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Win Gruening: Juneau Assembly’s 2023 election report shows Vote by Mail deficiencies

By WIN GRUENING

The City Clerk’s office transmitted its final report on the 2023 Juneau municipal election for review during the Assembly’s reorganizational meeting on Oct. 23. 

The report contains some interesting statistics that bear on simmering dissatisfaction with the Assembly’s autocratic decision to permanently impose Vote by Mail in Juneau.

VBM was implemented because it would supposedly be more convenient, guarantee that every vote is counted, and increase voter turnout.

According to city officials, the voters in this election who actually used the U.S. Post Office to deliver their ballot were in the minority. Apparently, most voters chose to drop off their ballots at one of the two voting centers or at one of the available two drop boxes in the city. With the limited number of options available, this doesn’t make voting more convenient than traditional voting in your neighborhood precinct. 

Apparently, Vote by Mail does not guarantee that every vote is counted either. The report listed 168 ballots that were rejected for various reasons, including invalid registration, ballots not cured for signature or voter verification anomalies, and invalid or missing postmarks. With the exception of a handful of rejections due to invalid voter registration, those ballots would have been counted if the voters had cast their ballots conventionally at a precinct location where a helpful poll worker would have verified the voter’s identity and caught any mistakes.

Another telling statistic is the continuing absence of any significant increase in voter turnout despite the fact that 26,425 unsolicited ballots were mailed to Juneau voters for this election. Barely a third were returned.

Even more aggravating, after subtracting the 1,636 ballot packets that were returned to the city for incorrect addresses and deceased voters, over 15,000 unused ballot packets were needlessly added to the Juneau landfill.

This is an unwarranted waste of money and sends a message that undercuts the importance of voting in our democracy.

Since Vote by Mail was instituted, the number of registered voters in Juneau has remained almost unchanged, varying by no more than 100 voters from year to year. In the 2023 election, where 27,767 voters were registered, just 9,435 ballots were received and accepted registering a 33.89% turnout, an approximate 1% increase from the previous year. 

However, the real comparison that needs to be made should be between years when Vote by Mail was used and when conventional elections were offered. Ignoring 2020, the first year of Vote by Mail when it was a novelty, the 3-year average (2021-2023) of Vote by Mail turnout was 32.5% vs the 3-year average turnout prior to VBM (2017-2019) of 31.7%, an increase of only .8%. The number of average ballots voted and accepted over the same time periods was 9,029 vs 8,407 respectively, an increase of only 622 votes.

Does it make good financial sense to spend an exorbitant amount of tax money and limit voting choice on an election system that has only increased voter turnout by less than 1% and added a paltry number to vote totals?

Juneau city leaders have authorized this ongoing expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to perpetuate a voting system that has failed to meet any of its purported goals. I previously suggested that Assembly members could consider an alternative, one that would lower costs, reduce the number of rejected ballots, and offer more choice to Juneau voters. The proposed hybrid system, one that is being used by other states, allows vote-by-mail, if the voter chooses, but also preserves the option for those who wish to personally insert their anonymous ballot into the vote-counting machine.

The Juneau Assembly has an opportunity to take this up at their scheduled retreat in December and direct the City Manager to conduct a thorough and transparent evaluation of Vote by Mail, with a comparison analysis to past elections, including the additional costs associated with this system of voting. 

Juneau voters were never consulted on whether Vote by Mail should be made permanent. The public deserves to know how much tax money is being spent on an election system that has little real benefit and unnecessarily disenfranchised over 160 voters.

After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.

Gov. Dunleavy appoints Thomas Baker of Kotzebue to far north District 40 House seat

Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed Thomas Baker to the vacant House District 40 seat in the Alaska House of Representatives. District 40, the northernmost state house district in the United States, stretching from the Kotzebue area east to the Canadian border. The seat was vacated last month after Rep. Josiah Patkotak resigned to become mayor of the North Slope Borough. 

Baker is a lifelong Alaskan and resident of Kotzebue. He is a construction operations manager for the Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corporation and chairs the Regional Advisory Council for the Federal Subsistence Board. His public service included serving on the Kotzebue City Council and the Native Village of Kotzebue Tribal Council. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Dartmouth College. 

Dunleavy followed the appointment process outlined in the Alaska Constitution. His office encouraged any qualified Alaskan living in HD 40 to apply for the seat, and he held discussions with applicants to weigh their qualifications. The Governor thanks all the applicants for their willingness to serve in public office.

Baker is a registered Republican. His name will be forwarded to the Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives for a confirmation vote. 

Mixed bag: Nationally, Dems won a few important races, but conservatives cleaned up in many others

Ohioans built a state constitutional shrine to abortion on election night. That was the bad news for conservatives this week, as some lament that abortion may be emerging as a losing issue for Republicans, if Ohio voters are any indicator.

The vote in swing state Ohio was 57% to 43%, putting abortion protections into the state constitution by ballot initiative and turning Ohio into an abortion magnet state, much like the state of Washington has become. It may also be an indicator for how Ohio voters will vote in the 2024 presidential election. In 2020, Ohio voters chose Donald Trump over Joe Biden, 53-45.

In purple, Virginia, Democrats won control of the House of Delegates and kept their power over the state’s Senate, setting up political difficulties for Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

In red Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, won reelection, while in Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, also was retained by voters.

But last night’s results are not giving any real fuel to President Joe Biden, who faces these same voters next year. Biden was not invited to campaign with a single Democrat candidate. He didn’t send out any fundraising pleas on behalf of any campaign, because his name is just not helpful to down-ballot candidates. He gave no endorsements until the very end.

Republicans scored many victories on Tuesday. For example, every other seat in Kentucky except the governor’s was won by a Republican.

In New York State, Republicans won the executive seat in Suffolk County for the first time in 20 years, and in Massachusetts, Republicans flipped some mayoral seats.

In Virginia, voters said no to Democrat state Senate candidate Susanna Gibson, who was revealed during the campaign to be an amateur porn star who performed on a site called Chaturbate. Republican David Owen won by a narrow margin in that blue district, which includes Goochland County. Some Gibson’s her political career climaxed last night, even though she had been endorsed by Democrat U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, who was, no pun intended, the 69th governor of Virginia.

Next year, Democrats are tied to the most unpopular president since Jimmy Carter, and poll after poll show that Americans believe the nation is going in the wrong direction.

In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough races, conservatives appear to have just about swept up. All hand counting of ballots was completed, with only the mailed-in absentee ballots left to count, and there are likely not enough of those to challenge the current results below:

Mat-Su Borough election results look strong for conservatives

(Editor’s note: Report as of 10:30 pm Tuesday, results not final)

School Board District 3 conservative incumbent Kathy McCollum appears to have easily won reelection in Tuesday’s local Matanuska-Susitna Borough election. She was leading 995 to 484.

In the School Board District 6 race, conservative incumbent Ole Larson was outpacing union-backed, and Democat-financed Dianne Shibe, 1,125 to 826 at 10:30 pm.

Assembly Seat 4 incumbent Rob Yundt was unopposed, and had 632 votes.

Assembly Seat 5 incumbent Mokie Tew was holding even for the first hour of counting but apparently lost a lot of support in the Big Lake District, and challenger Bill Gamble pulled ahead. The vote is 751 for Gamble to 529 for Tew.

Assembly Seat 6 incumbent Dmitri Fonov was winning with 1,021 votes. Trailing him was Stafford Glashan with 426, Kerby Coman with 227, and Jackson Abney with 179.

Proposition 1, the transportation bond, was passing 5,916 to 2,855.

The ballots are counted by hand in Mat-Su elections, and this is a new process, after the Assembly voted in September 2022 to return to hand counting of paper ballots, after having used machine counting for several years. The count went fairly quickly on election night.

There are 93,429 registered voters in the borough. In the recent Wasilla local election, the turnout was about 8%. The turnout in the borough, so far, is about 9.53%.

Earlier in the day, some students in the borough high schools staged their second walkout, an effort to convince voters that they need to have a voting role on the school board. That apparently didn’t sit well with voters in the school board races, where the conservatives are leading strongly.

Also on Tuesday, Mat-Su School Board member Jacob Butcher of District 5 resigned, as he is moving out of state. Butcher, a Republican, was serving until November, 2025 for the Big Lake to Point MacKenzie area.

These results will be updated Wednesday morning, so check back!

House censures radical rep for pro-Hamas, anti-Israel statements, but Mary Peltola votes ‘nay’

The House of Representatives has formally reprimanded Michigan Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel and expressing her tacit support for the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, which has drawn a fierce response from the Israeli Defense Forces.

The vote to censure Tlaib was 234 to 188; four Republicans voted against it and 22 Democrats voted in favor of the resolution, which has no effect other than shaming the radical representative from Michigan.

Rep. Mary Peltola, who votes with Tlaib nearly 80% of the time in Congress, voted against the censure of her political ally.

Hamas fighters.

Tlaib has been criticized for supporting the use of the phrase “from the river to the sea,” which is chanted by Hamas terrorist supporters and those intent on wiping out Jews from the Holy Land. It is likened to phrases repeated by Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler’s genocidal phrase, “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” a phrase that sounds innocuous but is loaded with meaning.

The Anti-Defamation League says “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is clearly an antisemitic slogan and rallying cry (that) has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas.

Tlaib has defended the phrase: “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate. My work and advocacy is always centered in justice and dignity for all people no matter faith or ethnicity.”

Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman to serve in Congress, and stood outside the Capitol in October, while pro-Hamas protesters occupied the Cannon Office Building for hours.

The censure was introduced by Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick, had moved to a floor vote after Peltola’s Democrat colleagues tried to block the measure by tabling it. Peltola voted in favor of tabling it.

A similar measure failed last week, but McCormick’s resolution was worded more carefully.

Peltola also voted against the aid package for Israel that passed the House last week.

Jewish man killed by Palestinian protester in LA

By KENNETH SCHRUPP | THE CENTER SQUARE

An autopsy performed by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s office determined the death of a pro-Israeli Jewish man protesting near a pro-Palestine rally in Westlake Village, California to be a homicide. According to the examiner, the finding does not necessarily “indicate a crime has been committed,” because “that’s determined by the [District Attorney’s] office.” 

report from the Ventura County Sheriff says the death occurred at an intersection where both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine rallies were in progress.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles says the deceased man, identified as Paul Kessler, 69, was “struck in the head by a megaphone wielded by a pro-Palestinian protestor.”

The sheriff’s latest public report doesn’t say anything about a megaphone, but does say Kessler was “involved in a physical altercation with counter-protestors,” during which he “fell backwards and struck his head on the ground.” 

The examiner’s report notes Kessler had a nonlethal injury to one side of his face, along with blunt force trauma to the back of his head consistent with a fall, which could suggest he may have been struck then fallen to the ground. 

“The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident and has not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime,” said the office in a public statement.

Two weeks ago, the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish anti-hate group claimed there was a nearly 400% increase in reported anti-semitic incidents from October 7 to October 23 over the same period last year. 

“It’s a lot of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protestors that are celebrating Hamas’ atrocities,” said Aaron Bandler, a staff writer for the Jewish Journal who covers antisemitism, to The Center Square. “The protesters are wearing masks so you can’t really see their faces.” 

In California, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protests have erupted around the state, accompanying a surge in reports of both anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents. 

Alleged Anchorage kiddie porn purveyor was allowed to continue abusing boys, as FBI turned its attention to Jan. 6 investigation at Capitol

An Anchorage man who allegedly distributed child pornography and fantasized extensively online about anally raping children was allowed to continue his nefarious ways while the FBI dropped the investigation in order to focus on investigating those the agency believed were involved in the Jan. 6 election protest at the U.S. Capitol.

The delay in arresting the man raises an important question about how many other cases of serious nature or other criminal activity the FBI dropped in order to go after Trump supporters.

Brogan T. Welsh, 31, of Anchorage, was indicted in late October in the District of Columbia on charges of distributing child pornography. His arrest came in Anchorage.

Welsh allegedly was a member of a private group on an internet platform specifically set up to chat about sexual exploitation of children and to the sharing of child sexual abuse materials.

In December 2020, Welsh, who by then was staying a place near Richmond, Va., contacted someone on the platform that he believed was the father of a minor child. That person was actually a FBI undercover agent in the agency’s Washington D.C. Field Office.

The agency observed several weeks that Welsh posted links in the group containing numerous images and videos depicting adult males sexually abusing prepubescent boys.

Welsh repeatedly expressed his sexual interest in children, and a desire to travel to the District of Columbia in order to sexually abuse the purported child of the man he believed to be the father.

The Statement of Facts from the investigating agent said, “user ‘gayboy69freak’ expressed interest in urinating on children and disclosed to FATHER he had sexual contact with a younger cousin. Over the course of several weeks APP1 user ‘gayboy69freak’ communicated with FATHER about traveling to engage in sex with the purported nine-year-old boy.”

Brogan Welsh’s social media post.

But then, Jan. 6, 2021 came along, and the FBI lost interest in gayboy69freak. It started investigating people who it believed had unlawfully taken part in a mob activity at the U.S. Capitol, where the election was being certified by the Senate.

“On January 6, 2021, FBI, Washington Field Office, this investigation was halted due to events that occurred at the United States Capitol Building that day,” the Statement of Facts said. The agency apparently never looked at it again until in August of 2023, when Welsh’s name was associated with another investigation.

This story was first reported by CourtWatch.news and RawStory.com.

During the months that followed Jan. 6, 2021, the FBI investigated and harassed innocent Alaska Republicans and those in other states. Two of the Alaska targets were reported here at Must Read Alaska, including Paul and Marilyn Hueper of Homer, whose home the FBI forcibly entered on April 28, 2021, in search of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop and any other evidence that the Huepers had acted unlawfully on Jan. 6 of that year. The investigators took a copy of the U.S. Constitution from the Hueper’s home as evidence of their alleged misdeeds. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, but was just one of the many possible situations where the FBI may have stopped chasing possible criminals in order to harass patriotic Americans.

In a similar case of misdirected FBI effort, Anchorage citizen activist Jay McDonald was telephoned on Feb. 8, 2021 and harassed by an FBI agent who pressed him repeatedly to see if he had traveled to Washington, D.C. for the Jan. 6 protests. He had not left the state during that timeframe, but the call felt like a threat. McDonald believes he was targeted because someone associated with Democrats imagined that McDonald would be the type who might go to the nation’s capital, and dropped a tip in the FBI’s tip portal set up to track down Jan. 6 suspects. It was an instance of political harassment.

While the FBI was busy investigating thousands of Americans, the agency let Welsh continue his alleged activity unabated.

The agency only picked up the Welsh case after the Anchorage FBI team stumbled on it during an investigation that was thought to be unrelated.

“In an investigation previously thought to be unrelated, agents in the FBI’s Anchorage Office discovered chats between two users on the same social media application again discussing the sexual exploitation of children. The investigation revealed that Welsh was one of the individuals using the social media application to discuss his interest in sexually abusing children,” the Department of Justice said in a release.

Read the entire Statement of Facts here:

Caution, graphic language ahead:

According to the FBI Statement of Facts, gayboy69freak sent the agent several videos. One was titled “[boy + man] 10yo boy getting fu—-d then c– on his little co–.” [Redacted by Must Read Alaska]

“This is a ten (10) minute and forty-five (45) second video that depicts a prepubescent minor male being anally penetrated by an adult male’s erect penis. The boy is laying on his back with penis exposed, while adult male penetrates his anus with his penis,” the agent described.

The other videos were just as graphic in nature, showing the rape of a boy child, as described in the Statement of Facts, which can be read at this link.

Then, gayboy69freak started arranging to meet the “father” so that gayboy69freak could have sex with the man’s son. That was in December of 2020. The FBI, at that point, had collected all of the information it needed to make the case — it had IP addresses for computers, photos of Brogan Welsh, it knew who his parents are, who his landlord was, and what his other online activity was, including names he went by.

That is when the investigation came to a stop.

“On August 4, 2023, FBI Anchorage, in an investigation previously thought to be unrelated, executed SW 3:23-mj-48-MMS. The search warrant authorized the search of an Iphone 14 Pro Max, that belonged to a person other than WELSH. A review of that phone revealed chats between person(s) using the usernames that may be abbreviated as “kirkytillboy” and “captain_awesome” on a social media application (“APP1”) known to law enforcement to be utilized by individuals seeking encounters with minors.” The chat on the Kik app discussed both users want for sexually explicit interactions with a minor, according to the report.

On Oct. 19, 2023, Welsh was in Alaska, back at the place where he had lived in East Anchorage.

“As law enforcement approached the house, they noticed WELSH sitting in a chair near the front door with at least one laptop computer on his lap. Law enforcement were visibly marked as ‘FBI.’ Law enforcement knocked on the door, after which WELSH immediately arose from the seated position, and ran further into the residence, carrying a laptop computer,” the Statement of Facts said.

“FBI breached the residence door because no occupant responded to their requests to open the door. After entry, law enforcement called for people upstairs to meet them downstairs. Law enforcement located WELSH as he descended the stairwell, apparently coming from his bedroom. WELSH claimed to have believed that the law enforcement officers were representatives of the landlord, and that he left because he is not a lawful renter of the residence. Law enforcement later located a laptop computer sitting in the WELSH’s upstairs bedroom on his bed,” the report continued.

“Law enforcement read WELSH his Miranda warnings. During the interview, WELSH admitted that he used APP1, and that he was attracted to teenagers. WELSH said that one laptop computer and one mobile phone were his,” the report said.

In a bedroom, believed to be Welsh’s bedroom, officers located items “Including sex toys that are very small in size and apparently consistent with the body size of an approximate 10-year-old boy, including: a silicon ring, apparently of the type commonly referred to as a ‘cock ring;’ a bag of ‘sensory finger rings’ which are apparently devices for manual sexual stimulation; a very small dildo consistent in size with anal penetration; and the following clothing consistent with a 10-year-old boy and too small for an adult person of WELSH’s size: two pairs of underwear; and one pajama bottom.”

The investigation has revealed that a 10-year-old boy was, in fact, residing at the residence with Welsh.

“Law enforcement personnel on the scene of this search warrant confirmed that the individual who lived at that residence, WELSH, appeared to be the same person as the individual depicted in the North Carolina Driver’s license photograph, the profile pictures on WELSH’s Facebook profile, and the picture sent by the APP1 user to the UC/FATHER in December 2020, as detailed above,” the report said.

Old social media messages still floating around the internet appear to show Welsh in a much earlier era, with the same strange proclivities, fetishes, and sexual appetites.

Empty office syndrome: Biden blames Covid, will bail out commercial real estate, incentivize local officials to turn offices to ‘green’ density housing

The Biden Administration will spend taxpayer dollars to convert vacant commercial buildings in economically collapsed urban cores to residential use, including through new financing, technical assistance, and even the sale of federal properties.

Over $100 billion in taxpayer money will be allocated to bail out the commercial real estate sector, but billions more are to be allocated in the way of tax incentives and grants.

“These announcements will create much-needed housing that is affordable, energy efficient, near transit and good jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly 30 percent of which comes from the building sector,” the White House announced.

With the changing economy that has more people staying home or working from home, and in the same week that WeWork filed for bankruptcy protection, Biden was essentially acknowledging that Bidenomics has failed urban areas.

Office and commercial vacancies across the country are affecting urban downtowns and rural main streets, the White House said, referring to a White House blog that says office vacancies have reached a 30-year high of 18.2%, placing a strain on commercial real estate and local economies.

Biden says these commercial offices can be used for housing.

“The COVID-19 pandemic forced Americans to change how they live and work, with ripple effects felt across the economy. More than one third of households report working from home more frequently now than they did before the pandemic, and workers go to the office about 3.5 days a week, a 30 percent reduction from pre-pandemic norms. The changes are squeezing the commercial real estate market, which is dominated by office buildings but also includes hospitality and healthcare facilities,” the White House said.

“The vacancy rates have reduced foot traffic to the ‘office adjacent’ economy, reducing demand at local businesses, including restaurants, dry cleaners, convenience stores, retailers, and hair salons. A new initiative announced today by the Biden-Harris administration helps accelerate conversions of commercial properties to residential use, presenting an opportunity to prevent such a loop,” the Biden Administration explained.

All of this is at a level that the Biden Administration believes requires federal intervention, including much that relates to climate change:

New Federal Funding and Repurposing Property

The Department of Transportation released guidance to states, localities, and developers on how the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act and Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing programs, which combined have over $35 billion in available lending capacity for transit-oriented development projects at below market interest rates, can be used to finance housing development near transportation, including conversion projects.

In addition, DOT released a policy statement with principles for pursuing transportation projects with the dual goals of increasing affordable housing supply and decreasing emissions.

“By making low-cost financing available for conversions and housing projects near public transportation, this guidance and policy statement will increase housing supply, while encouraging state and local governments to improve their zoning, land use, and transit-oriented development policies,” the White House said.

  • DOT has new guidance that makes it easier for transit agencies to repurpose properties for transit-oriented development and affordable housing projects, including conversions near transit. Under the new guidance, transit agencies may transfer properties to local governments, non-profit, and for-profit developers of affordable housing at no cost. The new policy has the potential to turn property no longer needed for transit into affordable housing development particularly when combined with loans from TIFIA or RRIF programs.
  • HUD is releasing an updated notice on how the Community Development Block Grant fund, $10 billion of which have been allocated during this Administration, can be used to boost housing supply – including the acquisition, rehabilitation, and conversion of commercial properties to residential uses and mixed-use development. HUD is also increasing outreach efforts to support municipalities and developers seeking to use HUD tools to finance conversions.
  • States and localities can also access up to five times their annual block grant allocation in low-cost loan guarantees to fund projects such as the conversion of properties to housing or mixed-use development. In addition, HUD will make awards through a research-related Notice of Funding Opportunity, which can be used to develop case studies that can serve as roadmaps for other localities interested in pursuing conversions.
  • HUD is also accepting applications for the $85 million Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program, which includes the development of adaptive reuse strategies and the financing of conversions as eligible activities.
  • The General Services Administration will expand on its Good Neighbor Program to promote the sale of surplus federal properties that buyers could potentially redevelop for residential use. To support this initiative, GSA will work with the Office of Management and Budget to identify current and upcoming sale opportunities, maintain a public list of current opportunities, and affirmatively market resources available to support housing development in all targeted materials for applicable properties.

Leveraging Federal Funding to Encourage Conversions

  • The White House released a Commercial to Residential Federal Resources Guidebook with over 20 federal programs across six federal agencies that can be used to support conversions. These programs include low-interest loans, loan guarantees, grants, and tax incentives, which, subject to the requirements of each program, may be used together to increase the economic viability of conversion projects.
  • To accompany the guidebook, the White House is announcing training workshops this fall for local and state governments, real estate developers, owners, builders, and lenders on how to use federal programs for commercial to residential conversions and achieve additional goals including affordability and building zero emissions housing.
  • The Department of Transportation will be announcing new technical assistance through direct engagement with federal agencies and third-party intermediaries to support municipalities and developers seeking to use Department of Transportation tools to finance conversions.
  • Through the Better Buildings Initiative, Department of Energy also launched a commercial to zero emissions housing toolkit that includes technical and financial guidance on how to achieve zero emissions commercial to residential conversions. DOE’s toolkit highlights how the Inflation Reduction Act can bring more capital to conversions through the DOE Loan Program Office’s loans and guarantee programs and tax incentives, such as the new energy efficient home tax credit, the energy efficient commercial buildings tax deduction, and the clean energy investment tax credit.
  • Treasury posted a blog that describes tax incentives for builders of multifamily housing. Through the Inflation Reduction Act, several tax incentives may support eligible builders of multifamily housing to lower the investment costs associated with energy efficiency upgrades, clean electricity generation projects, or even the new or substantial reconstruction and rehabilitation of homes meeting certain Energy Star or Zero Energy Ready Home Program energy efficiency standards.

Working with States, Localities, and the Private Sector to Take Action
A number of states and localities have taken steps to address the challenge of high commercial and office building vacancies in their downtowns, the White House said.

“As new research from HUD shows, developers commonly use combinations of federal, state and local resources on individual conversion projects. The White House is encouraging all state, local, tribal, and territorial entities to identify all available public tools and land disposition opportunities to facilitate conversions. The White House encourages the private sector, including non-profit organizations and other stakeholders, to engage in capacity building around conversions in support of this effort today,” the administration said.

Election Day in MatSu could bring snowy-blowy weather for last-minute voters

7

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough voters have their local elections Nov. 7 — the second Tuesday of November.

On statewide General Election years, that makes it easier for people to cast local, as well as state and federal ballots on the same day. The cities of Houston, Palmer, and Wasilla hold elections on the first Tuesday in October. 

On the Nov. 7 MatSu ballot, the big question is whether the teachers’ union candidates will take seats away from budget-conscious conservatives that are incumbents on the MatSu School Board.

Conservatives Ole Larson and Kathy McCollum are the targets for the Alaska Democrats as well as the AFL-CIO-affiliated unions that want to flip the school board. The Democrats have poured tens of thousands of dollars into this effort to flip the most conservative part of the state. They have tried to position their candidates as conservative in order to appeal to voters of this red part of the state.

The following offices are on the ballot:

  • Assembly District 4 – three-year term ending November 2026, incumbent Rob Yundt is unchallenged.
  • Assembly District 5 – three-year term ending November 2026, incumbent Mokie Tew is challenged by Bill Gamble.
  • Assembly District 6 – one-year term ending November 2024, incumbent Dmitri Fonov is challenged by Jackson Abney, Kerby Coman, and Stafford Glashan.
  • School Board District 3 – three-year term ending November 2026, incumbent Kathy McCollum is challenged by Sydney Zuyus.
  • School Board District 6 – three year term ending November 2026, incumbent Ole Larson is challenged by Dianne Shibe.

Precincts and polling places for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are on the borough’s Polling Places & Precincts Page

If you don’t know your assigned polling place, you may find it online by using the Alaska State Division of Elections Online Polling Place Locator, or contact the Alaska State Division of Elections at 1-888-383-8683 (toll free), or the Borough Clerk’s Office at 907-861-8683.

Polls close at 8 pm. Weather in the MatSu could pose a challenge for late voters, as a winter storm watch is in effect for later Wednesday, with blowing snow, mixed precipitation, and heavy snow.

More voter information can be found at the borough’s election website, with unofficial results likely to be posted by 10 pm.