Rep. Mary Peltola is pushing extremely negative campaign messages about Nick Begich, her Republican challenger, as she continues her pivot to a “mean girl” campaign to fight the threat Begich poses to her reelection. Polling shows Begich has pulled ahead of Peltola, which is often what causes the kind of vicious campaigning now being done at the Peltola headquarters.
In her latest messages, she plays audio of Don Young saying he would not vote for Nick Begich. Begich was running for Congress after Young told him and many others he was retiring. But then Young changed his mind and decided to make it an even 50 years in Congress. He subsequently attacked Begich for running, although he had told him earlier he approved of his candidacy.
Peltola is now using the actual voice of a dead man in her ads.
But Rep. Pete Stauber, the key author of the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, is having none of this from her. Peltola burned him by pretending she supported the pro-energy legislation, but at the last minute pulling her vote from it and telling Democrats in Congress to vote no on it.
Peltola has not only used Don Young’s name without his permission, she used Stauber’s name in her recent ad without his permission.
Stauber said, “I like Mary personally, but I support @NickforAlaska. He would have voted FOR the Alaska Right to Produce Act, and so would have Don Young.”
Begich said Peltola continues to co-opt Young’s legacy. In 2022, it was Begich who received the Republican Party endorsement, something Peltola has not disclosed. His campaign chair was Rhonda Boyles, one of Don Young’s longtime campaign chairs. Many thought it was time for the 88-year-old lawmaker to retire after he had served 49 years in Congress.
“The truth is that in contrast to Peltola, our late congressman and Congressional Republicans champion Alaska’s right to responsibly produce our resources – always,” Begich said.
Peltola, on the other hand, double-crossed Alaskans by telling her comrades to vote against the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act, which she had signed onto as a sponsor, but then refused to vote for.
Peltola continues to tell Alaskas that she is like Don Young, repeating that line to a room full of oil and gas workers earlier this week at a candidate forum.
But also this week, she received the endorsement she requested of the defund-the-police group MoveOn.org, something Don Young would not have done.
A 16-year-old male succumbed to gunshot wounds in Anchorage on Tuesday night.
At 8:37 p.m. police responded to the 400 block of Price Street, where they found the boy with gunshot wounds to his upper body. He was transported and declared dead at a nearby hospital. Police do not release the names of juvenile victims.
The APD Crime Scene Team responded to process the scene and closed Thompson Avenue at Price Street, later reopening the intersection, which is in the Mountainview neighborhood.
Earlier on Tuesday, Anchorage Police responded to a report at 6:52 a.m. of an adult male shooting a firearm in the parking lot of the 5700-block of Rocky Mountain Court.
Upon arrival, officers found another adult male near 6th and Boniface by San Juan Circle with at least one gunshot wound to the upper body.
Anchorage Fire Department medics responded to the scene in the Russian Jack neighborhood and provided life-saving measures; however, the victim was declared deceased at the scene. The man’s identity will be released once next-of-kin notification procedures have been completed, police said.
Anyone with information regarding these incidences, to include surveillance footage of the areas, is asked to contact Police Dispatch at 3-1-1 (option #1) or (907)786-8900 (press “0”). To remain anonymous, you may contact Crime Stoppers online at www.AnchorageCrimeStoppers.com.
The 2024 general election doesn’t end until 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, but Alaskans who choose to vote by mail are already requesting their ballots from the Division of Elections. Absentee voting started Sept. 20, with over 9,000 ballots mailed to voters who requested them that month.
Alaskans can also vote in person starting on Monday at 8 a.m. in most communities in Alaska.
For early voting, you can vote absentee-in-person in nearly any city clerk’s office in Alaska. In many locations, you can vote an early ballot.
If the election facility is operated by Division of Elections, such as in major towns and cities, your vote will be counted as an early vote and included on the Nov. 5 count, as long as your vote has been cast by Nov. 1. That allows election workers to double check to make sure people have not voted twice.
If the voting center is not connected with Division of Elections, your vote will be an absentee-in-person vote that will counted after the election, when again, election workers will ensure you only voted once. This helps maintain election integrity.
The Alaska Republican Party’s mailer for House District 23 looks like this, and has detailed instructions on absentee voting. The Democrats are likely receiving a similar mailer from the Alaska Democrat Party.
As illustrated above, the Alaska Republican Party has sent out a get-out-the-vote mailer to its voters in House districts around the state with instructions on how to vote early by mail or absentee. Many voters in Alaska move in and out of the state often and absentee voting is a convenience to them, since they may not be in state on Election Day.
Remember, the Alaska Division of Elections does not use drop boxes.
You must mail your ballot or take it to your regional office or any voting location. The ballot is 17” and will require two “forever stamps” ($1.46) to mail to the division.
In 2022, 267,047 Alaskans had their ballots counted in the November general election. 54,433 of those were absentee ballots and 37,562 were early ballots, for a total of 91,995. That’s over 34% of the vote being cast absentee or early in the 2022 election.
On Oct. 16, 1972, a Cessna carrying House of Representatives Majority Leader Hale Boggsof Louisiana, Alaska Representative Nicholas Begich, and a Begich aide, Russell Brown, disappeared between Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska, during a campaign trip.
Boggs, who had served 14 nonconsecutive terms in the U.S. House, was trying to gain the friendship of Begich, who had opposed him a year earlier in a leadership contest. Boggs agreed to barnstorm the state on a 48-hour trip with the freshman congressman from Alaska.
After a speaking engagement on Sunday, Oct. 15, in Anchorage, the congressmen left the next morning for Juneau. The plane departed Anchorage just before 9 am, piloted by Don Jonz. The last it was heard from was at 9:09 am, in a routine check-in with the tower.
“The twin-engine Cessna never arrived, vanishing in abysmal weather conditions,” according to the House History, Art, and Archives Office.
At noon on Oct. 17, Rep. Tip O’Neill made the announcement in the well of the House: “It is our hope and prayer, of course, that the men will be found safe,” he told the chamber.
“The disappearance set in motion the largest search and rescue operation to that point in American history, involving 40 military aircraft, 50 civilian planes, a search grid of 325,000 square miles, and more than 3,600 hours of search time. After 39 days, the search was called off, with no sign of wreckage or survivors.”
By today’s standards, Begich was a conservative. He was a pro-life Democrat and was pro-labor and pro-development.
Rep. Nicholas BegichNicholas Begich III
Today, Nicholas Begich III, age 42, is the co-chair of Alaskans for Don Young campaign. Young succeeded Begich in Congress in a March, 1973 special election.
Begich was 40 years old when his plane disappeared and Don Young was 40 years old when he became “Congressman for all Alaska.”
This report first ran in Must Read Alaska on Oct. 15, 2020.
Rep. Mary Peltola’s name appears in a lawsuit filed by the America First Policy Institute against a “John Doe” who made numerous donations to Democrat political campaigns, including hers.
Mark Block, a Republican consultant, said he discovered an old email account he used while working on Herman Cain’s 2012 presidential campaign had been used to donate to ActBlue, a major Democrat fundraising platform that has been the subject of congressional investigations for using fake accounts to channel money. When he checked the account, he found hundreds of receipts being sent there by ActBlue for donations supposedly made by him.
In the lawsuit filed in Wisconsin state court this week, Block says he is the victim of identity theft in a conspiracy that uses ActBlue as a mule for money — and for possible overseas donations from unknown actors.
Numerous Democrats politicians received money from the account that he claims was orphaned by him. They include Mary Peltola’s campaign and joint fundraising committee.
When conservative activist James O’Keefe of O’Keefe Media Group investigated the company earlier this year, he interviewed dozens of Americans who had never donated to Democrat candidates, but whose names and identities were being logged into the ActBlue online system, showing them making hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. Many of these ActBlue victims were retired people on a fixed income who told O’Keefe they had no ability to have made such donations.
Democrats in Alaska, such as Peltola, use the ActBlue system for online donations every day. In fact, an Anchorage man who was arrested last month for threatening conservative Supreme Court justices had used ActBlue to donate to Peltola’s campaign, as well as to President Joe Biden’s campaign.
The amounts donated through mule accounts are often very small and go under the radar of the Federal Elections Commission, which does not monitor small donations to political campaigns. In this way, the system has gone under the radar for years, becoming a behemoth in campaign donation funneling that has allowed Democrat candidates to vastly outperform the Republicans. The small donations add up. In Block’s case, over $800 was donated through the use of his old email address, and his is just one of millions of possible accounts being uses.
“For example, within a day of Vice President Harris taking over President Biden’s campaign, she received $81 million from 888,000 grassroots donors; this total quickly swelled to more than $310 million by the end of the month. Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz stated that these donations represent ‘exactly the kind of grassroots energy and enthusiasm that wins elections,'” the lawsuit explained.
“Unfortunately, however, at least some of those donations—and similar donations to campaigns and organizations across the country—have been fraudulently made,” it continued. In the exhibit attached to the lawsuit were names of numerous Democrat candidates — among them Peltola — who had received tiny donations from the Mark Block email address.
Starting in May of 2024, Block’s account was used to make over $884 in donations to 62 campaigns and political groups. The Harris Victory Fund got 35 of the donations linked to his account.
“Plaintiff did not make, authorize, or consent to these donations to the ActBlue Campaigns, and the Defendant’s unlawful acts could expose Plaintiff to investigation by the FEC for contributions made under a false name,” the lawsuit said.
“While these fraudulent donations average out to a very small $3.24 per transaction, they fit nicely into a loophole created by Federal Election Commission (FEC) reporting requirements,” the complaint added.
For example, the Mary Peltola Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee shared with Alaska Democratic Party, received $2.40 from the account owned by Mark Block on the same day the account supposedly gave Sherrod Brown, and Jon Tester, and the Harris Victory Fund similar small amounts. Peltola’s campaign itself received $2.60 on Sept. 12 from whoever is using Block’s email address.
The activity associated with fraudulent use of identities for political online donations described as “smurfing,” and is considered a form of identity theft. People with abandoned email accounts may find that those are being used to funnel money to campaigns without their knowledge. One Alaskan who spoke with Must Read Alaska said one of his old accounts had been used by ActBlue in a similar way. But most Americans don’t have the financial resources to litigate such matters.
“Specifically, federal law does not require campaigns to itemize contributions from donors when the aggregate amount totals less than $200. Campaigns that receive contributions below $200 can simply bundle the donation into a list of un-itemized contributions. Small dollar donations have seen explosive growth in recent years, with the number of reported transactions increasing by 400% just between the 2016 and 2020 elections,” the lawsuit said.
“Bad actors can influence elections by laundering their ‘smurfing’ activities (i.e., making contributions via the PII [personal identifiable information] of numerous donors or ‘smurfs’) through these anonymous bulk reports. Since FEC data on small-dollar donors is organized by donor rather than campaign, someone would first have to know or suspect who a ‘smurf’ might be before a record search would reveal a pattern of structured fraudulent donations. Unless of course that bad actor was like the John Doe in this case, and made the critical mistake of using the Plaintiff’s PII to launder fraudulent campaign contributions,” the lawsuit said.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating reports of potentially fraudulent and illicit financial activity related to contributions to campaigns of candidates for federal offices mediated by online fundraising platforms like ActBlue.
“Recent reports about ActBlue raise concerns about the threat of fraud and evasion of campaign finance law by individuals exploiting online contribution platforms. ActBlue had not implemented standard procedures to guard against identity theft and fraud such as requiring a Card Verification Value (CVV) to process online transactions until it received criticism for not doing so. ActBlue is also being investigated by several states’ officials in relation to contributions allegedly made through the platform fraudulently without the reported contributor’s awareness. Federal law prohibits contributions made in the name of another person,” the House Oversight Committee explained.
“The Committee is concerned that failure to properly vet contributions made through online platforms may have allowed bad actors to more easily commit fraud to illegally exploit and violate federal campaign finance laws. These bad actors could include foreign nationals not lawfully admitted for permanent residence who are prohibited by statute from contributing to campaigns or political parties. They could also include individuals looking to flout the limits of individual contributions by fraudulently using others’ identities to evade those limits, in addition to other criminal activity in violation of campaign finance laws,” the committee said in a letter to the Department of Treasury. “It is imperative that Congress determine whether legislation is necessary to ensure adherence to statutes related to campaign finance, and guard against foreign or unfair influence in our elections.”
Kamala Harris is trying to shore up the black male vote, which has proved elusive to her.
Her new plan to bring in the black male vote is a promise that she will, as president, forgive taxpayer-funded business loans up to $20,000 for black male entrepreneurs, and to legalize marijuana. She also has plans for crypto, to “make sure owners of and investors in digital assets benefit from a regulatory framework so that Black men and others who participate in this market are protected.”
Her new opportunity plan for black men includes easier pathways for them to engage in a legalized marijuana trade. In addition, she has plans to forgive student loan debt for black male teachers.
According to the National Institutes of Health, In 2019, approximately 48 million people (17.5%) ages 12 and over in the United States reported using cannabis in the past year. Among past-year cannabis users, 3.5 million reported initiating cannabis use for the first time that year.
“The heavy and prolonged use of cannabis has been linked to several adverse health effects such as memory impairment, issues with executive functioning, and increased risk for developing a mental illness. Furthermore, the literature posits that 30% of weekly cannabis users will be diagnosed with Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) in their lifetime. Despite the associated health risks, the perceived risk associated with weekly cannabis use has declined among all age groups (i.e., 12 and over) within the past-year, indicating increased likelihood for problematic use,” theNIH said in this paper.
The race for president is described by the media and pollsters as close, but the betting markets have broken for Donald Trump. Polymarket, one of the leading online betting sites, shows dramatic shift to Trump in recent days, which may have prompted Harris to use the marijuana-for-votes tactic in her campaign.
Who do you think will win in November? Leave your prediction in the comment section below.
By MAYOR JOSIAH AULLAQSRUAQ PATKOTAK, NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH
On May 28, the leader of the Native Village of Kaktovik received a letter from Merben Cebrian, the federal refuge manager for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). In this letter, Cebrian explained that, based on requests from the Native Village of Venetie and Arctic Village, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering designating a portion of ANWR — specifically 1.5 million acres — as sacred grounds for the Gwich’in under Executive Order 13007.
As mayor of the North Slope Borough and a proud member of the Iñupiaq people, I feel compelled to address this affront to our people’s ancestral lands.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s attempt to designate land as religious grounds for the Gwich’in people, land that has never been part of their historical territory, is not only misguided but an affront to the sovereignty and history of the Iñupiaq.
For thousands of years, the Iñupiaq people have lived, thrived and stewarded these lands. Our deep connection to the land and its resources is woven into the very fabric of our identity. Yet, today, we find ourselves at the crossroads of a dangerous and paternalistic attempt by the federal government to undermine our rights and history.
This is not a simple misunderstanding; it is a naked and transparent effort to advance a political agenda at the expense of our people.
Let me be clear: The land in question is not, and has never been, Gwich’in territory. If there is a claim that their ancestors are buried here, that is a result of territorial wars that occurred in a bygone era; and victors aren’t buried.
The historical territory of the Gwich’in is 150-200 miles away from the land in question. This is the same distance as that between New York and Washington, D.C. – or between Anchorage and Homer. The suggestion of designating these lands as sacred grounds for a people with no historical claim is more than just factually wrong — it’s a blatant misuse of authority. The Department of Interior has no business advancing such an egregious overreach.
Using the Gwich’in as a proxy, this federal administration, together with extreme environmentalists, is attempting to reconfigure our land rights under the guise of environmental stewardship, once again trying to brush aside the Iñupiaq people; as my Aaka says, “Shame on you.”
This is not about the protection of sacred sites; it is about control. It is about a federal government that thinks it knows better than the people who have lived on and cared for these lands since time immemorial. The Iñupiaq have always been the best stewards of our land. We understand its rhythms, its challenges, and its gifts in a way that no outside entity, or peoples, ever could. To have our history and our rights dismissed by bureaucrats thousands of miles away is unacceptable.
The Iñupiat people have fought for our land and our way of life for millennia, and we will not stand by as the federal government attempts to erase our history and rewrite it to suit their own ends.
You want local buy-in for your proposal on the eve of the presidential election?
Well, you don’t have it: neither from the North Slope Borough nor from the only people who live in ANWR’s 1002 area, the people of Kaktovik.
We respect the Gwich’in and their right to manage their lands far to the south of us. In return, we expect the same respect for our land, rights and history — non-negotiable principles long recognized by Congress through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. We stand firm in defending them.
The Iñupiat are not mere inhabitants of this land; we are its guardians. In this case, we guard against this federal administration’s actions, which are a stark reminder of the ongoing struggles Indigenous peoples face around the country simply asking not to be ignored.
The federal government must understand that any attempt to undermine our sovereignty will be met with fierce resistance. We will not allow our lands to be co-opted for purposes that serve neither our people nor our future.
Josiah AullaqsruaqPatkotak is the mayor of the North Slope Borough and a former member of the Alaska House of Representatives.
While there have been some infuriating ads run by the defenders of ranked-choice voting during the last couple months, they are ending their campaign on a real low note.
It appears their polling has ended with the notion that they need to appeal to Alaska voters with the claim that the dark-money funded, party elites who want to repeal ranked-choice voting are singularly focused on stealing liberty and freedom from voters.
Specifically, which freedom are they claiming the anti-ranked-voting crowd is stealing? According to Vote No on 2 Chair Lesil McGuire, it is the freedom to vote for any candidate we want to in a political primary.
As usual, it is difficult to prove a negative, so let’s take a look at which freedoms and liberties are actually involved. More importantly, where do those freedoms actually come from?
If you were to take a look at both the U.S. Constitution and the Alaska Constitution for the freedom to vote for any candidate you want to, those freedoms are neither specified nor enumerated. While the Tenth Amendmentof the U.S. Constitution does include a catch all that:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The meaning of both of these is that if those rights (freedoms, liberties) are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, then they belong to the people and the states.
This is great news for the backers of ranked-choice voting, as it is seemingly a green light to run around dispensing freedoms at the wave of their dark-money funded, Outside hands.
But there is a fly in the ointment, not uncommon when the left starts doling out so-called freedoms and liberties. And that fly in the ointment is a very real provision of the First Amendment, which states the following:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The U.S. Supreme Court, via a series of opinions over the last century, determined that a freedom of association is “… and indispensable means of preserving” the enumerated First Amendment freedoms. This right of association applies to “… speech, assembly, petition for the redress of grievances, and the exercise of religion.”
And what is a political party, other than a formal association created to support speech, assembly, and petitioning the redress of grievances?
It would appear that the ability of a political party to organize, select its own candidates, and participate in elections is a fundamental part of our First Amendment rights.
No so, according to the “No on Prop 2” crowd. Not so, according to the black-robed political hacks masquerading as members of the Alaska Supreme Court. Not so, according to the “No on Prop 2” dark-money backers.
We are in a position we often are arguing with the left-over freedoms and rights, where their newly created, shiny, sexy, media celebrated freedoms, liberties and rights (right to privacy, right to an abortion) quickly are elevated over pre-existing, enumerated freedoms, liberties and rights, which are usually discarded out of hand like the Alaska Supremes did to the freedom of association here in Alaska.
If the right to select any candidate you want existed in either the U.S. or Alaska Constitution, we would be able to actually find it, written down in actual words. That it doesn’t should tell us everything we want to know about the $7.8 million fraud the No on 2 campaign and its dark money outside backers are committing on the voters of Alaska.
If ranked-choice voting is such a good thing, why do its supporters need to commit fraud to defend it?
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
The Anchorage School Board majority wants to extend Superintendent Jarrett Bryantt’s contract for the second time in less than a year.
The first one-year contract extension was done in February — just eight months ago. That extended Bryantt’s contract through 2026. Only board member Dave Donley voted against that extension.
Now the board wants to add another year, extending the contract through 2027—more than three years from now.
Why is the board pushing for this contract extension, twice in less than a year?
The board must be pleased with the implementation of diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) goals and Critical Race Theory in both the curriculum and hiring practices.
The board has even put DEI into its superintendent guardrails: “Superintendent will not operate without a plan to develop a qualified, diverse, and culturally responsive workforce.”
And remember the superintendent has implemented the “Transgender Guidelines,” in which it can hide from parents the gender identity and pronoun usage for students.
This is the same superintendent who removed the charter from the Family Partnership Charter School. As a result, parents removed more than 600 students from the Anchorage School District.
The district has also failed in its attempt to close excess schools, resulting in wasting money maintaining them. Parents pushed back against closing the six proposed schools and the district was not prepared for this opposition. Now it has too many schools and not enough students.
Former board president Margo Bellamy aligns with the superintendent and believes that social-emotional learning and “restorative justice”are vital to student achievement.
But what about actual student achievement? Shouldn’t the superintendent be responsible for setting valid goals?
Here are the reading (3rd grade), math (8th grade) and graduation rates that Superintendent Bryantt will be held accountable for:
So, by the end of the superintendent’s second contract extension, fewer than half of 3rd grade students should be able to read at grade level. That’s the reading goal.
And a little more than 41% of 8th grade students should be proficient in math. That’s the math goal.
These are very low goal that should be achievable.
