A pro-Parnell independent expenditure group has formed to support Gov. Sean Parnell. The group is called Alaskans for Economic Stability. According to forms filed with APOC, the treasurer is Cheryl Frasca. Former Republican Party chair Randy Ruedrich is designated as a deputy treasurer. An IE in the state is equivalent to a federal super-PAC, in that it can accept unlimited donations and is not allowed to coordinate with the candidate or the candidate’s campaign.
Both Bill Walker and Byron Mallott , who are running together on the “Unity” ticket, have their own independent expenditure groups, although neither have had activity since August. Mallott’s group, One Mallott, is funded by members of SeaAlaska Corp. As of the beginning of August, those members had put $50,000 into One Mallott, about $48,000 of which was spent on Trippi and Associates, a Maryland-based Democratic consultant run by well-known Democratic consultant Joe Trippi. Walker had $1,245.
The Alaska Constitution Article 2, Section 15 provides for the “economic stability” of this state by empowering the Governor to line item veto appropriations.
Parnell has utterly failed to use his Constitutional authority to control spending and in a bit of irony how much better off would we be if he had remembered the reminder that Democrat President Harry Truman kept on his desk: “THE BUCK STOPS HERE”
Ms. Logan,
Thank you for clarifying that point. Based on the history of the likes of VECO who supported Alaska politicians (especially those of one party) with scams like apportioning Bill Allen’s contributions through key executives I will sleep better tonight knowing that APOC reports will not reflect a single illegal contribution and that “all mailers/ads, etc” will indicate the top three donors. It is, after all, simply the “golden rule” isn’t it?
Yeah! sure Mr. radioman. And since you insinuate that the Walker-Mallott team had No plans of spending cuts, could you please give details as to what the Parnell side is going to cut in spending as he and his incompetent Republican legislature have run $2 billion in deficits for the last two years straight. I guess that part you’ve conveniently forgotten right?
Waiting for your answer.
Still waiting……
Craig, I agree. But since this is a centerpiece of Walker’s campaign, perhaps you can give us some insight into what exactly Walker will do. He wants to balance the budget, while expanding Medicaid, dealing with the rural energy crisis, fully funding education, and taking a 51 percent ownership stake in the LNG project, which means we will be responsible for 51 percent of the costs.
Did you ever discuss how your administration would pull this off? Did you ever discuss what you would do to tackle the pension crisis and health care costs that are currently eating up a lot of the budget? What cuts would he make to the operating budget, which has grown by about $4 billion over the last ten years?
And please don’t say you would go back to ACES. This isn’t a credible answer – with oil prices now below $100 we are generating more revenue under SB 21; oil has to be above $110 or so for ACES to bring in more revenue, and even at $110 or $115 the additional revenue under ACES isn’t that much more than what we would get under SB 21.
Before you were given the chance to move on Craig, what was the ticket’s plan to cut spending? I’m sure you have departments, programs, and numbers based on the past 2 state budgets that you are now free to share…… I’ll wait.
I’m excited about a group that’s formed to stimulate conversation about “economic stability”. Hopefully they can convince those in power that expenditures are an important component to economic stability. It’s great to focus on generating revenue, I’d like to see more of that done more broadly, but 10 years of debt and deficit forecasts need a lot of attention now.
No anonymous donors. In fact – all mailers/ads. etc… have to name the top three donors – and with 46 days to go to the election – APOC rules dictate that you will be able to see frequently who the donors are.
This is what the U.S. Supreme Court Citizen’s United decision has brought. The two party system is struggling to be relevant. How naive would I have to be to believe long established party operatives will work for this IE/Super-Pac (funded by anonymous donors) and have no direct coordination with Parnell’s campaign. I do understand there will not be minutes of the meetings so no proof of collusion will be available and any alignment of efforts will be an accident.