Twenty-four days left in the regular primary election and the special general election to fill the remainder of Congressman Don Young’s term in office (until January). The long election season hits that speed bump on Aug. 16 on the way to the Nov. 8 general election.
Endorsements: Jim Jansen, CEO of Lynden, has jumped ship from Gov. Dunleavy, who he supported in 2018, and is now a co-chair for the Bill Walker for governor campaign. He is joined as co-chair by Jim Dodson of Fairbanks, Bruce Botelho, of Juneau, Mike Navarre of Kenai, and Meg Nordale of Fairbanks in the latest announcement of endorsements.
Charlie Hardesty of Cordova has endorsed Kelly Tshibaka for Senate.
BIPAC, known as the oldest business political action committee in America, endorsed Nick Begich III for House. The late Alaskan politico Scott Hawkins of Advanced Supply Chain International was the president of BIPAC until he died in 2019. Business-Industry Political Action Committee is a premier private sector political action group that has 7,000 companies in the group.
Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA fame endorsed Kelly Tshibaka for U.S. Senate.
Spotted: Nick Begich was in Delta Junction attending Deltana Days and had a meet-and-greet in the evening. He was on the Dave Pruhs radio show in Fairbanks and was featured speaker at Friday Republican luncheon in Fairbanks. He is running for Congress.
Mary Peltola was blueberry berry picking in Bethel last weekend, then to Anchorage for Black Caucus of the Alaska Democrats, and now up to Fairbanks. She is running for Congress, for the Democrats.
Bill Walker and Heidi Drygas, pictured above, running for governor and lite gov, were spotted in Bethel meeting with a modest group; they were with Val Davidson, who was the push behind the expansion of Obamacare in Alaska, was the commissioner of Health and Social Services under Walker, when he was governor, and was briefly the lieutenant governor when LG Byron Mallott suddenly resigned in disgrace.
Events: Americans for Prosperity Alaska will be doing a seminar on Aug. 4 for anyone who wants to learn about ranked choice voting, the confusing new voting system brought to Alaska by outsiders. Americans for Prosperity Alaska doesn’t support the new system but is determined to help people understand how to vote with it. It’s a nonpartisan event.
Salvation Army, which is providing coordinated care services at Centennial Campground, said 34 people, including four families, were moved into family shelters at McKinnell House, Clare House, and other semi-permanent housing on Thursday.
Centennial Campground is serving as a sanctioned campground for homeless people in Anchorage. Leftists are referring to it as a “concentration camp.”
“As of 5 pm last night there were no more children at the camp,“ said Lt. Colonel Doug Tollerud, divisional commander of The Salvation Army Alaska.
About 180 campers remain at Centennial, with 75% of them coming from illegal campgrounds in woods around Anchorage, and 56 coming from the now-shuttered Sullivan Arena, which was taken over by Mayor Ethan Berkowitz in 2020 to house homeless, transients, and vagrants.
“I’m grateful for all of our community partners who have stepped up immediately to place people in shelter, services, and permanent housing from Centennial Campground,” said Mayor Dave Bronson. “As we work together in collaboration to continue to make placements, this is a testament to the heart of Anchorage in helping our city’s most vulnerable get access to safe and successful solutions.”
Salvation Army is also facilitating donation management for the campground.
Salvation Army asks people to bring donations to the Salvation Army Safe Campus — McKinnell House — located at 1712 A Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, in order to maintain organization and prioritize items coming in. Salvation Army requests that no donations come directly to the campground due to limited storage there.
Three or four vehicles from Salvation Army, shown above, were at the campground Friday morning, and Parks and Recreation staff are walking through the campground hourly picking up trash, checking for food that could attract bears, and helping campers. The city has distributed over 100 bear proof cans to the campers. Security is on site. The Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness is on the sidelines, not committed to helping campers at this time because the group objects to the campground for political reasons. Its CEO is Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who is firmly opposed to anything the Bronson Administration does.
Donation priorities:
• Handheld lamps (battery operated) or flashlights
All information related to the Salvation Army’s role as client care coordinators at Centennial Campground, as well as information about in-kind and monetary donations can be found on their website on the Centennial Campground Information link at Alaska.salvationarmy.org
This is the fourth in our series that will answer your questions about ranked choice voting. The subject expert is Bernadette Wilson, state director for Americans for Prosperity Alaska, who will answer questions about how to understand the new voting system that is in effect due to Ballot Measure 2, which was pushed on Alaska by Outside money from liberal entities. This series will continue until Aug. 16, the final date for the regular primary election and the special general election for the temporary placeholder for Alaska’s congressional seat.
Reader question: If I vote for more than one, am I essentially splitting my vote on the ranked choice ballot?
Bernadette Wilson: The short answer is no. If you vote for more than one candidate, your second pick is only being counted, or even looked at, so to speak, if your first choice is already out of the race.
If your candidate is already out due to lack of votes, only then would your second vote be counted. It’s as though your candidate was never in the race to begin with for this second round of voting. A fresh round of counting begins. If you’ve picked a second candidate, then the vote is counted.
It’s important to note here that if your first choice is cut from the race due to to lack of votes, and you have not cast a second choice, your ballot then gets thrown out for the second round of counting. This lowers the number of ballots in play in round two and therefore lowers the overall numbers of ballots that the ranked choice system needs to get 50% + 1.
Let’s say 100 people vote for a first choice: To win the first round, a candidate would need 51 votes to win (50% + 1).
Now let’s say out of those 100 original voters only half decide to vote for a second choice. 50 people have now participated in the second round. This means to win in round 2, a candidate now only needs 26 votes to win. The total number of votes needed to win is now lower because fewer people have opted to participate in that (round) election.
It’s important to understand that if you rank more than one candidate, not all of your choices are being counted in every round of counting.
Resetting your mind and viewing each round of counting as though it’s a whole new election so to speak can help you as a voter think through this process.
Watch Bernadette Wilson explain how ranked choice voting works at this link:
In an interview on NewsNation with Ashleigh Banfield, congressional candidate Sarah Palin said that there’s lots of work that needs to be done in America and so she’s ready to “take one for the team, heck yeah, I’ll run again.”
Sarah Palin’s boyfriend, former-NHL star Ron Duguay, joined into “Banfield” toward the end of her interview. When asked if Sarah would soon become a Duguay, he said a marriage proposal was being “negotiated.” When pressed on the question, he said, “If you get us back on the show, I’ll give you an answer.” Palin, who became flustered, joked that it sounded like he was negotiating a hockey contract.
Much of the interview, however, focused on Palin and the impact that criticism had on her children as they grew up. She said that coverage of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s adult son is “apples and oranges,” because Hunter is an adult. Hunter Biden is under investigation over his business activities that involved international schemes and deals.
Palin also said of the Jan. 6 hearings on the mob at the nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “What the heck was anybody thinking to go vandalize our Capitol? Nobody can think that is right. It was atrocious what these protesters did, and anybody that encouraged it needs to be held accountable.”
She said that at “a hearing like this, there needs to be balance. There needs to be Republicans. Not just the two we have seen questioning but other Republicans onboard to do follow-up questions and present more evidence. I think it’s a given that it’s a one-sided type of hearing, but what we’re hearing is quite disturbing.”
Continuing the theme, Palin predicted Republican control in Congress: “All this polarization. People don’t want to hear the other side of the story. They’re not listening to what the heck is going on, and so many things are going on in our country that are not being beneficial to the people,” Palin said. “So much of the obsessive partisanship and the power-grabs going on. There’s a lot of corruption in Washington, D.C. I think the American people are so sick and tired of it. I believe there’s going to be a red wave.”
Palin is running for Congress against Republican Nick Begich and Democrat Mary Peltola, as well as several other candidates who will appear on the Aug. 16 regular primary election ballot.
The world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock, Inc., has send emissaries to Alaska in the past, but in the past few weeks, Alaska has had two different visits from groups representing the behemoth investment firm, which has assets under management that dwarf the gross domestic product of several countries.
Founded in 1988, BlackRock has grown into the world’s largest asset manager, with $10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022. $10 trillion in assets, for comparison, is one third the size of the national debt of the United States. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries.
So when Blackrock corporate types visit Alaska, people notice. When they show up the document room of the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, people start talking.
When the CEO of Blackrock goes on the CNBC “Mad Money” show with Jim Cramer, and says he is working on a gasline project in Alaska, heads turn.
The interview with Cramer had steered toward the issue of climate change, corporate responsibility, and what that means for investors and companies. Here’s that section of the transcript of the show, where Larry Fink, who founded Blackrock, talks about the need for America to become the exporter of energy in the world, and specifically talks about a “project” his company is working on in Alaska:
“There’s no question climate risk is going to be, we’re gonna have a lot of investment risk in climate change, and we’re already seeing them the valuations of emerging countries already where you’re having these incredible heat spells. You’re seeing that right now. In fact, I could say at BlackRock that we have more employees in in our London office since since Covid. And you know why? We have air conditioning in our offices and they don’t have air conditioners at home. I mean it just,” Fink said.
Cramer interrupted for a moment, “Right but these are things, these are all part—”
Fink continued, “Our behavior changes are happening, and we have to be prepared for that. And the only way we have to be prepared to tackle this we have to aggressively invest in new technologies for decarbonization. But at the same time, we have to aggressively work with our energy companies to have adequate supply for security. But more importantly, our allies are all asking us right now can you provide us with more gas? Can you provide us more of that? And and so here we are 100 years of natural gas, we don’t have the pipelines to get it. We don’t have it.”
Fink continued, “I mean, I’m working in projects in Alaska right now. We’re working on projects everywhere right now to try to make America the exporter.”
Fink is no stranger to the state. He travels to Alaska every year for fishing trips at Lake Iliamna and Blackrock manages a small portion of the Alaska Permanent Fund.
In addition to the Blackrock interest in developing Alaska gas, as now leaked by Fink on national television, Gov. Mike Dunleavy traveled to Japan in early June to discuss the market for Alaska gas in that longtime trading partner.
Dunleavy and Sen. Dan Sullivan met with Japanese companies, utilities, and government ministries about Alaska’s natural gas export potential. Dunleavy and Sullivan’s trip came at a time that Japan is pivoting towards an energy transition, one that Alaska can supply in the coming decades, including blue and green hydrogen, at a time of great geopolitical instability in other parts of the world.
“Alaska and Japan have a trade partnership going back over fifty years to the first LNG export from Nikiski to Japan,” said Dunleavy. “The natural gas of the Cook Inlet literally turned the lights on in cities across Japan and powered the economic engine that lifted that nation’s postwar society into a critically powerful western ally. There appears to be, due to the shift across the world away from older fuel sources, and the simultaneous need for supplies that are not risked due to political instability, a role that Alaska natural gas could play. Alaska can supply Japan with another fifty of natural gas and clean hydrogen for decades to come.”
The Alaska delegation held meeting with representatives of the JERA, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, along with Tokyo Gas and TOYO Engineering. Meetings were also held with the Mitsubishi Corporation, the Chiyoda Corporation, well as INPEX and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.
Unlike former Gov. Bill Walker, who had signed numerous MOU agreements with Communist China, Dunleavy has not issued many statements or gotten out over his skis on making promises that were not ready, other to say that talks with Japan were productive.
The big barrier will be the Biden Administration, which seems to think that America and the world can transition to green energy without a bridge energy source. It may take a company like Blackrock to convince the Biden Administration to take a more circumspect route and develop domestic gas for export to countries now dependent on Russia.
Mayor David Bronson applauded the Alaska Superior Court’s ruling that Assembly Ordinance 2020-79(S), which creates the Office of Equity and Justice in the Municipality of Anchorage, is invalid because it violates the Anchorage Municipal Charter.
The ruling came from Superior Court Judge Dani Crosby. Judge Crosby held that Assembly Ordinance 2020-79(S) is invalid because it conflicts with the charter provisions granting the mayor removal power of municipal department heads and establishing the separation of powers between the executive branch and the Assembly.
Judge Crosby found that the Anchorage Assembly created a municipal department under direct supervision of the mayor by placing the Office of Equity and Justice within the office of the mayor.
The court also found that because the Office is a municipal department, the Chief Equity Officer is a department head under the Charter. Judge Crosby held that the Charter prohibits any limitations on the mayor’s power to remove department heads.
Judge Crosby also held that the ordinance’s infringement upon the mayor’s power to remove department heads violates the charter’s separation of powers provision because it permits interference with powers explicitly delegated to the mayor.
“The ordinance the Assembly passed is a clear violation of my authority and executive powers,”said Bronson. “Since the beginning of my administration, this assembly has consistently infringed on the executive branch’s authority and purview. I applaud the Superior Court for their ruling protecting separations of powers and preventing the assembly’s repeated, autocratic overreaches of power.”
Attached is the ruling by Superior Court Judge Crosby.
Anchorage Assembly Vice Chair Chris Constant continued the narrative that the Centennial Campground, a sanctioned campground for homeless individuals, is a “humanitarian crisis.” One of his political allies has dubbed it “Bronson’s concentration camp.”
After shooting a police officer at the Centennial Campground on Wednesday, Iese Gali Jr. was charged with attempted murder in the first degree of a police officer, assault in the first degree of a police officer, assault in the third degree of a police officer, and misconduct involving weapons in the third degree. A judge has set his bail for $1 million cash.
Constant, in an Assembly work session today, strongly inferred that the mayor is unfit to run the city. Constant was the author of a recent ordinance that allows the Assembly to remove the mayor at its own discretion, based on whatever criteria it wants.
Constant and his left-leaning colleagues have fought with Mayor Dave Bronson for over a year, preventing him from rolling out his navigation center and plans to resettle people who had been warehoused in the Sullivan Arena by the previous mayors, Ethan Berkowitz and Austin Quinn-Davidson.
Constant issued the following official statement in his role as the acting chair of the Assembly:
“Following a shooting at Centennial Park campground last night, July 20, 2022, in which a police officer and one other person sustained serious injuries following an exchange of gunfire, Acting Assembly Chair Christopher Constant offered the following statement to the community:
“My heart goes out to everyone affected by this horrible incident – the officer who was injured, and who thankfully is recovering now, and their family, the people camping at the park who have already faced so much trauma and hardship, the volunteers and community organizations who are working around the clock to address this humanitarian crisis, and everyone in our community who is watching this disaster unfold.”
Constant failed to mention that the previous mayor created a hellacious scenario near the Sullivan Arena that made the entire neighborhood unsafe, including children using nearby ballfields. He neglected to mention there were multiple attacks and sexual assaults in and around the Sullivan Arena during the two-plus years that homeless were warehoused there.
Constant also reiterated that he will support a plan being brought by three members of the Assembly: Felix Rivera, Kameron Perez-Verdia, and Danial Volland, which has a fiscal note of over $20 million to provide instant housing for everyone who is homeless in Anchorage who wants a home.
“This situation in untenable and something must be done to provide safe, permanent, and sustainable housing for the most vulnerable in our community. I look forward to supporting the housing plan brought forward by Members Rivera, Perez-Verdia and Volland. If funding for their plan is approved, we will have 300 units of housing available by winter,” Constant said.
“However, their housing plan is not an immediate solution and I implore the mayor and his team to muster all available municipal resources to fix the problem immediately by securing safe shelter for those who have been moved by the Municipality to Centennial Park. For the first time in more than a decade we have unsheltered families with children.”
Constant continued his statement by thanking all who are helping the homeless:
“In the meantime, I thank all of those in the community who are responding to help our fellow neighbors in need. Volunteers are living and visiting the camp to help. Social service agencies and their donors like Beans Café, RurAL CAP, Catholic Social Services, and the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness are providing food and basic services,” Constant said.
However, the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness earlier this week withdrew from involvement with the campground, but has since reconsidered, while not exactly committing to helping the campers.
Constant continued: “George Martinez and the Northeast Community Council are keeping the focus on this issue. Anchorage Parks & Recreation Department staff are doing the lion’s work of providing order, Anchorage Fire and Police department officers are working hard to keep the campground safe, and the Anchorage Health Department is doing the best they can by stopping other projects to focus on this issue. Countless community members and organizations have held clothing drives, donated food and supplies, and volunteered valuable time. For all you have done to provide support to our most vulnerable neighbors, the leaders of this city owe you and our Centennial Park neighbors action on this issue,” Constant said.
Martinez was a failed candidate for mayor last year and was an insider in the Mayor Ethan Berkowitz administration, which ended in 2020 after Berkowitz resigned during a scandal. He works at the Alaska Humanities Forum, where his boss is the CEO of the organization: Kameron Perez-Verdia, who is also a member of the leftist majority on the Assembly.
Martinez, who has remained a community activist, went on social media to call the campground the “Bronson concentration camp.” Such references of non-Holocaust conditions are considered by the Left to be anti-semitic. It appears he was trying to convince social service agencies to abandon their mission of helping the poor:
Not referring to Martinez’ statement, Constant concluded his statement by saying, “This humanitarian crisis is showing the best and worst of Anchorage and I have faith that by coming together and working collaboratively, we can address this crisis and do better for our community.”
In his own communications online, Constant has begun referring to it as Bronson’s Camp, has called Bronson “America’s cruelest mayor,” and has attacked Suzanne Downing of Must Read Alaska.
Meanwhile, Assemblyman Forrest Dunbar showed the collaboration that he and the leftist majority has with the mainstream media, also attacking conservative writer Suzanne Downing, who writes this blog:
Constant, who just failed in his run for Congress, is serving as acting chair of the Assembly due to Chairwoman Suzanne LaFrance being out of town.
New details have emerged about the man who shot at police at the Centennial Park Campground on Wednesday night in Anchorage.
Police were patrolling the campground at about 7:52 pm when they spotted a truck parked at a campsite that matched the description of a vehicle that eluded police on July 19, 2022.
Both officers exited their vehicles to investigate. They saw an adult male, later identified as 32-year-old Iese Gali Jr., walking near the truck. Officers attempted to talk to Gali, but Gali ignored them and walked toward a minivan parked nearby.
Officers ordered Gali to stop; Gali ignored the commands and got into the front passenger seat of the van. Officers begin to pull Gali from the vehicle. A struggle ensued during which time Gali produced a firearm and fired at the officers, injuring one.
Both officers returned fire and radioed for backup.
Citizens at the scene provided aid to our injured officer until backup arrived. Responding officers administered life-saving measures to Gali which medics took over upon their arrival. Gali was taken to Alaska Native Medical Center for treatment and is expected to live. It does not appear that Gali was a guest at the campground but had come into the campground to pay someone a visit.
A warrant has been served for Gali Jr. for the following charges: Attempted Murder in the First Degree, Assault in the First Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, and Misconduct Involving a Weapon in the Third Degree. Once Gali is discharged from the hospital, he will be remanded at the Anchorage Jail.
Gali has a violent past. In January of 2021, he and another man were involved in a shooting in a business parking lot on W 8th Ave downtown. Gali was not the actual shooter. But Gali and the shooter were in a verbal altercation that turned physical, with the two men punching a third man, who was then shot; the two they got into their vehicle and left the scene. They obtained a felony arrest warrant for Gali for the charges of Assault I, Assault IV, and Reckless Endangerment.
In 2015, police responded to a address where it was reported that Iese Gali Jr., then 26, had assaulted a woman.
“APD is extremely grateful for the witnesses who not only provided aid to our injured officer but stayed at the scene and provided excellent statements of what they had seen,” the police report says of Wednesday’s encounter with Gali Jr.
The injured officer was transported to a local hospital. The officer sustained serious injuries to his abdomen but is expected to survive.
Per department policy, the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions will review the officer’s use of force and determine whether or not it was justified. Once that has been completed, APD Internal Affairs will review the officer’s actions to confirm whether or not there was any violation of policy. APD practice is to put the officers on four days of administrative leave. Their names will be released publicly 72 hours after the inciden
Three members of the Anchorage Assembly issued a statement regarding the shooting at the Centennial Campground on Wednesday evening. Assemblywoman Jamie Allard and Assemblymen Kevin Cross and Randy Sulte provided this statement to the media:
“Wednesday night, July 20, 2022, two Anchorage Police Department officers responded to the Centennial Campground and conducted a field interview with a known suspect from an earlier eluding.
“The suspect was uncooperative and fought with the officers. At one point the suspect produced a handgun and fired at the officers. One of our city’s police officers was struck in the abdomen.
“Both officers returned fire and struck the suspect multiple times. Our victim officer was transported to Providence Hospital for emergency treatment. Dozens of police officers and first responders heroically and immediately responded to the scene to provide aid and stabilize the situation.
“The officer is out of surgery, stable and his family was able to visit. Additional information will come out later as the officer recovers. Visitation is still limited at the hospital, and it is requested everyone stay away for now and await more information.
“The suspect shooter was transported to Alaska Native Medical Center and is expected to survive.
“This is a stark reminder of the risk and sacrifices our fine men and women of the Anchorage Police Department and our emergency responders face on a daily basis each time they put on their uniform and take to the streets of our beloved city to respond to threats, enforce laws, and lend help to those in need.
“We wish the officer involved a full and speedy recovery and know this officer will receive the full and overwhelming support of our community.
“Our hearts also go out to the victim officer’s family, the police officer’s partner, the entire APD force, emergency medical technicians, friends, and colleagues during these difficult times. We can only imagine the impact of this news and are thankful the outcome was not more severe.
“We are also thankful for the deep knowledge, experience, and training that have been provided to our officers by our city and the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association (APDEA) to handle the multitude of situations that they face on a daily basis.
“The department and APDEA are always looking for new officers and if you feel you have what it takes to answer the call, we encourage you to reach out to APD and APDEA.
“For the rest of us in the Municipality, we need to unify and help where we can by being vigilant stewards of our neighborhoods, reporting crimes, and volunteering for local community patrols, neighborhood watches, and other civic groups where we are able.”
The three members of the Assembly, who represent the minority conservative branch of the 12-member body, included links to where people can apply to become involved in public safety in Anchorage:
