pure political action and political messaging; the unions will take care of all of the get-out-the-vote, poll-watching, and parallel messaging.

The other thing they do with dues money is fund other union-related or union/Democrat leaning organizations. These groups purport to be interested in improving the lot of “working people.” The reality is that these are interlocking leftist organizations and if they pass the money around enough, everyone loses track of the pea. If some group is singing songs, carrying signs, or burning buildings in your town, if you scratch far enough you’ll find dues money paying the organizers.

I’m not prepared to accept that all of the unions’ legal money is truly legal, but some portion of their legal money is, in fact, legal and they can spend it as hard money contributions to candidates or initiatives. Hard money is reportable to state and federal campaign finance regulators and is accessible to the public, so it is difficult but not impossible to cheat. Even with all the restrictions on hard money, the major unions, especially the major public employee unions, are perennially in the top 10 contributors to Democrat political campaigns.

Bottom line: If you’re a Republican politician in a union state, and make no mistake, Alaska is a union state, you cannot take on unions unless you are both willing and positioned to take on their revenue stream. They are very well organized and very well funded; the failed AO-37 initiative saw to that. If you’re facing a union financed opponent, you don’t have time to seek any meaningful remedy from the courts and the Executive Branch is your enemy. There is no relief available; you simply have to win the election the hard way.

Art Chance is a retired Director of Labor Relations for the State of Alaska. He is the author of the book, Red on Blue, Establishing a Republican Governance, available at Amazon.

A REVIEW OF PROBLEMS LEADS TO ELECTION LAWSUIT

SHUNGNAK DOUBLE VOTING

KIVALINA

BROWERVILLE

BETTLES

BUCKLAND

NOME

WILLIAM OVIOK

MISTAKES ADD UP TO PATTERN

OPTIONS

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BUSY NOT OVERSEEING ELECTIONS

NO BYRON MALLOTT, BUT JOSIE BAHNKE SENT TO THE SLAUGHTER

MALLOTT ZIPS OFF TO JACKSON HOLE

‘YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN, JOSIE’

INFLATION BITES

FIRST CUP OF IRONY: MORE TAX CREDITS SIGNED INTO LAW

MAYOR TO RESIDENTS: STAY IN BED, LOCK DOORS, SAY GOODNIGHT

BANISHMENT IS THE NEW BLACK

HERE WE GO AGAIN

IF WALLY OLSON WAS ALIVE…

LINDBECK TOUTS HIS JOURNALISTIC CREDENTIALS

ONE THIRD OF GOVERNOR’S CABINET HAS QUIT

GOVERNOR STACKING UP WITH HARD-CORE DEMOCRATS

BROOKS RANGE – HOPING FOR THOSE TAX CREDITS

STREETS, TRAILS BECOMING KILLING ZONES; VIOLENCE SPREADS

SAFE AND SECURE BERKOWITZ

DEATH TOLL: OFFICIALLY 26, PLUS TWO HIT-AND-RUNS

TALK TO THE MAN

PRIVATE PARTY PLANNED WITH ANN COULTER – TICKET INFO

SINGAPORE $LING

MARK BEGICH TRYING TO STAY RELEVANT

SALAD DAYS IN THE CAPITAL CITY

PART II: UNION ‘TRUSTS’ POUR MONEY INTO POLITICS

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