Nasty things are bound to happen during the week leading up to the election, and we’ve found some doozies arriving in mailboxes:
BILL WIELECHOWSKI SAYS HE’S LIBERTARIAN? In this flier, hard Democrat Sen. Bill Wielechowski tries to pass himself off as a Libertarian. Democrats are running so quickly away from their brand that it’s come to this?
PAT HIGGINS’ STOLEN VALOR: In his latest mailer, candidate Pat Higgins (the hard Democrat running against Charisse Millett, District 25) infers that his time spent as a personnel worker in the Marshall Islands for a company doing contract work with the military was the equivalent of keeping our nation safe as a member of said military. Millett called foul: Higgins was not an enlisted serviceman nor an officer, but just a contractor. He could quit at any time and he eventually did, so no hall pass for Higgins’ missing all those school board meetings while still drawing a school board salary.
HARRIET DRUMMOND’S SLEAZATHON: Incumbent Democrat Harriet Drummond goes after Mike Gordon in a new radio ad and mailer that all but calls him a drug pusher and child rapist. It gets the award for the sleaziest ad of the week, and that’s saying something. Former police officers are standing by to defend Gordon. This reminds us of when Drummond stood outside the Dena’ina Center upset that SB 21 was being signed into law. Her protest sign read: “Corrupt Bastards Club Third Floor,” which is the level of discourse her fellow lawmakers have come to expect from her. If she doesn’t get her way, she just goes for the gutter.
FORREST MACDONALD’S MONEY MISCHIEF: From the candidate’s filing in 2015, it appears he earned income in the range of $5,000 to $12,000 plus $8,800 in Permanent Fund dividends (including his wife and kids) plus $1,700 in GI Bill benefits. His children are enrolled in Denali KidCare, which is a subsidized health care program.
Yet this year he gave $11,250 to his campaign. The Democrat who wants to win Senate seat L against Natasha Von Imhof just doesn’t add up. Of course, if he won, he’d get the biggest pay increase in his life.
VINCE BELTRAMI WON’T COME CLEAN: Now the fake-independent running against Republican Cathy Giessel for Senate District N says he’ll take a leave of absence from his $185,000 job running the Alaska AFL-CIO. But what does that mean? Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO is one of the largest spenders in the 2016 election cycle, adding more than $11.5 million to the coffers of Democratic candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The top recipient is Hillary Clinton. (The union’s super PAC, “AFL-CIO Worker’s Voices PAC,” spent another $7.3 million.) But Beltrami? He says he’s an independent. Queue the laugh track.
HARRY CRAWFORD CAUGHT IN A LIE: Harry Crawford, running against Lance Pruitt, is taking credit for the “red stripe ID” law, although it wasn’t his idea at all. A manager at a liquor store came up with the proposal years earlier, as reported in the Anchorage Daily News and other newspapers, and it was discussed widely at the time the idea came out, four years before the accident involving Crawford’s wife. The statement in his ad is a blatant lie.
WHO IS THIS PERSON? She was observed ripping up Trump signs in Anchorage rights of way and delivering them in a rage to Trump headquarters on Old Seward Highway at Klatt Road, before storming away in her black Lexus, license plate JBA832. We asked the police to respond and identify her, but no call back yet from APD. Eagle-eyed readers say she’s a well-known lawyer in town.
BALLOT MEASURE ONE IS SO BAD THAT…Even the most reliably liberal columnist in Juneau is even against it. Rich Moniak makes his case. And Must Read Alaska, the blog, says it’s the Democrats’ path to domination.
BILL WELD ESCHEWS ENDORSING MILLER: The Libertarian candidate for vice president was in town last week and threw his support for the U.S. Senate race to Lisa Murkowski, saying Joe Miller is a phony Libertarian.