Monthly Archives: January 2014

Republicans a no-show at first statewide candidate forum

The first statewide candidate forum of the year was last night. Three people running for lieutenant governor answered questions posed by KTVA reporter Rhonda McBride at the YWCA in downtown Anchorage on Tuesday night. Two Democrats — Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, Palmer math teacher Bob Williams, and independent Craig Fleener — fielded questions from McBride, a seasoned reporter, about education, tribal rights, federal regulations, natural resources, health and public safety, just to a name a few.

One of the two Democrats will be running with Byron Mallott in the general election. Fleener, who will skip the primary process, will be running with independent candidate Bill Walker.

The two Republican candidates, Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan and Alaska state Sen. Lesil McGuire didn’t show up for the forum. At the time the event was announced, Sullivan said that he had a personal engagement that evening. McGuire called in sick at the last minute. It was too bad. McGuire, who is a moderate Republican, shines no more brightly than when she’s speaking extemporaneously in front of a crowd.

French said that neither of the Republican showed because they wouldn’t be able to defend Gov. Sean Parnell’s record. Namely his decision not to accept federal money to expand Medicaid, which would insure up to 40,000 Alaskans on the federal dime. Then there was the issue about new regulations on Medicaid-funded abortions which made news earlier that day. The issue was only alluded to at the forum. Had McGuire showed, however, she would likely have been asked about it.

Throughout the night, Williams and French generally held the Democratic line. Fleener, a Gwich’in Athabascan from the Interior, and former Marine and currently a major in the Alaska Air National Guard, as well as the state’s former deputy commissioner of Fish and Game, displayed more of an independent streak. He’s more inclined to talk about giving parents more choice over education options, had stronger words for federal government encroachment, and mentioned, more than once, that as an independent, he’s “free from party and political corruption.”

When asked to give Gov. Sean Parnell a letter grade for the job he’s doing so far, French gave him a “D,” Fleener a “C-“ and Williams an “F.”

Williams, an up-and-comer to watch in the Democratic Party, called Parnell a “wimp,” which stands for “wildly inaccurate, misleading, and partisan.”

It doesn’t exactly work as an acrostic, but it was the line of the night, the delivery was spot on, and if nothing else, last night showed that Williams is a politician to watch.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Parnell administration hands huge victory to pro-life advocates

After two decades of fighting, pro-life Alaskans won a huge battle in the state. As of Feb. 2, new regulations dictate that the State of Alaska’s Medicaid program will no longer pay for abortions unless a doctor deems such abortions “medically necessary.” The regulations were proposed and will be enforced by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, which regulates Medicaid, and were certified by Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell on Jan. 3.

According to the state’s Bureau of Vital Statistics, roughly 35 percent of reported 1,629 abortions performed in the state in 2012 were paid for by Medicaid, a joint state and federal medical insurance program for poor Alaskans.

The new regulations require that doctors fill out a form prior to a Medicaid-funded abortion that says that the pregnancy was the result of rape, incest or performed to save the woman’s life. A second option says that the abortion is necessary due to “impairment of major bodily functions” such as “diabetes with acute metabolic derangement or severe end organ damage,” and “renal disease that requires dialysis treatment,” and “coma.” In all, 23 options are provided.

While a handful of Democratic legislators issued blistering responses to the new rules, Republican state Sen. John Coghill, from Fairbanks, praised Gov. Sean Parnell’s “initiative on this matter.” Coghill introduced a bill last session that mirrored the regulations.

Even though the regulations go into effect on Feb. 2, the fight is far from over. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that such “medically necessary” restrictions for state funded abortions are unconstitutional. Josh Decker, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska, said that the ACLU is disappointed in the rules and is “looking at all options,” including a legal challenge. If it doesn’t come from there, it will likely come from Planned Parenthood, which sent out a press release calling the decision unconstitutional.

Since 1993, the state has allowed a doctor to use his or her professional judgment to determine whether abortion is necessary. An administrative code provided guidance. The code said that a woman would be eligible to receive a publicly funded abortion if the pregnancy was a result of sexual assault, abuse or incest. It would also be covered if the procedure was necessary to prevent her death, cause her to be disabled or to “ameliorate a condition to her physical or physiological health.”

Pro-life Alaskans have chafed under the vague terms. Parnell went as far as to veto bipartisan legislation to expand health insurance coverage for impoverished Alaskan families — including more than 1,300 children — because it paid for what he called “elective abortions.” He said that without guidance about what is and isn’t medically necessary, the state will be in a perpetual state of “confusion and turmoil.”

If the federal government is asked to pick up the cost, the abortion provider must certify that the abortion was performed because of rape, incest, or because the life of the mother is at risk. At various points in history, the Legislature has tried to impose those same standards for Alaskan women.

In 2001, however, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that although the Feds can impose such standards, the state cannot “selectively deny necessary care to eligible women merely because the threat to their health arises from pregnancy.” In other words, the state can’t decide to pay for a medically-necessary birth for one woman and deny a medically-necessary abortion to another.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Murkowski breaks ranks with Republicans over unemployment benefits

Once again flexing her moderate muscles, Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted with a majority of Democrats and five other Republican colleagues to extend the debate over emergency unemployment benefits. About 1.3 million Americans have been taken off the benefit rolls since Dec. 28.

Republicans had been threatening to block debate unless they got to vote on a temporary repeal of the ObamaCare mandate. According to Politico, that the bill advanced with Republican votes “shocked Democrats, who appeared ready to strafe the GOP with charges of obstruction should the legislation stall on the floor.”

In a press release, Murkowski said that it’s “important that we have compassion for those Americans caught up in the administration’s economic policy failures,” and warned that the benefits can’t be extended indefinitely. “Instead, we need to see far more productive actions to strengthen job creation and restructure existing programs – not just ongoing safety net extensions – while seeking ways to not add to this nation’s deficit. That’s why I cast my vote today to have a responsible, solutions-based conversation about the unemployment problems facing this nation,” she said.

Debate will continue in the Senate as to how to pay for the $6.5 billion bill.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Joe Miller’s stealth Senate campaign

19660467_mlThe fourth quarter officially ended on Dec. 31 and now, federal candidates  — Dem. U.S. Senate Mark Begich,former DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan, and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell — are busy preparing their reports due to the FEC by Jan. 31. It’s hard work. Each receipt has to be accounted for, and politically suspect contributors need to be checked, and in some cases scrubbed and their checks sent back. Some, particularly the ones who have raised lots of money and have lots of checks they are accounting for, are spending more time than others.

Senate candidate Joe Miller, for one, likely isn’t spending tons of time with all of that. From looking at his past reports, he’s not putting much time and energy into fundraising, nor is he engaging in high-profile events that catch the eye of the media. What he appears to be doing instead is taking a page out of his own playbook: he’s slowly, but surely, building grassroots support, far from the eyes of the media. Just this past weekend, for instance, he met with living-room groups in Anchorage, Wasilla, and Sheep Mountain.

Mike Coons, who is the former head of the Conservative Patriot Group and writes for a blog The Alaska Conservative, attended one of those meetings. He said that the room was packed.

Coons supported Miller in 2010, the last time he ran. This time, he hasn’t yet decided who he will vote for in the Republican primary. Treadwell isn’t conservative enough for him, and hasn’t yet heard much from Sullivan. He’s leaning strongly towards Miller because of his conservative values and because he’s reaching out to people like him.

“Stealth mode has advantages,” Coons said, who saw how it worked for Miller in 2010, when seemingly out of nowhere, Miller beat Murkowski in the Republican primary.

Indeed, in 2010, Miller didn’t file for that race until April, and only a few months prior to that, Murkowski’s polls had her positives at more than 60 percent. Murkowski had a war chest. Miller was a pauper in comparison.

Yet he won the primary. As Miller’s spokesperson, Randy DeSoto put it then: “If your message is good and it resonates with people, the person with the biggest bank account doesn’t necessarily win.”

One Valley political activist noted that people are so committed to Miller’s message, that his gatherings are reminiscent of revivalists meetings. The other candidates may have a lot going for them, but none, as of yet, have that.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Begich’s latest radio ad

As Republican candidates are apparently busy building their campaign apparatus, Alaska Sen. Mark Begich has been hitting the airwaves. His ads about ObamaCare and the government shutdown began airing months ago. This week, he released another ad that’s touting his pro-development record and taking Washington to task for not understanding Alaska issues.

For all of Begich’s supposed disdain for the Washington establishment, the ad was first shared by his campaign not to local reporters, but to Politico, the quintessential inside-the-beltway political news site. (Listen to the ad here.)

“Even though Washington keeps trying to stop Alaska from developing our natural resources, I’m pushing for more oil drilling and mining because it means thousands of new jobs that you can raise a family on, and because it’s our land, and we know best how to use it,” he says.

The ad also mentions how he is working with Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski on getting roads built to the Niblack and Bokan mines, and how he got the Forest Service to open up 11 new drill sites at Greens Creek mine in Southeast.

The ad follows a potentially politically damaging decision by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to block a road between Aleutian Chain King Cove and Cold Bay. The road, which cuts through a slice of federal land, would provide the residents of the King Cove community access to an all weather airport for medical evacuations.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Andrew Halcro calls education task force a ‘charade’

Former Anchorage legislator Andrew Halcro, who has never been known to mince words, took his disagreements with the education task force, of which he is a member, to Facebook on Friday. He called the task force, a “poorly organized charade,” and said that the only intention of the group was to “weaken education.”

The Alaska House of Representatives’ Sustainable Education Task Force has been meeting for four months to come up with education funding and other recommendations to bring to the governor and the Legislature, which is scheduled to convene on Jan. 21. It was comprised of Halcro, four other community members and three Republican House members: Tammie Wilson of Fairbanks, Lynn Gattis of Wasilla and Charisse Millett of Anchorage.

Halcro is the president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. Among the other public members were lawyer and oil and gas consultant Brad Keithley, who has been talking about running for governor on a fiscal conservative platform.

The overall conclusion was that the state was going to have to cut education funding. Halcro, however, disagreed.

Here’s Halcro’s Facebook post in full:

“The truth is that this task force was never intended to reach any other conclusion than to weaken education. Ironically, all of the recommendations reached would require additional funds, which the committee then said we couldn’t afford to make. This was a four month, poorly organized charade. Out of the eight committee members, only two of us actually have a direct role in hiring graduates. The rest of the committee was comprised of a former educator who after 28 years in the system had no productive ideas on how to improve education, a lawyer who has only been registered to vote in Alaska for the last three years and as far as I can tell has no experience in hiring graduates…and three current lawmakers who by their own admission have spent us into deficits. A four month charade.”

  • The group urged the state to begin thinking about the following:
  • Invest in technology that is compatible with local infrastructure.
  • Establish regional residential education centers to enhance secondary education.
  • Expand public choice in education opportunities to include: boarding, charter, virtual, homeschool and neighborhood schools.
  • Evaluate the current level of facility cost sharing between the state and localities. Consistent with local control, increased local contribution may not only be necessary but a better way to ensure that facilities are built and maintained efficiently.
  • Standardize school facilities, with the goal of reducing overall construction and maintenance costs using “recognized best practices.”
  • Analyze the potential benefit of school district consolidation and shared services between school districts and other entities.
  • Review and eliminate unnecessary regulations.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Political predictions for Alaska and beyond in 2014

16972478_mAmong other things — hangovers, for one, and vows to never have another hangover — the end of the year produces clairvoyance. Everyone with a blog or a column is suddenly a great predictor. None of the other bloggers, however, have the gift of prognostication that I have, nor use a crystal ball, the Ouija board, or that special licking-finger-checking-wind thing. I should say here, that not all of these predictions make me happy. If I had my way, I’d change about half of them. But the future, my friends, isn’t always pretty, so says the great, low voiced oracle in me. Here it goes:

Governor’s race: Let me get this over with and take my lickings from the Dems. Gov. Sean Parnell will be reelected, but he’ll be so by a slimmer margin than what he now believes. Democrat Byron Mallott will come in second followed by independent candidate Bill Walker.

U.S. Senate Republican primary: Former DNR commissioner Dan Sullivan will win the Republican primary. Joe Miller, who’s running a stealth campaign far from the eyes of the media, will come in second, and Mead Treadwell will come in third if he lasts that long.

U.S. Senate general election: Sen. Begich is one of the best nuts and bolts politicians out there. He has the instincts of a raven, understands retail politics and learned a long time ago the value of scrounging for every last vote. Is that enough to overcome the fact that he’s a Democrat in a fundamentally red state? I say this is a tossup, leaning towards Begich. DNR Dan Sullivan, who I predict will win the primary, will have a huge war chest, has a dream resume, and is funny, smart and all those things you want in a candidate. However, he’s a political neophyte. He’s never had to knock on doors, listening to real people and their problems. He’s never had to shake hands in grocery stores. He’s not had to spend hour upon hour at community council meetings, or assembly halls, or state legislative caucus meetings. He hasn’t been forced to internalize people’s fears, hopes and dreams. Begich has. Besides, Begich has an experienced team. Sullivan doesn’t.

Control of the U.S. Senate: There are 35 senate races in 2014. For the Republicans to take control of the Senate, they need to gain 6 seats. Right now, the Republicans appear to have a good chance of picking up South Dakota, West Virginia and Montana. The next three seats that appear to provide the Republicans with the best chance for potential gains are Arkansas, Alaska, and Louisiana. My prediction is that the Senate splits 50 – 50, meaning that the Democrats will maintain control with Vice President Biden, as the presiding officer of the body, casting the decisive vote.

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives: Republicans will safely maintain control of the House. Democrats would have to pick up 17 seats which appears highly unlikely.

Repeal of AK Senate Bill 21: Alaskans will not repeal SB 21 for fear of damaging the state’s economy. Proponents of the repeal will not be able to raise enough money to go head to head with the funds that will be spent to beat it down. The biggest indicator: Vince Beltrami, head of the AFL-CIO told me recently that his organization is staying out of the fight. Last year, the AFL-CIO put more than $700,000 into keeping a bipartisan Senate, which would have blocked the tax bill. It lost. Apparently, he sees this one as a losing fight, also.

Marijuana initiative: Unless the pot people get so stoned that they mess this up, which is not unheard of, this will pass easy squeezey.

Minimum wage initiative: Assuming the measure qualifies for the ballot, this initiative will fail.

Bristol Bay initiative: The Pebble Mine is dead for now, but some people want to pound that last nail in the coffin. This initiative would effectively do that. Anti-Pebble zillionaire Bob Gillam will be funding the effort, and he’s proven to be one of the most powerful political forces in the state. But then again so is the mining industry. Powerful, that is, with the Pebble Partnership’s money, which left when Anglo America did. This is a tortured way of saying that the crystal ball on this one fuzzes over, the Ouija board’s planchette shuffles between “yes” and “no,” the wind is blowing from the east on my thumb and the west on my pinky.

School choice legislation: A majority of legislators in both houses will be supportive; however, since it is a constitutional amendment, it requires an affirmative vote of 2/3rds of the legislature. And with the NEA as strong as it is with the Alaska Dems, there’s no way enough of them will cross over on this issue.

House Bill 77: The Parnell administration supports this bill, which is intended to streamline the state’s permitting process and the House already passed it. The bill is currently sitting in the Senate Rules committee, where, barring a big re-write, I predict it will stay under Rules Chair Lesil McGuire’s boot. The bill goes too far, and senators, particularly Sen. Peter Micciche, are listening to their constituents on this.

Anchorage mayor’s race: Andrew Halcro is the darling of tailors and us journo types all across the state who have been awaiting his next political move. I predict that it’s coming this year with an announcement that he’s running for mayor. It makes sense. The race is non-partisan and is perfect for Halcro, who is a moderate Republican. Then there’s Paul Honeman, who will likely jump in and provide color. Finally, I predict that Dan Coffey, who has already announced, has more fundraisers than Hacro has ties.

The Turnagain House legislative race: While I have chosen not to predict every legislative race, this seat is different and has piqued a lot of interest. Rep. Lindsey Holmes won reelection in 2012 as a Democrat and shortly thereafter switched her party affiliation and joined the House Republican Majority Caucus raising the hackles of many of her friends and supporters. A recall effort ensued, she’s got two Democratic challengers, another on her right, and she’s been all but invisible. Still, I say she wins this one again, but by a razor-thin margin. The Republican money will be behind her, and most importantly, she grew up in the hood.

Disagree? Did I miss something? Leave a comment if you think so.

Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

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Quote of the day: More ObamaCare love

Andrew Sullivan puts it best here:

“I’m also encouraged that I will no longer be punished for entrepreneurship with fear of losing health insurance, a punishment the Republican party apparently wants to restore indefinitely…I love America’s free market in healthcare – and believe, despite Republican hostility, that this reform simply extends much of that to many, many more people. Why can we not celebrate that milestone? Politics does not always lead to a tangible increase in many people’s peace of mind, security and health. This time and this year – thanks to president Obama – it has.”

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Team Obama promotes successes of health care law

Given the problems with healthcare.gov, it’s nothing if not ironic that Obama’s advocacy arm, the nonprofit Organizing for Action, is so skilled at making websites. In the lead-up to passing Obamacare in 2009, a version of the same group gathered stories from all across the country detailing the horrors they encountered with the medical and insurance industries. Few people saw the website, however. Obama’s people might be skilled at creating websites, but they’re lousy at disseminating those stories through the media.

Now, the group has another website, this time highlighting personal stories, some from news accounts, from all across the country of people benefiting under the health care law.

Here’s one from a woman that goes by Lara Imler who lives in Alaska, culled from public radio:

“Being self-employed, getting my premium at anything reasonable wasn’t happening,” she says. “I think my last quote was $1,200 a month for myself.”  About two hours after she started, she landed on a screen that told her she had successfully enrolled. She was pleasantly surprised by the price. Imler qualified for subsidies and chose a mid-level plan that will cost her $110 a month. “The website sucks. I’m not going to lie,” she says, “But the idea that I might be able to afford health insurance, is huge to me. It will be a huge burden off my family.”

As I said, Obama’s on-the-ground people are good with technology and putting together websites. However, in the past at least, they aren’t so good at knowing what to do with them once they’re up. There are lots of good stories out there about the new law. Let’s hope they’ve learned how to spread them.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

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