At a Alaska Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, the committee gave SalmonState, an Outside group funded by dark money, 40 minutes to present a report that pushed the narrative that the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) should be defunded.
The report was made by two hired guns contracted by SalmonState — longtime political operatives Milt Barker and Gregg Erickson. They said AIDEA has nothing to show for itself. Committee members Sen. Lyman Hoffman and Donny Olson attacked AIDEA for its support of the Ambler Access Project, which would provide a road to the proposed Ambler Mine.
Randy Ruaro, executive director of AIDEA, was given just a few minutes to respond, and talked briefly about the mathematical, wrong assumptions, and other flaws of the SalmonState report.
For instance, SalmonState said Alaskans and Alaskan family businesses that AIDEA supports through its loan program “are a waste.” It’s a characterization that Ruaro disputed.
That’s when Juneau Sen. Jesse Kiehl pounced. He found something in the packet of materials AIDEA had provided that he felt was offensive. It as an opinion written by Ruaro that pointed out that Salmon State is funded by the dark money group Arabella Advisors through its New Venture Fund.
Sen. Kiehl said that by mentioning “George Soros and other elites”, Ruaro had used a “dog whistle” to refer to someone that “not one at this table would be seen with. So I will ask as this as as I can what in the name of heaven is that doing in your materials?”
“Dog whistle” is a dog whistle for antisemitism, in this usage. Kiehl went on to explain that his daughter is a student at Columbia University and he pointed out that she is a Jewish student at that, something that had nothing to do with the economic development agency. He brought up campus protests and said using terms like “Soros” makes him afraid for his daughter’s safety.
Ruaro, it turns out, is part Jewish from his paternal grandmother, who was a Russian Jew.
Watch the attack on Ruaro here:
Ruaro responded that the point of the editorial being included in the senators’ packet was to show how Arabella Advisors operates and how it funded the inaccurate report that Erickson and Barker had just made. Arabella was under investigation for abusing its nonprofit status but was cleared by the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice in April.
Ruaro said the purpose of the op-ed was to show how Alaska is continually attacked by Outside groups.
As it appeared in Must Read Alaska, the op-ed said in part:
“Research by AIDEA and others shines a light on Arabella Advisors and its many tentacles as a key player in the world of dark money politics. Connections between Arabella Advisors and influential funds, such as the ‘New Venture Fund,’ and groups like ‘Salmon State’ raise serious questions about the extent of their influence and motives.
“Recent reports highlight the influence of foreign billionaires, their donations, and murky financial dealings orchestrated by Arabella Advisors and its ‘New Venture Fund.’
“For example, here in Alaska, Salmon State is funded in part by the New Venture Fund with donors such as George Soros and Swiss billionaire, Hansjörg Wyss. The largest foundations in the world are using this dark money lobbying network to influence policy in Alaska.”
Read Ruaro’s entire op-ed here to see what Kiehl was objecting to:
This is going back to the “It’s a trope!” well for the Juneau senator. Kiehl, when he was running for the Senate to represent Juneau in 2018, used the “dog whistle” argument. He and his campaign accused the Capital City Republican Women of anti-semitism for opposing his candidacy with a mailer that said, “If you give Jesse Kiehl your vote, you may as well give him your wallet.” His campaign accused the women of using red and black as colors in the mailer, which his supporters said shows they are antisemitic. Public radio KTOO legitimized his points with full coverage.
The 907 Initiative, a separate but equally dark money group funded by subsets of the Arabella Advisors network, is also running a campaign against AIDEA, calling the board members “losers.” In the attack ad, the 907 Initiative calls AIDEA “Losers,” and the group has cartoonishly marked up the faces of Alaskans who are serving on the AIDEA board to make them look like devils, demons, pirates, and clowns.
907 Initiative is the same as its sister group, 907 Action, a political entity that is attacking Mayor Dave Bronson and supporting the campaign for mayor of Suzanne LaFrance. The group also attacks Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other Republicans.
Part of the strategy of SalmonState (Arabella Advisors) and 907 Initiative (also Arabella Advisors), is to cut AIDEA off at the knees before another possible Trump presidency.
Donald Trump is polling strongly in swing states and looks to be a real threat to the no-development-ever Biden Administration. It’s likely that a Trump Administration would look at the Ambler Mine at least somewhat more favorably because it would bring jobs to a rural part of the state that has few jobs, and would provide valuable minerals needed for everything from cell phones to national security.
On the same day of the hearing last week, the 907 Initiative ran a banner ad in the Anchorage Daily News, calling for the defunding of AIDEA. It appears the 907 Initiative and SalmonState are coordinating their attacks on AIDEA.
The attack on AIDEA also comes at a time when Alaska Senate Democrats would love to get their hands on AIDEA’s budget and are eager to divvy it up amongst their districts for their own pet projects.
Ruaro said “It’s a war on Alaska. They’re trying to stop Alaskans from having good-paying jobs in development and disrespecting all the Alaska families that have gotten loans to start their businesses.”
