As Rep.-elect Jamie Allard heads to Juneau this month to represent District 23 in the Alaska House of Representatives, the Anchorage Assembly is getting ready to replace her until her seat can be decided by voters during the regular April 4 election.
Applications for the Chugiak-Eagle River seat will be taken starting Jan. 10 at the Anchorage Municipal Clerk’s Office, and the application period closes Jan. 17.
Interviews of the nominees will be done by the Assembly, which by then will have one unelected member — the replacement for Sen.-elect Forrest Dunbar, who will be replaced on Friday, Jan 6 during the same process.
The interviews for the Chugiak-Eagle River seat are scheduled for 2 pm, Jan. 19, with the decision made immediately following the interviews during an official meeting of the Assembly that is scheduled to start at 4 pm.
The period of service will be from Jan. 19 to April 25, when the winner of the April 4 election for District 2, Seat C, Chugiak, Eagle River, JBER will be sworn in.
It’s been nine weeks since Alaska newcomer and Rep.-elect Jennifer Armstrong won her race for the Alaska House of Representatives, and three weeks since the case was heard in court that challenged her legitimacy to serve, since she missed the legal residency qualification deadline.
Still, no decision has been issued from Superior Court Judge Herman Walker Jr.
The Anchorage Democrat won on Nov. 8 over Republican Liz Vazquez for House District 16, West Anchorage. Vazquez and others in the district then challenged in court the certification of that victory by the Division of the Elections.
The hearing was Dec. 22, but now, just 12 days before the Legislature is set to convene, the judge has issued no ruling, which gives the plaintiffs no time to appeal his ruling before Armstrong would be sworn in on Jan. 17.
Armstrong had not been a resident in the state for three years before filing for office, Vazquez and her fellow plaintiffs say. The proof is in a social media post by Armstrong saying she was visiting, as well as in a fishing license application she made as a non-resident, and when she registered to vote.
Armstrong is hoping to become the first “pansexual” legislator to be sworn in in the Alaska House of Representatives.
Sen.-elect Forrest Dunbar is off the Anchorage Assembly, which will meet in a special Friday meeting at 9:30 am to interview the five applicants for Dunbar’s seat serving the East Anchorage neighborhoods.
The meeting will take place at the Assembly Chambers on the ground floor of the Loussac Library, and then an official meeting of the Assembly will convene at noon in the same location to vote on and swear in the new temporary Assembly member, whose term will end April 25; a regular election takes place April 4, when the incumbent chosen by the Assembly will be able to defend his or her seat, if they choose. That seat will again be up for election in 2025.
Dunbar was elected to the Alaska Senate and will be sworn in in Juneau on Jan. 17.
Applications for the position closed on Jan. 4. The applicants for the District 5, Seat H temporary seat are:
Of those who filed, Harry Crawford has the most political stroke with the liberal-controlled Assembly. He was a Democrat state legislator in the Alaska House of Representatives from 2001 to 2011, and ran against Congressman Don Young in 2010. He again ran for the Alaska House in 2016, losing to Lance Pruitt.
Jim Wojciehowski also filed on Jan. 4 before the deadline. He is a physician assistantwho has become a regular observer at the Anchorage Assembly meetings and often provided public comment on Covid policies during the pandemic panic, providing his medical expertise and viewpoints on lockdowns that were somewhat contrary to the Berkowitz Administration’s mandates.
Hilary Morgan, who filed on the last day possible, has a massive resume in nonprofit work and consulting, including working as CEO for the YWCA in Anchorage, and former director of Brother Francis Shelter. She ran for Alaska Senate in 2015.
Rich Foehner is retired from the U.S. Army, has filed.
Finally, Joey Sweet was the first to officially file. Sweet is a former student regent to the University of Alaska Board of Regents and was a legislative intern.
At the Resource Development Council – Alaska Support Industry Alliance breakfast in Anchorage on Thursday, incoming Sen. Cathy Giessel and Sen. Click Bishop gave some of their thoughts on the upcoming session, as the featured speakers. The Legislature convenes on Jan. 17, and both Giessel and Bishop are part of the 17-member bipartisan majority in the 20-member Senate.
Giessel, who was briefly removed from office by her voters for two years, but who has now won back a seat in the Senate representing South Anchorage, spoke to these items:
There need to be changes to teacher retirement pensions, in order to recruit and retain qualified teachers.
The state should should also look at the retirement “hybrid plans” that have been proposed for public safety employees.
There are three state departments on the verge of being nonfunctional due to inability to hire.
The State should look at licensing requirements for private companies that are having trouble getting employees.
Childcare is an issue.
Energy: Hydrogen hub, hydro at Bradley Lake, Glacier Fork but it has to pencil out .
Carbon credits: She’s not sure what Gov. Mike Dunleavy is proposing is real. They won’t fill the fiscal gap.
Food security, livestock challenges.
Fisheries, she said salmon are moving north.
Caribou herds are decreasing. Fish and Game needs the funding.
Mental health and homeless will cost money.
Must bring the Permanent Fund dividend under control.
There are better ways to help people who need assistance than the Permanent Fund dividend.
The importance of protecting the Permanent Fund corpus.
She doesn’t want the “percent of market value” five percent draw changed.
She does not support taxes if there is a small enough dividend.
She opposes new taxes in Alaska.
There needs to be a rational approach to the dividend. She said people say the dividend can’t be touched but Alaska can’t afford that.
Sen. Click Bishop of Fairbanks made these points:
Alaska’s budget is $1 billion underwater for revenue from spring to fall forecasts.
The budget revenue projections is down $10 billion in both the Earnings Reserve Account and corpus.
He quoted how much we’ve “sent out the door” with dividends.
We need strong leadership for the state.
He wants to pay cash for Dixon diversion hydro project on the Kenai.
20 percent more hydro power up the line is phase one.
It cost $2.2 billion for a Wyoming nuclear plant but Susitna is $5.5 billion for less wattage.
He wants to build the dam or a new plant on the Railbelt.
He wants to use part of the dividend to pay for these projects.
He said Alaska needs cheap energy, not affordable energy.
Outgoing Sen. Natasha von Imhof asked from the audience: What’s the process of reallocating some of the dividend in the governor’s budget to some of the projects you mentioned?
Giessel did not really answer but said there won’t be abortion or gay marriage legislation.
Bishop said he sits on a Taft Hartley Trustboard and “if I managed that money like the state manages its money …”
The Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct holds its quarterly meeting on Jan. 6 at 9:30 am. The meeting will deal with administrative matters in open session, and a closed session to follow that relates to cases that have been reviewed and need executive privileged discussion.
The meeting will be held at the commission’s office in Anchorage with public participation allowed via Zoom (information below). The agenda appears unremarkable but there may be issues arising from the September meeting of the commission, which handles complaints against state judges. In the past, controversies rose when the Alaska Supreme Court issued a stunning letter essentially declaring the Alaska judicial system racist.
According to minutes from the September meeting, only one complaint needed investigating after the meeting. The commission’s Executive Director Marla Greenstein reported a total of 65 complaints since the April meeting, 48 of which were given to judges, 3 to magistrates, 2 to fully retired judges, 5 to pro tem judges, 1 to a lawyer, 1 to a law clerk, 3 to court administrators, and 2 to judicial applicants.
“The issues generally surrounded disqualification and disclosure issues, pay affidavit questions, political donations by family members, charitable contributions, and writing reference letters,” the minutes say.
The commission generally deals with matters relating to judge misconduct, which has has a specific meaning under the Code of Judicial Conduct that governs the activities of judges both on and off the bench.
Judicial misconduct can be divided into several categories, including improper courtroom behavior, (including racist or sexist comments by a judge, sleeping or drunkenness on the bench. Judges can also be disciplined for administrative failures such as taking an excessive amount of time to make a decision); improper or illegal influence (could include bribes, loans, favors, or family, social, or political relationships to influence any judicial decision); impropriety off the bench (misappropriation or misuse of public employees, property or funds; improper speech or associations; interference with a pending or impending lawsuit; lewd or corrupt personal life; or use of the judicial position to extort or embezzle funds); and other improper activities.
The commission can also address mental deficiencies, addictions, and physical disabilities related to being able to do the job.
Public session typically addresses the commission’s budget, educational activities, advisory opinions, and general administrative issues. Public session does not address specific complaints against judges.
The meeting will be open to members of the public to attend via Zoom either telephonically or through the Zoom website or app. Upon calling in, the Zoom system will request you give your name before allowing you into the meeting. Your name will then be assigned to your phone number so that the Commission members will be aware of who has joined. The host will move you from the Waiting Room into the meeting once it has begun and all visitors will be on mute. In lieu of any technical difficulties, allow a few minutes lee-way to be admitted and for the meeting to start.
Closed Session addresses confidential complaints filed with the commission and is not open to the general public.
Any member of the public wishing to speak at the meeting had to have registered by Jan. 4.
U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy lost again on the sixth round of voting for U.S. House Speaker on Wednesday.
Six times, Alaska’s Rep. Mary Peltola voted with the Democrats for election conspiracy theorist Hakeem Jeffries, the Queens, N.Y. radical who is the new face of the Democratic Party.
Peltola, when she ran for office, promised Alaskans she would continue the bipartisan legacy of Congressman Don Young, who represented Alaska for 49 years. But her many votes have proven that those were just campaign words, not meant to be taken seriously. She has voted for the far left of the spectrum to lead the House of Representatives, something Congressman Young would not have done.
“Don Young worked in a very bipartisan way. He had more seniority than any other member of the House has ever had, and he welcomed every single congressman into their position, personally. So, he had a very long history of bipartisanship, and I want to emulate that, and I want to emulate his hard work on constituent issues,” she told reporters in August, in a “bipartisan” refrain she has repeated many times since, while voting in a highly partisan manner.
McCarthy needs 218 votes to become the next speaker. During the last round of voting, 20 Republicans voted for a Republican who was not McCarthy, up from 19 votes during earlier rounds of voting, which have occurred over the past two days. A last-minute plea by former President Donald Trump to elect McCarthy did not create any movement in the Freedom Caucus, the more conservative wing of the House.
The U.S. House has adjourned until 4 pm Alaska Time, when it’s expected to again attempt to elect a speaker. This story is likely to be superseded by events.
Nearly half of Americans now believe Covid-19 vaccines may be to blame for the uptick in unexplained deaths, and more than a quarter say someone they know could be among the victims, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national online and telephone poll.
Alaska lost a number of healthy individuals — many of them young or middle-aged men in the prime of their life dying from unexplained heart attacks — in 2021. Just like other Americans, Alaskans are are showing concern about the number of high school, college, and professional athletes who are dropping dead from heart ailments at rates much higher than seems normal.
Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who is among the leading critics of the still-experimental Covid vaccine, and who is usually referred to by mainstream media as a spreader of misinformation, commented on NFL player Damar Hamlin’s mid-game heart attack, which occurred Sunday: “Sudden cardiac death should be very unusual — Covid-19 can cause heart damage, but I think the leading concern is vaccine-induced myocarditis.”
In 2016, the American College of Cardiology reported there were approximately 100 to 150 sudden cardiac deaths during competitive sports each year. The estimated incidence of SCD among athletes versus non-athletes was found to be 0.44 per 100,000 person-years, and 13 per 100,000 person-years, respectively, the medical group said at this link.Must Read Alaska was not able to quantify how many of these deaths occurred in 2022.
Also last week, former Jacksonville Jaguars offensive guard Uche Nwaneri dropped dead of a non-game-related heart attack at the age of 38. He had been a strong advocate for the Covid vaccine and had said people unvaccinated should be jailed. Last month, well-known media and political personalities dropped dead of heart attacks in their 30s and 40s.
Are these sudden cardiac deaths related to vaccines? Neither social media nor mainstream media are reliable sources of information on this question. But that does not stop the Washington Post from quickly debunking any links between vaccines and heart attacks:
“Here’s the rub: This claim has been debunked repeatedly. The story of athletes dropping dead from coronavirus vaccines has its roots in mysterious Austrian websites with ties to that country’s far-right populist party, the Freedom Party. Those stories were then recycled by right-wing media in the United States and then eventually came out of the mouth of a U.S. senator,” wrote Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler in this story about how, as the writer implied, Sen. Ron Johnson was repeating right-wing misinformation.
But Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin says he has heard too many stories from athletes, many of whom signed up for the vaccinations to do their part to end the Covid pandemic. Read more about his research and watch his press conference from July 2, 2021 here.
The Rasmussen survey finds that 49% of American adults believe it is likely that side effects of Covid-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths, including 28% who think it’s very likely.
Thirty-seven percent don’t say a significant number of deaths have been caused by vaccine side effects, including 17% who believe it’s not at all likely. Another 14% are not sure.
Twenty-eight percent of adults say they personally know someone whose death they think may have been caused by side effects of Covid-19 vaccines, while 61% don’t and another 10% are not sure, the poll showed.
“The documentary Died Suddenly has been criticized as promoting “debunked” anti-vaccine conspiracy theories but has been seen by some 15 million people,” Rasmussen Reports said, hinting that the documentary may have influenced people’s views on the Covid vaccines.
Forty-eight percent of Americans believe there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines, while 37% think people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories. Fifteen percent are not sure.
The Rasmussen Report poll was of 1,000 American adults and was conducted between Dec. 28-30, 2022. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Seventy-one percent of those who took the poll say they have received a Covid-19 vaccination, while 26% have not.
Concerns about vaccine safety were much higher among the unvaccinated. Seventy-seven percent of adults who have not gotten Covid-19 vaccinations believe it’s at least somewhat likely that side effects of Covid-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths. Among those who have gotten the vaccine, just 38% consider unexplained deaths from the vaccine at least somewhat likely.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has disputed the claims that the vaccines are causing deadly myocarditis, and has this summary of its findings.
Voting for the Kenai Borough special election for mayor starts Jan. 30 with absentee in-person voting, with the final day for voting set for Feb. 14. The deadline to register to vote in this election is Jan. 15.
Four candidates are on the ballot for replacing former Mayor Charlie Pierce, who resigned last fall. They are outgoing Alaska Senate President and former mayor of Soldotna Peter Micciche, Soldotna City Council member Linda Hutchings, business owner and U.S Air Force veteran Zachary Hamilton, and former borough mayor, Soldotna city mayor, and Kenai Borough Assembly member David Carey.
The term for the office expires in October of 2023, which would be the end of Mayor Pierce’s term. The winner has to get 51% of the vote or the top two leading vote-getters will face a runoff on March 7.
The presidential contest is less than a year away. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis showed his presidential timbre on Tuesday as he delivered his second inaugural address as the newly reelected governor on the steps of the Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee.
Gov. Ron DeSantis delivers his inaugural address to a standing-room-only crowd at the Capitol in Tallahassee.
In his address, DeSantis highlighted the progress that Florida has made to improve the lives of its residents as a result of his administration priorities, including guaranteeing access to high-quality education, creating a robust economy that continues to grow faster than the nation’s, providing access to resources for those recovering from hurricanes, and investing record funding into the Everglades and Florida’s critical water resources.
Concluding his speech, DeSantis reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring the state remains the “Free State of Florida,” and set priorities for his second term in office and blasted the “woke” ideology.
“We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy! We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die!,” he said to thunderous applause.
Governor DeSantis blasts Permanent Washington: The federal govt "wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable, out-of-touch bureaucracy that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will on us."#FLInauguration2023#TheFreeStateofFloridapic.twitter.com/XefrAjDPnG
The address in its entirety is a study in both noteworthy speechwriting and delivery, and shows that DeSantis will be worth watching as the presidential election season begins:
Mr. Chief Justice, members of the Cabinet, and fellow citizens:
From the Space Coast to the Suncoast, from St. Johns to St. Lucie, from the streets of Hialeah to the speedways of Daytona, from the Okeechobee all the way up to Micanopy.
Freedom lives here, in our great Sunshine State of Florida!
It lives in the courage of those who patrol the streets and keep our communities safe, it lives in the industry of those who work long hours to earn a living and raise their families, it lives in the dedication of those who teach our children, it lives in the determination of those who grow our food, it lives in the wisdom of our senior citizens, it lives in the dreams of the historic number of families who have moved from thousands of miles away because they saw Florida as the land of liberty and the land of sanity.
Over the past few years, as so many states in our country grinded their citizens down, we in Florida lifted our people up.
When other states consigned their people’s freedom to the dustbin, Florida stood strongly as freedom’s linchpin.
When the world lost its mind – when common sense suddenly became an uncommon virtue – Florida was a refuge of sanity, a citadel of freedom for our fellow Americans and even for people around the world.
In captaining the ship of state, we choose to navigate the boisterous sea of liberty rather than cower in the calm docks of despotism.
We face attacks, we take hits, but we weather the storms, we stand our ground, and we do what is right.
As the Book of Psalms reminds us, “I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.”
We have refused to use polls and to put our finger in the wind – leaders do not follow, they lead.
We have articulated a vision for a free and prosperous state.
We have, through persistence and hard work, executed on that vision.
We have produced favorable results.
And now we are here today because the people of Florida have validated our efforts in record fashion.
Florida shows that results matter. We lead not by mere words, but by deeds.
Four years ago, we promised to pursue a bold agenda. We did just that and we have produced results:
We said we would ensure that Florida taxed lightly, regulated reasonably, and spent conservatively – and we delivered.
We promised we would enact big education reforms – and we delivered.
We said we would end judicial activism by appointing jurists who understand the proper role of a judge is to apply the law as written, not legislate from the bench – and we delivered.
We promised to usher in a new era of stewardship for Florida’s natural resources by promoting water quality and Everglades restoration efforts – and we delivered.
We said we would stand for law and order and support the men and women of law enforcement – and we delivered.
We promised to remedy deficiencies in Florida’s election administration and to hold wayward officials accountable – and we delivered.
We said we would support the areas in Northwest Florida stricken by Hurricane Michael – and we delivered.
And when Hurricane Ian came last year, the state coordinated a massive mobilization of response personnel, facilitated the fastest power restoration on record, and even quickly rebuilt key bridges that had been wiped out by the storm. We have stood by the people of Southwest Florida and we will continue to do so in the weeks, months and years ahead.
Because of these efforts and others, Florida is leading the nation:
We are #1 in these United States in net in-migration
Florida is the #1 fastest growing state
We are #1 in new business formations
Florida is #1 in tourism
We are #1 in economic freedom
Florida is #1 in education freedom
And we rank #1 in parental involvement in education
Florida also ranks #1 in public higher education
This is a record we can all be proud of.
And we are far from done:
Florida has accumulated a record budget surplus, and we need to enact a record amount of tax relief, particularly for Florida families who are grappling with inflation.
We must ensure school systems are responsive to parents and to students, not partisan interest groups, and we must ensure that our institutions of higher learning are focused on academic excellence and the pursuit of truth, not the imposition of trendy ideology.
Florida must always be a great place to raise a family – we will enact more family-friendly policies to make it easier to raise children and we will defend our children against those who seek to rob them of their innocence.
We will always remain a law-and-order state, we will always support law enforcement, and we will always reject soft-on-crime policies that put our communities at risk.
Florida is now in a golden era for conservation of our treasured natural resources. Our momentum is strong and we will finish what we started – we will leave Florida to God better than we found it!
This much we pledge and so much more.
It is often said that our federalist constitutional system – with fifty states able to pursue their own unique policies – represents a laboratory of democracy.
Well these last few years have witnessed a great test of governing philosophies as many jurisdictions pursued a much different path than we have pursued here in the state of Florida.
The policies pursued by these states have sparked a mass exodus of productive Americans from these jurisdictions – with Florida serving as the most desired destination, a promised land of sanity.
Many of these cities and states have embraced faddish ideology at the expense of enduring principles.
They have harmed public safety by coddling criminals and attacking law enforcement.
They have imposed unreasonable burdens on taxpayers to finance unfathomable levels of public spending.
They have harmed education by subordinating the interests of students and parents to partisan interest groups.
They have imposed medical authoritarianism in the guise of pandemic mandates and restrictions that lack a scientific basis.
This bizarre, but prevalent, ideology that permeates these policy measures purports to act in the name of justice for the marginalized, but it frowns upon American institutions, it rejects merit and achievement, and it advocates identity essentialism.
We reject this woke ideology.
We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy!
We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional.
We will never surrender to the woke mob.
Florida is where woke goes to die!
Now Florida’s success has been made more difficult by the floundering federal establishment in Washington, D.C.
The federal government has gone on an inflationary spending binge that has left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer, it has enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates – based more on ideology and politics than on sound science – and this has eroded freedom and stunted commerce.
It has recklessly facilitated open borders: making a mockery of the rule of law, allowing massive amounts of narcotics to infest our states, importing criminal aliens, and green lighting the flow of millions of illegal aliens into our country, burdening communities and taxpayers throughout the land.
It has imposed an energy policy that has crippled our nation’s domestic production, causing energy to cost more for our citizens and eroding our nation’s energy security, and, in the process, our national security.
It wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable and out-of-touch bureaucracy that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will upon us.
The results of this have been predictably dismal.
This has caused many to be pessimistic about the country’s future. Some say that failure is inevitable.
Florida is proof positive that We the People are not destined for failure.
Decline is a choice. Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for.
Now fighting for freedom is not easy because the threats to freedom are more complex and more widespread than in the past – the threats can come from entrenched bureaucrats in D.C., jet-setters in Davos, and corporations wielding public power.
But fight we must.
We embrace our founding creed that our rights are not granted by the courtesy of the State, but are endowed by the hand of the Almighty.
We reject the idea that self-government can be subcontracted out to technocratic elites who reduce human beings to mere data points.
We insist on the restoration of time-tested constitutional principles so that government of, by and for the people shall not perish from this earth.
Florida has led the way in preserving what the father of our country called the “sacred fire of liberty.”
It is the fire that burned in Independence Hall when 56 men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish a new nation conceived in liberty.
It is the fire that burned at a cemetery at Gettysburg when the nation’s first Republican president pledged to this nation a “new birth of freedom.”
It is the fire that burned among the boys who stormed the beaches of Normandy to liberate a continent and to preserve freedom for the world.
It is the fire that infused a young preacher’s dream, relayed at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that the Declaration of Independence said what it meant and meant what it said: all men are created equal.
It is the fire that led a resolute president to stand in Berlin and declare “tear down this wall,” staring down the communists and winning the Cold War.
It is our responsibility here in Florida to carry this torch.
We do not run from this responsibility; we welcome it.
We will be on our guard.
We will stand firm in the faith.
We will be courageous.
We will be strong!
And we thank God and are proud to be citizens of the great Free State of Florida!
