By TOM BOUTIN
What follows is something I sent to newspapers in Alaska some time ago, and one or more have published it.
I would guess that almost none of the readers here at Must Read Alaska are not voting for Nick Begich, but it’s extremely important to emphasize that we all must urge family and friends, store clerks where we shop, people we see at the gun range, old acquaintances we may see, and anyone else who will listen to the importance of sending Nick to Washington rather than Mary Peltola.
Mary Peltola is guilty of joining the elites in trying to fool us into believing that Biden has the lucidity and situational awareness to actually be doing his job.
In doing so she likely leveraged the fiction there to bring back to Alaska federally borrowed dollars, especially to rural constituencies it seems, and that reveals a contempt for most of us and for the seriousness of the federal deficit.
She sometimes expresses an arrant misunderstanding of the inflation and economic dislocation Alaska is experiencing right now. Part of the reason many working-age Alaskans who want to climb the economic ladder (but not work for government) are leaving the state and other working-age Alaskans are choosing food stamps and fentanyl when there are plenty of well-paid jobs available is the very policies touted by Mary in her political campaign.
I watched all the debates. Mary has never done anything foolish, but neither has she ever said anything wise. She trades for her own account, as we all do, but she identifies her constituency as only a small subset of Alaskans when she tells the rest of us that we should be satisfied that she supports fish, families, and veterans. Who doesn’t? And what in the world does that really mean?
She held out in the Alaska House to bring expensive projects to the rural Yukon-Kusko region in return for her deciding vote in converting PERS & TRS to defined contribution, but which of those projects can be remembered or even identified today? Which village became self-sufficient upon completion of those projects?
Our entire state economy looks to government spending for food, health care, child care, housing, and investment. No state suffers as much from the federal borrowing and spending debacle, because we produce so little while consuming so much; too much bought from outside, and too little produced here for trade leaves us the most vulnerable to inflation.
We are 700,000 people living on 400,000 barrels of oil and a Permanent Fund that loses spending power every day.
Mary claims credit for bringing federal money home to the bush while not understanding that the spending causes the very inflation we fear and feel every day. No matter which party wins the White House and Congress, inflation will return big time come November 6 because the 30, 50, and 70 percent raises are actually paid at the end of the supply chain – which is us. Interest rates will again trend higher and federal banks will chase their tails. In every debate Mary has made it clear this is all beyond her understanding.
As I watched those debates it was also clear that Nick Begich understands our economic and fiscal predicament while Mary does not. The economy we planned to build with our oil wasn’t built, and we are all to blame. Drone manufacturing, seed potato prodigy, water supplied to the southwest, cold climate data storage, plastics and fertilizer hegemony, natural gas pipeline, Watana dam, carbon credit magnate, hemp farming, and missile launch dreaming disappeared as soon we stopped paying consultants.
Only two years ago state revenues were claimed to be on schedule to begin receiving hundreds of millions from standing timber carbon credits, but today there is no such entry in the state revenue forecast, so one more silly dream has disappeared. We tried to replace declining oil production with imaginary comparative advantage, and all we got are food stamps and fentanyl. Mary is the ghost of our misspent past, and sending her minority voice back to Washington would convert the office from a quaint embarrassment to a grave impediment.
The Washington to which we sent Ted, Frank and Don (and what a great job they did) was entranced by Alaska but that time is very distant. The investment banking firms that urge dismantling TAPS went from billions to trillions in measuring their capital while we were focused on keeping up with food stamp enrollments and funding the state budget.
The debates also revealed that Mary is trending toward being imperious, always a hapless sign in a public official. As a first impression she can appear as a heroine of excellent parts and not at all vain, but soon revealed as splenetic. She might be bound for Dancing with the Stars, or Saturday Night Live, but Nick will explain Alaska and help us find our place in this century.
Mary looks backward to seek even more deficit spending but it’s Nick who shares our realistic vision for Alaska: so please be sure to vote that way.
Tom Boutin is a Juneau resident who has served as chief of staff for the Alaska State Bond Committee, the Alaska State Pension Investment Board and the Alaska Retirement Management Board. He also was the CEO of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state-owned bank, appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In addition, he worked for many years in the forest products industry.
Mary doesn’t support veterans, that is a outright lie. Her party attacked the Alaska Native Vietnam veterans in the last two months. Congress authorized the veterans who were on active duty during the ANLCSA to be authorized native allotments. Trump authorized 3.7 million acres in Alaska to choice from, Biden, Harris and the democrats reduced that to 100,000 acres. Mary Peltola and Liza Murkowski never said anything about it.
I am a service-disabled veteran and when I asked her for help with the Anchorage VA, she told me to get lost. The reason is because I called her DC office numerous times and always spoke with a new staff person because she could not maintain her staff and I was very frustrated by all the different people I spoke to before her. When I spoke with her at a fund raiser because I knew she’d be there, she refused to help me. She said I was rude to her staff. I asked her “which one there have been so many.”
Her statements about supporting veterans are untrue and very nauseating. We shouldn’t forget that it took her one full year to have an office in Alaska. She is a mess. Vote for Nick Begich.
Had the same type of “Veteran Engagement” from Don Young, and Mark Begich back in 2012 I think it was. Murkowski’s office was the only one who wanted to meet and talk, turned over the documents in question and 4 days later the VA called and corrected it. Many people may not like Lisa or her votes but in 2012 her staffer assigned to Anchorage for Veterans issues handled it like a champ. I have not had to use Peltola or Sullivan but it’s sad that we as Disabled Veterans have to fight both the VA AND our elected officials then they use us as a prop to pander to voters
What about the presidential? I hope both of you will support Harris, because you know that Trump just consider you as loosers?
Good column. Federal appropriations, even massive, will not develop and enhance the Alaska economy in the long run. Such appropriations create dependency, instability and distort private investment. Additionally, federally funded projects only occasionally provide benefits to the average Alaskan. Goodies flow to federal government employees (military) and special interests. The sooner Alaskans figure this out the better.
Excellent writing; well made points. Let me help with the big words. Arrant = thoroughly bad.
Imperious = overbearing, domineering. Splenetic = easily annoyed or angered (as a spleen attack)
I would think the claim that most “Must Read Alaska” readers will support Peltola is a misnomer.
By the history of reading comments on a regular basis,I draw a different conclusion. I would believe Nick will prevail, however, as I stated in another post, Ketchikan and area, early votes are forwarded to Juneau to be opened and counted.Now there is a suspect if there ever was a case. Juneau to be trusted??? Not in my book.
Voting at my for ever, voting station and having Ketchikan count my vote. Better level of trust.
Cheers,
Read it again perhaps. It says Must Read readers will not vote for Peltola. Boutin could have been better with the syntax however.
She does not represent me in any way shape or form. She is a stamp to the Democrats and nothing more nothing less.
She is the next to nothing for the people of Alaska. Mary, you are fired!
She does not represent me. She is a stamp to the Democrats and nothing more nothing less.
She does next to nothing for the people of Alaska. Mary, you are fired!
i was wondering where you got your information. According to the Calista Corporation there is 3.7 million acres in their region alone available for selection. They published that information in 2022.
‘https://www.calistacorp.com/news/eligible-vietnam-era-veterans-can-obtain-up-to-160-acres-of-land/
You live in fantasy land If you think Mary is of any positive value to Alaska.
She is NOT. She is a show person looking to keep the gravy train job as she sees it. Mary is a 100% lability to us all especially her own people.
She is a phony from the jump.
I made no comment on Peltola. I was addressing the comment that the Biden administration cut the available acreage to veterans to 100,000 acres. This is not true. I provided support of my comment.
Andrew there are a stunning amount of native Vietnam veterans that deserve their land . It is unbelievable to me that the bureaucracy has held this up for 45 damn years. Obviously hoping these old soldiers would die off. The bureaucrats need to get off their asses and get these guys and girls their promised land. If they are dead then their family should get it. A deal is a deal. These people were out fighting a war for us.
Why do you people hate Natives so much ?
I see nothing here nor in any other Must Read entry that suggests that. If you do then please point it out.
I think it has something to do with racism. The same mentality that early westerners had towards natives. Today, they feel they are given free stuff so jealousy comes to mind. They always dislike someone getting something they’re not. They think they are stupid, incapable of learning and as such, live a meaningful life. People want to play God in other people’s lives and make decisions for them. So, jealousy, greed, hate, blind pride would some it up. All the big sins.
Who hates natives?
You funny man mister Bond.
I don’t really understand. If directing deficit spending to Alaskan projects is Peltola’s major sin, how is it that the very next paragraph lauds the work of Ted Stevens? His legacy was direction of deficit spending towards Alaska. A legacy that Murkowski and Peltola seek to emulate.
Mary is in the wrong job she needs to be a cleaning person in a remote village.
That has to be one of the most racist remarks I’ve ever read on here.
Mary is bought and paid for and was installed in office by Democrats who manipulated the then new RCV.
That may well be, but it was his opinion about the cleaning person in a remote village that drew my attention.
State representatives take an oath to secure and defend the US Constitution. Period. our form of government is capitalist constitutional republic not a pile of benefits as in monarchy. The monarchies are all about benefits that all go the monarch and all his cronies. That benefit infused form of government was driven from the United States forever in 1776. Beneficial monarchies are not our form of government and never will be until the Second Coming of Christ.
Please learn this democrats.
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