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Climate is the new client: U.S. Senate votes to reverse climate-first investment rules by Biden, but he’ll veto

Suzanne Downing
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Climate is the new client: U.S. Senate votes to reverse climate-first investment rules by Biden, but he’ll veto

President Joe Biden is expected to veto a the Congressional Review Act disapproval of his rule that makes retirement fund managers into political actors, investing according to the whims of ever-changing environmental, social, and corporate governance goals.

The CRA disapproval passed the House earlier, and passed the Senate by a vote of 50-46 on Wednesday.

The resolution is aimed at protecting the retirement accounts for millions of Americans, who don’t realize their fund managers can invest for climate goals, rather than manage workers’ retirement accounts for financial returns and retirement security.

The bipartisan vote in Congress to roll back the Department of Labor Pension Fund rule was the last chance Congress had to undo the damage done to retirement funds of senior citizens and workers of America.

Two Democrats from red-leaning states — Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana — voted in favor of the measure that had been introduced by Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana.

The White House has said that Biden would veto it, and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the CRA would give investment professionals less flexibility to make “prudent decisions” and “forces MAGA Republican ideology down the throats of the private sector.”

“On December 1, 2022, DOL issued a final rule on ‘Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights.’ This rule clarifies that retirement plan fiduciaries may consider climate change and other environmental, social, and governance factors in selecting retirement investments and exercising shareholder rights, when those factors are relevant to the risk and return analysis. The rule reflects what successful marketplace investors already know – there is an extensive body of evidence that environmental, social, and governance factors can have material impacts on certain markets, industries, and companies. Such factors also can be a deciding factor among investments that equally serve the financial interests of the plan over the appropriate time horizon and that put the interests of the plan participants and their beneficiaries first and the federal government should not restrict that choice for plan managers. DOL issued the final rule after receiving extensive feedback from the public that revealed that the previous Administration’s rules in this area created problematic impediments for plan fiduciaries seeking to act in the best interests of America’s workers when making investment decisions,” the White House said in a prepared statement.

The congressional resolution takes the rules back to how they were originally designed by Congress when the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which set minimum standards to provide protection to individuals in voluntarily established retirement plans.

The Biden rule makes climate change the client, and workers have no protection from the government against activist investment managers who decide they don’t like oil, or who allow their ideologies to take over their investment decisions.

“Generations of policymakers have worked hard to protect workers from having their pension money gambled away by investment professionals. Longstanding federal policy required pension fund fiduciaries to invest solely for the financial benefit of retirees (and future retirees), but now the Department of Labor wants to change the rules so that investment managers can use pension funds to promote unrelated social and environmental activist goals instead. That’s dangerous, irresponsible, and in direct violation of the law that has protected the pensions of working Americans for roughly half a century,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute said on its website, in response to the Biden pending veto.

“The bipartisan vote in Congress to roll back the current, misguided Department of Labor pension fund rule should be affirmed by President Biden, not vetoed. By opposing it, the president puts himself on the side of arrogant activists in the financial world who think they have the right to play politics with the retirement future of millions of Americans. President should stand with hard-working retirees instead,” the group said.

War over Willow: Alaskans lobby for an oil project as eco-warriors swarm White House to stop it

Suzanne Downing
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War over Willow: Alaskans lobby for an oil project as eco-warriors swarm White House to stop it

The Alaska Legislature’s Bush Caucus was in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, appearing at a press conference with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Mary Peltola.

They were beseeching the Biden Administration for a favorable decision for the Willow Project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. It’s a pending decision that no one seems to be able to predict which way the White House will go.

Rep. Josiah Patkotak of Utqiagvik, Rep. Bryce Edgmon of Dillingham, Rep. C.J. McCormick of Bethel, Senators Donny Olson of Golovin and Lyman Hoffman of Bethel, and AFL-CIO Alaska President Joelle Hall of Anchorage were at the rally, wearing big, red “Willow yes” pins.

Also this week, environmental groups burned the midnight oil on flights to Washington from across the country to work their connections in the Biden Administration, determined to deny Alaskans this critical energy infrastructure project that will put a bandage on our currently wounded national energy security. Environmentalists in Washington this week are like a swarm of cicadas.

The opponents of the Willow Project, which include Gwich’in leaders and the Nuiqsut City and Tribe, call the oil project a “carbon bomb.” They will hold a protest on Friday in front of the White House, to make their objections to oil clear to the national media, which had all-but-ignored the Wednesday press conference.

The environmental lobby may have the last word with the Biden Administration before a decision is released next week. They are leaving nothing to chance. Over 250,000 letters have been written in opposition to Willow, and companies like Patagonia, which makes its products out of oil, have lined up to lobby against the drilling permit.

Patagonia encourages its customers to lobby against Alaska’s Willow Project.

Inside the Administration, a heated war is raging, and it has everything to do with the 2024 presidential election, and the massive environmental political groups that can give or withhold money for campaigns.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland wants the project killed; some insiders say the White House is taking over the decision on what has clearly become a Biden Administration hot potato.

Wheeling and dealing is in full swing between the Alaska delegation and the Biden Administration, and the environmentalists and the Biden Administration.

What will the president’s campaign want or need in exchange for giving the OK to the Willow Project? What will he need in return for denying the permits? Does the White House care about saving the 2024 reelection bid of Rep. Mary Peltola?

For her part, what vote will Sen. Lisa Murkowski trade to Biden in exchange for a thumbs up on the drilling permit? Will she vote in favor of Biden’s anti-free-speech FCC nominee Gigi Sohn? Will she agree to “no more oil permits for the Arctic”?

Downing: Twitter-warrior FCC nominee Gigi Sohn would be a bad cop to police America’s airwaves

The environmental lobby is the most powerful, well-heeled force in Washington, D.C. during this administration. They brought Biden to the dance in 2020, and can pick a different partner in 2024. All they must do is threaten to work their ways inside the Democratic Party to advance a challenger.

Biden has problematic promises to keep. He promised in 2020 that he would end oil drilling in America altogether. His first act in 2021 was to signed an order that halted all new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters. He ordered a review of existing permits for oil and gas on federal lands. He brought American energy independence to its knees with the stroke of a pen.

There is the Podesta factor, too. John Podesta, who is Biden’s climate advisor, served as a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, as a counselor to President Barack Obama, and as Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager in 2016.

Podesta took credit for driving Royal Dutch Shell Oil out of Alaska. After the company had invested more than $7 billion into shallow-water, off-shore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea, the Obama Administration limited the project to just two exploration wells. Shell came up with a dry hole on the first well and decided to pick up its jackup rig and go home, and absorb the loss. Environmentalists called it a major victory, for the Obama Administration had simply made it uneconomic to do business in Alaska.

Podesta was jubilant when Shell left Alaska. In emails obtained by Wikileaks, he took credit for it, and posted on Twitter that it was “great news for the climate.”

The Podesta Playbook might be pulled out now: The administration could reduce the number of drill pads for Willow down to two, and announce that it had been responsive to both Alaska and to the environment. Two wells would make Willow a project that does not pencil out economically for ConocoPhillips, which has had the leases since 1999, and has worked for a permit for five years.

With the Podesta Playbook, Biden could give a win to the environmental lobby and ensure they stay with him for 2024. It worked to drive Shell out of Alaska, and it may work to drive ConocoPhillips out, too.

But it’s a tightrope for Biden, who has just approved importing 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Venezuela, a country that the State Department says is “a permissive environment for known terrorist groups.”

Biden has also drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 371 million barrels, the lowest in its history, and has no current plan to restore it as a backup energy reserve.

The Washington Post reports that the Alaska delegation has a meeting with Biden to make one last attempt to save the Alaska economy from the “no more Arctic oil” lobby.

“White House officials suggested to environmental groups in recent days that they may pair approval for a controversial Arctic oil project with new conservation measures in Alaska, but have failed to convince activists the idea is an acceptable compromise, according to three people involved in or briefed on the calls,” the newspaper reported.

Willow decision: Will Biden fumble the ball?
Sen. Murkowski worries about Alaska coming in 49th in nearly everything

David Eastman: Where have all the girls with Down syndrome gone?

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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David Eastman: Where have all the girls with Down syndrome gone?

By REP. DAVID EASTMAN

Author’s Note: By now you probably heard that I was condemned by the Alaska House last week for asking a question in a committee. This is part one in a two-part series. In part one below, I highlight how the science of prenatal testing is being used to target the most vulnerable members of our society. In part two, I will unpack the profoundly disturbing presentation on prenatal testing we received in committee last week and the question I asked at the end of it. It’s a story the Left is hoping you never hear, and an unedited video of the conversation they hope you never watch.

I can’t remember exactly how far into my 10 years in the military I first noticed. It was definitely not in my first year. I just remember looking around one day and thinking how rare it was to ever see someone who was overweight. It’s not that the military hates the obese, but those who are so usually get sifted out.

As a freshman at West Point, I remember meeting a senior who was being sent home. He was a good student, but try as he might the size of his neck just didn’t match his height according to the Army, so they sent him home. It wasn’t personal. It just worked out that everyone else received a commission, and he didn’t.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, The Atlantic published a story on prenatal testing (“The Last Children of Down Syndrome: Prenatal testing is changing who gets born and who doesn’t. This is just the beginning.“). It is well worth the read. Caution: If you happen to know someone with Down syndrome, it may bring tears.

The story highlights the impact of prenatal testing, with a focus on Denmark. Denmark’s genetic program got started with the goal of “improving the health of a nation by preventing the birth of those deemed to be burdens on society.”

Yes, it was a eugenics program. Denmark began prenatal testing for Down Syndrome in the 1970s. At the time, “it was discussed in the context of saving money—as in, the testing cost was less than that of institutionalizing a child with a disability for life.”

Since then, the marketing has changed. The program now claims “to offer women a choice.” Denmark was the first country to make free prenatal testing for Down syndrome available universally. When it did, the number of Down Syndrome live births crashed. Today, 98% of children thought to have Down syndrome are aborted in Denmark. In Iceland, that number approaches 100%, with only one or two children born with Down syndrome each year.

Down syndrome isn’t a fatal diagnosis. At least, until the advent of prenatal testing, it didn’t used to be. The average life expectancy of a person with Down syndrome (if their life is not cut short in the womb) is 60 years and climbing.

But that is only if they can make it to the outside world. In America, more than two-thirds of those who test positive for Down syndrome in the womb are aborted. Notice, I said “test positive.” I did not say those who actually have Down syndrome.

Most initial prenatal tests simply provide a statistical likelihood that a child will have Down syndrome. Sometimes healthy children are aborted out of fear of Down syndrome, and sometimes children that pass the test turn out to have it.

It is not that a particular test was accurate and the child later developed Down syndrome. As a genetic condition, a child either has Down syndrome from the moment of conception, or he or she does not. There isn’t anything a mother can do during pregnancy to increase or decrease the risk of her child having Down syndrome. In fact, other than the fact that a child with an older mother is at greater risk, Down syndrome is essentially random in a population, which is why the widespread disappearance of Down syndrome children is never an accident.

Some might be tempted to see the disappearance of Down syndrome in society as progress toward a better, healthier society. But we are not curing or reducing the number of people who develop Down syndrome. They are simply being sifted out, not unlike the way the military excludes the obese.

The unpleasant truth is that it is a great deal easier to be an inclusive society when you have first excluded many of those whom it might be difficult to include.

To be disabled, to have Down syndrome (or any disability), you must first, in fact, be alive. You must first have a future before you (or society) can be ”saved” from that future. You must first have a life before that life can be cut short.

In American society, the decision of whether that life will be cut short is often said to be a “choice” a mother must make. Alternately, the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared it a political question to be decided by state legislators. In fact, it is neither.

I think of each of the people I have known with Down syndrome. One trait that each of them seem to share is a complete and utter absence of guile. They don’t begin by wanting to know how much money you make or the type of clothes you wear. I think Carter Snead summed it up best in saying, when they meet you for the first time what they want to know is “can you love?”

We are told that the world somehow receives a benefit from Down syndrome testing and the resulting disappearance of so many Down syndrome children from society, but I can only see the loss.

To reduce someone to a single aspect of their life based on such a test, and to then judge the worthiness of their life based on that alone, surely reflects our incredible capacity as human beings to be so profoundly inhumane to one another.

Prior to the repeal of Roe v. Wade, Missouri responded to the targeting of Down syndrome children by passing a law that prohibits aborting a child due to Down syndrome. In passing that law, Missouri had to overcome the strenuous public opposition of Planned Parenthood. Likewise, Planned Parenthood has publicly condemned similar laws passed in Ohio, Nebraska and Indiana.

The use of prenatal testing to remove unborn children from society has been especially tragic for girls. Girls with Down syndrome have, not one, but two strikes against them simply for the fact that they are girls. Today, the number of boys with Down syndrome outnumber girls to a greater degree than men outnumbered women in China at the height of China’s one-child policy. (see Newsweek: Sex Selection Abortions Are Rife in the U.S.”)

Eleven states, and several countries, have made it illegal to abort a child due to the child’s sex. Countries like South Korea have even gone so far as to make it illegal for doctors to share prenatal testing results with parents, in order to to prevent parents from using that information to abort the child.

In Alaska, it is completely legal to abort a child because she is a girl.

It is completely legal to abort a child because she has Down syndrome.

In fact, it is completely legal to abort a child because she is too short, has brown eyes, or for any other reason, up to the very moment of birth.

This is the reality that anyone who would advocate for the lives of children in Alaska must face today. And this is the legal landscape in which the Alaska Children’s Trust came before the House Judiciary Committee last week and shared a truly disturbing vision for the future of prenatal testing in Alaska.

Instead of “prenatal” they prefer the term “preborn,” and instead of “testing” they prefer the word “scoring,” but the plan to predict a child’s success in adulthood from even before they take their first breath on this earth remains fully intact.

In part two of this series I will unpack their presentation and the question and answer session that followed.

Rep. David Eastman serves in the Alaska Legislature, representing Wasilla.

Rick Whitbeck: Rep. ‘GoFundMe Gray’ has a wild idea

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Rick Whitbeck: Rep. ‘GoFundMe Gray’ has a wild idea

By RICK WHITBECK | POWER THE FUTURE

We’ve seen many proposals from the eco-left over the years that had us scratching our heads and pondering how anyone could think they were good ideas.  This one from Alaska might take the cake.

At the end of February, during a meeting of the Alaska Legislature’s House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Andrew Gray (D-Anchorage) asked the following:

“I kind of have the ultimate CCUS [Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage]: Is it possible under some circumstance for us to get paid not to take oil out of the ground? And my brief sort of crazy idea is to just sort of, if we did it like a GoFundMe, there’s so many environmentalists around the world that we could potentially set up a charge, to fund our government, to be paid not to drill oil. If we had people, if we had 100 billion in the ground, and we divide it up how much that would be over time, that we could potentially get paid not to drill. Do people talk about that? Is that possible?”

You can view Rep. Gray’s comments here.

Carbon crazy 101: Rep. Andrew Gray thinks there could be a GoFundMe account to keep oil in the ground in Alaska

Aside from the relative complexity associated with funding state government on the backs of individual GoFundMe donations – which certainly are less-reliable than the more than a billion dollars resource development helps fund the state with annually – there’s a gaping hole in Rep. Gray’s logic: more than a quarter of all private-sector jobs in the state are supported by the safe and responsible extraction of oil and gas.  A GoFundMe won’t fund those jobs.  They’d be lost, and Alaska’s unemployment numbers would skyrocket.

But to Rep. Gray, who was endorsed during this last election cycle by the radical Alaska Center (for the Environment) and other anti-development organizations, keeping oil in the ground is a goal that should be explored; no matter how much damage it would do to his constituents and the state.

Simply put, elections have consequences. They put zealots with fringe ideas into office, and then we get to listen to “solutions” like this.  Let’s hope this is the low point of Rep. Gray’s legislative career, and that he doesn’t have any more “brilliant ideas” in the future.

Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska director for Power the Future.

A “Keep-it-in-the-Ground” GoFundMe? Alaska Rep Thinks it is a Good Idea

Tagish the Tug will head to a scrapyard out of state

Suzanne Downing
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Tagish the Tug will head to a scrapyard out of state

The historic tugboat Tagish, which sank while tied to a dock in Juneau on Dec. 29, was raised and secured on the beach at the National Guard Dock in Gastineau Channel, Feb. 19, with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard and contractors.

Workers dewatered and defueled the 107-foot tugboat, prior to dismantling and placing on a barge, in pieces, for its final disposal out-of-state, the Coast Guard reported.

The Coast Guard’s mission during this recovery was to maximize maritime environmental protection where the tugboat was submerged. Melino’s Marine Services, the contracted salvage company, successfully removed the vessel with its barge and crane system, the Coast Guard reported.

“The cooperative efforts from federal, state, and local entities in mitigating the risks to the environment were key to the success of this event,” said Capt. Darwin Jensen, commanding officer, Sector Juneau. “Establishing these relationships not only ensures we build a safer community but also promotes marine environmental safety in our backyards.”

The tug has lineage back to World War II, where it was deployed as a fire boat at Pearl Harbor, Oahu. It has been owned by Juneauite Don Etheridge for 25 years, and he has been working to restore it up until it suddenly filled with water and sank.

Historic tug from WWII Pearl Harbor days sinks in Juneau, but you can help raise it

State Senate Bill 43 would mandate ‘science-based’ sex ed

Suzanne Downing
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State Senate Bill 43 would mandate ‘science-based’ sex ed

A bill introduced in the Alaska Senate would mandate age-appropriate, “science-based” sex education in Alaska public schools.

Senate Bill 43 is sponsored by Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, and cosponsored by Sen. Loki Gale (she/her) Tobin and Sen. Forrest Dunbar. The bill will be discussed in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday at 3 pm. Invited testimony will be provided by:

Dr. Robin Holmes, Medical Director for the Kachemak Bay Family Planning Clinic
Nicole Morentson, PPGNHAIK Education Manager
Taylor Stewart, Teen Council Member, Anchorage, a peer-led sex-ed advocacy group
Taralynn Chesley, Teen Council Member, Anchorage, a peer-led sex-ed advocacy group

The documents related to the presentations can be found at this link.

The bill doesn’t call it “sex education,” in the title but rather refers to it as “personal safety.” It also mandates drug and alcohol education for kindergarten through 12th grade, and says instruction must include a variety of topics, in eluding sexual abuse, cancer detection, dental health, infant care, and more.

The section requiring some of the mandated education states that schools are not just encouraged to teach these topics, but area required to do so:

Each district in the state public school system shall provide                            
19 [BE ENCOURAGED TO INITIATE AND CONDUCT] a program in health and                                                     
20 personal safety education for kindergarten through grade 12. The program must                                   
21 [SHOULD] include instruction in physical health and personal safety, including                                      
22 alcohol and drug abuse education, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), early cancer                                     
23 prevention and detection, dental health, family health including infant care,                                           
24 environmental health, the identification and prevention of child abuse, child abduction,                                
25 neglect, sexual abuse, and domestic violence, [AND] appropriate use of health                                           
26       services, and sexual health.                                                                               
27 (b)  The state board shall establish guidelines for the [A] health and personal                                     
28 safety education program required under (a) of this section. Personal safety                                        
29 guidelines shall be developed in consultation with the Council on Domestic Violence                                     
30 and Sexual Assault. Upon request, the Department of Education and Early                                                 
31 Development, the Department of Health, and the Council on Domestic Violence and                                         

01 Sexual Assault shall provide technical assistance to school districts in the development                                
02 of personal safety curricula. A school health education specialist position shall be                                    
03 established and funded in the department to coordinate the program statewide.                                           
04 Adequate funds to enable curriculum and resource development, adequate consultation                                     
05 to school districts, and a program of teacher training in health and personal safety                                    
06       education shall be provided.

Further, the bill says that science used to inform the curriculum should come from accepted sources, and that peer-reviewed journals are an accepted form of science, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill specifically says the American Academy of Pediatrics is a credible scientific group. AAP has come out in favor of reshaping children’s identity through gender reassignment, hormones, and surgery, as necessary.

In this section,                                                                                        
22                 (1)  "district" has the meaning given in AS 14.17.990;                                          
23 (2)  "medically and scientifically accurate information" means                                                      
24 information that is verified or supported by the weight of research in compliance                                   
25 with accepted scientific methods, that is published in peer-reviewed journals,                                      
26 where appropriate, and that is recognized as accurate and objective by                                              
27 professional organizations and agencies with expertise in the field of sexual                                       
28 health, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the                                      
29 American Academy of Pediatrics, and the United States Centers for Disease                                           
30       Control and Prevention;                                                                                       
31 (3)  "voluntary consent" means conscious and voluntary                                                              

01       affirmative agreement to engage in sexual activity.                                                           
02    * Sec. 4. AS 14.30.360 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:                                              
03            (e)  The health and personal safety education program required under (a) of                                  
04       this section must include comprehensive sexual health education based on a                                        
05       curriculum that                                                                                                   
06 (1)  instructs students on human development, sexuality, and                                                            
07 reproduction, including instruction on abstinence, anatomy and physiology, consent,                                     
08 contraception, healthy relationships, and the prevention of pregnancy and sexually                                      
09       transmitted diseases;                                                                                             
10                 (2)  is appropriate to a student's age and development;                                                 
11                 (3)  teaches medically and scientifically accurate information informed                                 
12       by scientific research and effective practices;                                                                   
13                 (4)  is consistent with the Future of Sex Education Initiative 2011                                     
14       National Sexuality Education Standards: Core Content and Skills, K-12;                                            
15                 (5)  teaches students abstinence as the most effective means of avoiding                                
16       sexually transmitted diseases and unintended pregnancy, but that also includes                                    
17       materials and instruction on other forms of contraceptives and disease prevention;                                
18                 (6)  is inclusive of all students, regardless of gender, gender identity,                               
19       race, disability status, religion, or sexual orientation; and                                                     
20                 (7)  emphasizes that voluntary consent is required before sexual                                        
21       activity.

Assembly will take public testimony on family leave plan

Suzanne Downing
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Assembly will take public testimony on family leave plan

On March 7, the Anchorage Assembly will hear public testimony on AO 2023-20, an ordinance to enact a paid parental leave benefit for municipal employees.

The ordinance comes up for a hearing just two weeks after the Assembly installed Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples’ Day as new paid holidays, adding a net of two additional paid days off for municipal workers. It brings the total holiday schedule to 13, plus employees’ personal leave days. And now, more time off for new parents.

Sponsored by Assembly Members Austin Quinn-Davidson, Meg Zaletel and Chair Suzanne LaFrance, AO 2023-20 would formalize four continuous weeks of paid leave to new parents and guardians working for the municipality. The policy applies to new mothers, fathers, and legal guardians.

The costs to the city could be in the millions of dollars but the Assembly has given no fiscal transparency to this ordinance. The municipal budget, although it received vetoes from Mayor Dave Bronson, had several million added to it by the Assembly and now stands at about $584 million for this year, the largest operating budget in Anchorage history.

Quinn-Davidson served as the unelected temporary mayor after Mayor Ethan Berkowitz left office in a hurry in 2020, after after getting caught in a still-unclear relationship with a reporter. Quinn-Davidson, upon realizing that Dave Bronson had won the mayor’s race in 2021, hastily enacted the family leave policy, because her chosen candidate, Forrest Dunbar, did not win that race. Bronson rescinded it when he came into office.

“This policy is years in the making and long overdue,” said Assembly Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance. “In 2020, the Assembly authorized the adoption of a parental leave policy, and after more than eight months of research, development and assessment by municipal departments and stakeholders, the former Quinn-Davidson Administration adopted this very policy. The mayor rescinded the policy within weeks of taking office and the municipal workforce felt the burden of that hasty, short-sighted decision.”

The proposed ordinance is available to view online at this link.

Options to testify:

Provide testimony during the meeting at the Loussac Library Assembly Chambers.

Sign up to provide testimony during the meeting by phone: ancgov.info/testify. 

Provide written testimony: ancgov.info/testify.

Email Assembly members: [email protected]

Anchorage Assembly adding 160 hours of parental leave for employees via new ordinance

Lightfoot loses, as Chicagoans fed up with crime, taxes

Suzanne Downing
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Lightfoot loses, as Chicagoans fed up with crime, taxes

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was defeated in Tuesday’s election, getting just shy of 17% in the mayoral election. The leading vote getter is the CEO of Chicago Public Schools Paul Valles with nearly 34%, and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson with 20.32%. Lightfoot, the city’s first gay, female, black mayor, has conceded.

Vallas and Johnson will be in the April 4 runoff for mayor.

With 9.5 million residents, Chicago is the nation’s third largest city, after New York City and Los Angeles. Runaway crime was one of the big discussions during the election season. Lightfoot tried to battle the perception that she had no plan for tackling it.

“You wouldn’t know it by watching the news or listening to the haters. But on crime, Mayor Lightfoot’s got a plan,” her commercial said, as she ran for reelection for a second term.

But Chicagoans know too well that the crime surge has been worse than ever: In the week ending Feb. 19, crime has been up over 55% this year compared to 2022, and 107% higher than in 2021. In every single category, except for murders and shootings, there have been double and triple-digit increases in reports of crime. Vehicle thefts are 255% higher in 2023 than they were in 2021.

Meanwhile, the rate of arrests are down by at least 6%. A recent poll revealed that crime and personal safety was the driving issue for 44% of Chicago voters.

“When Lightfoot first ran for mayor of Chicago, she came out of practically nowhere, polling in the single digits against a large field of better-known candidates. Back then, she tried something different for Chicago politics: not centering race. She made corruption and reform her prime topics and did not seek to carve out a piece of the city’s racial and ethnic puzzle for herself. In the end, she appealed to voters across the city – white, Black and Hispanic. She came out in front in the first round of voting and dominated the runoff, carrying all 50 wards and practically every precinct,” Governing Magazine wrote earlier this month.

“Well, four years is a long time in politics. Lightfoot is up for re-election on Tuesday and her campaign this time around looks a lot more like the traditional Chicago model. (The two top finishers on Tuesday will go to a runoff in April.) Lightfoot’s formerly broad appeal has evaporated, with her approval rating underwater, but she might not even make it to the next round because she can’t count on solid support from any racial or ethnic group, or any corner of the city,” Governing Magazine wrote. “Lightfoot, the city’s first Black woman mayor (and first openly gay mayor), has focused most of her attacks on Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, the other leading Black candidate. On Monday, she accused former schools and budget chief Paul Vallas, who is white, of ‘blowing the ultimate dog whistle’ for his call to ‘take back our city.'”

The state of Illinois has lost population for the past nine years. Only two other states lost more population in 2022 — New York and California. According to Illinois Policy, a conservative think tank, “Traditionally, the major reasons Illinoisans are choosing to leave the state are for better housing and employment opportunities, both of which have been made worse by poor public policy in Illinois. Nearly half of Illinoisans have thought about moving away, and they said taxes were their No. 1 reason. Population decline also contributes to the lower economic prospects of the state.”

Chicago has become the slowest growing major city in the U.S. for the past two decades. 

“Since its peak in 1950, Chicago has lost nearly 1 million residents. Rather than a simple pattern of population ‘booms’ and ‘busts,’ groups have migrated to and away from Chicago at different points in time,” reported a MacArthur Foundation study in 2022.

MacArthur Foundation, UIC report examines population shifts in Chicago, metro area

The defeat of Lightfoot comes as the National Democratic Committee is trying to decide if it will hold its national nominating convention in New York, Atlanta, or Chicago in 2024. Big Labor has been making a push for Chicago.

Alaska Republican Presidential Preference Poll: A year away

Senate gives unanimous no to pay raises for governor, lieutenant governor, and commissioners

Suzanne Downing
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Senate gives unanimous no to pay raises for governor, lieutenant governor, and commissioners

The office holders for Alaska governor and lieutenant governor haven’t seen a pay raise since 2010, and even though inflation eats away at their compensation, they aren’t going to get one this year.

The Alaska State Officers Compensation Commission recommended a 2% increase for each year since 2011, to make up for inflation, but the Senate voted down the raise, 19-0, with Sen. Robert Myers taking an excused absence.

The compensation commission is directed by law to “review the salaries, benefits, and allowances of members of the legislature, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and each principal executive department head and prepare a report on its findings at least once every two years, but not more frequently than every year.”

Senate Bill 86 rejected the raises that had been recommended unanimously, which would have resulted in the governor earning about $176,000 instead of his current compensation of $145,000. The lieutenant governor would have gone from $125,000 to $140,000 and department commissioners would have gotten raises to bring them to about $168,000. Currently they average $141,000, less than some of the people who work for them.

For comparison, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee makes about $187,000 a year, as the fifth highest paid among the 50 States. Most governors make about $148,000 per year, according to the Council on State Governments.

State Executive Salaries: Regional and State-level Comparisons
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