Author Archives: Amanda

Loose Lips: Treadwell loses state staffers. Fagan and Biegel to share a mic. Chenault fires back.

Two of Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell staffers are leaving his state office. Although I didn’t talk to her, I’ve been told his chief of staff, Michelle Toohey, is on her way out. I did talk to his communications manager, Colleen Cox, who told me that her last day is Wednesday. She said she’s leaving for “other opportunities.” Cox has been with Treadwell since his win in 2010. Before that, she volunteered for Gov. Sean Parnell’s campaign. Cox, an Anchorage girl, has a degree in English literature from Fordham University in New York, and then moved to Ireland to get the equivalent of a master’s in Irish literature, where she focused on James Joyce. If I were God, I’d make her my second. Anybody who can get through Finnegan’s Wake deserves it. Anyway, coming from neither of them: I’ve heard things are tense there.

Conservative radio talk show host Dan Fagan checked in on Thursday. He said that he’s still “golfing his way” to Alaska from California, where he’s been talking to audiences about… who cares what he’s been talking to Californians about? That’s the point. He didn’t care much either. Hence his return. He and uber conservative Glen Biegel will be co-hosting a show between 6 to 9:00 a.m. on KOAN, starting June 30. Fagan, a man with a changed heart, will be the softer side of the male-dominated, conservative duo. We’ll see how long that lasts. Sears tried that old “softer side” trick too, until it realized that its core consumers were white males with power-tool fetishes. Anyway, Fagan said he sleeps better at night now that he’s changed. Take it from one who knows: Ambien’s easier.

Tuesday evening was certainly a better evening for Alaska House Majority Leader Lance Pruitt than it was for Congressional Majority Leader Eric Cantor who was a victim of a major and unexpected upset. While Rep. Cantor was making his concession statement in Virginia, more than 30 Alaskans were heading to Pruitt’s fundraising reception at Simon & Seaforts in downtown Anchorage. Some familiar faces spotted at the event included: Rebecca Logan from the Alliance; Marie Evans from ConocoPhillips; Dan Fauske, the state’s gas czar; Joe Beedle from Northrim Bank; Paul Quesnel from BP; Natasha Von Imhoff, Alice Hanley, Sen. Click Bishop and Jim Udelhoven.

Ron Arvin and Cathy Tilton, two Valley GOP candidates vying for state House seat in District 12 being vacated by Rep. Bill Stoltze, also held events Tuesday evening. Arvin’s event was at the Petroleum Club in Anchorage and Tilton’s at the Regan Pavilion in Wasilla. Both events drew respectable crowds. The verdict: Arvin raised the most money and Tilton drew the most voters from the district.

Quite possibly the biggest political fundraiser Tuesday was in the Valley at construction mogul Dave and Dana Cruz’s home where they hosted a crowd of more than 80 people who showed to support GOP senate candidate Dan Sullivan. The event capped a long day of politicking in the Valley. I was there, trailing Sullivan, and am in the middle of writing a James Joyce-sized opus about the day. Don’t bate your breath waiting.

North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower was also in Anchorage Tuesday evening for a fundraising event hosted by members of the Associated General Contractors. From all accounts, this event was not as well attended as some of her previous campaign events.

The American Association of Political Consultants has selected New Orleans as the venue for their March 2015 meeting.

Upcoming Events:

• June 26, 5:30 – 8:00 pm. Campaign kick-off for Rep. Lynn Gattis’ re-election at the Regan Building Pavilion, Wasilla.

Sen. Anna Fairclough and Rep. Lynn Gattis are in San Francisco attending a national conference on education this week. Gattis chairs the House Education committee and Fairclough sits on the Senate Finance Committee that funds education.

Ellie Lottsfeldt, daughter of Jim and Dawn Lottsfeldt, was in Portland for a Jamie Cullum concert; however, a bigger thrill than the concert itself was when she found herself side-by-side Jamie at a sidewalk cafe. Needless to say, when Jim isn’t promoting Sen. Begich, he’s got some pics of Jamie and his daughter to share.

The June 10th edition of Fortune Magazine lists Alaska as one of the most corrupt states in the nation. That might seem like bad news to some. The Alaska Democrats, however, appear to be reveling in it. The party sent out a press release about the study, and went further, implicating Republican Sens. Cathy Giessel, Peter Micciche and Kevin Meyer. On the House side, it was Reps. Lynn Gattis, Eric Feige and Speaker Mike Chenault, the latter of whom particularly didn’t take kindly to the accusations of corruption. He fired back:

Reps. Feige and Gattis are some of the most honorable people that I have worked with. I’ll be damned if I sit back and watch while their integrity is questioned based on twisted versions of reality…If the Democratic Party feels that a member of the House is corrupt they should contact the appropriate law enforcement agency for an investigation. I personally welcome any scrutiny. I have nothing to hide.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Quote of the day: A reader weighs in on the historic Eric Cantor upset

From my most faithful reader, John R. Coyne Jr., who also happens to be my father, responding to the piece I posted on the historic win of Dave Brat in Virginia. I’m going to brag here: My father is a former White House speechwriter and currently contributes to a whole host of esteemed right-wing publications, which I read mostly because he writes brilliantly for them.

Also interesting that the major media, all of which are heavily represented in D.C. and have been devoting exhaustive coverage across the country to this year’s elections, didn’t have a clue about what was going on just across the border in Virginia, their own back yard, apparently content to rely on a few bad polls. Now they’re trying to spin it as a Tea Party triumph, but none of the organized Tea Party groups were backing Brat, instead, like the media, concentrating on Mississippi, where an amiable old goat was apparently finally being put out to pasture.

American Crossroads attacks Begich’s commitment to veterans

A day after U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan called for Sen. Mark Begich to agree to try to put an end to third-party ads, American Crossroads released the following ad, accusing Begich of not taking enough action on veterans healthcare. The new ad will air statewide for a total buy of $450,000. It started on Wednesday.

“Begich likes to use his position on the Veterans Affairs Committee to score political points when he’s in Alaska, but he continues to sit on the sidelines when it comes to holding President Obama and the VA leadership accountable in Washington,” said Art Hackney, well known Anchorage-based adman and strategist for Crossroads.

Begich’s campaign responded:

Begich has widespread support from the Alaska veteran community. Begich also sits on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee where he successfully facilitated an agreement between the VA and tribal health facilities to allow veterans to receive care closer to home, helping to significantly cut down on VA wait times in Alaska.

The Senate passed a $50 billion VA health care bill on Wednesday night, largely mirroring similar proposals from the House. Begich was in D.C. and voted for the bill.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

The pack’s take on Brat

Here’s some excerpts from pieces on the historic beating of Virginia House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by Dave Brat, a relatively unknown economics professor from Randolph-Macon College. A few things to keep in mind: Cantor spent about $4.9 million on operating expenditures this election cycle. He still had more than $3.7 million on hand late last month. Brat spent just under $123,000 on operating expenditures. Cantor spent $168,000 alone at a D.C. steakhouse. No doubt many who regularly dine at that D.C. steak house are rattled, and at least two Alaskans are gleeful. Read on.

From a Joe Miller press release:

‘The Party elite always play the same game: use unreliable polling and the media to try to convince voters there is no way to defeat their hand-picked candidates. The people are not buying it,’ said Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto. ‘They know Washington is the problem and sending more there who want to play the Establishment game will not restore freedom or revive our economy. Based on what we’ve be seeing here in Alaska, the grassroots have another surprise in store for the Establishment in August.’

Brat does sound an awful lot like a gentler Joe Miller:

From a Washington Post blog post:

(W)ith Eric Cantor’s shocking defeat Tuesday night, things for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable just got a whole lot worse. For one, they lost a major defender of their favored policies–from the beneficial tax treatment of private equity income to immigration reforms favored by the country’s biggest tech companies. But even worse for their prospects, Cantor lost to a challenger who specifically attacked him for his close ties to big business — going so far as to single out the BRT and the Chamber. “The central theme of Brat’s campaign is that Cantor is beholden to business — specifically the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable,” wrote Politico in April.

The big lesson: don’t trust the polling. From a June 6 Washington Post story:

A poll conducted late last month for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) shows him with a wide lead over challenger David Brat heading toward next Tuesday’s Republican primary election. The poll, shared with Post Politics, shows Cantor with a 62 percent to 28 percent lead over Brat, an economics professor running to Cantor’s right. Eleven percent say they are undecided. The internal survey of 400 likely Republican primary voters was conducted May 27 and 28 by John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates. It carries a margin of error of +/-4.9 percentage points.

From Sarah Palin’s Facebook page.

Tonight’s victory showed the power of the local grassroots – the ones with boots on the ground who put up the campaign signs and go door to door to provide needed support for great candidates…Grassroots commonsense conservatives can use this momentum to push good candidates like Chris McDaniel, T.W. Shannon, and Rob Maness to victory for America. These candidates are also being massively outspent by establishment candidates and they need our help and energy.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

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Sorry all. There’s a problem with the commenting system on the site. I’m working on it and hope to have it fixed soon. Technical difficulties are… difficult.

Young blasts Begich for taking undeserved credit

The video below was brought to my attention from a source who does not want Sen. Mark Begich reelected. I’m putting it up because it’s on Rep. Don Young’s official campaign channel and it’s in the public domain. Fair warning: I know it’s Young talking and I know his words are unaltered. I’m told that it was shot last week in Fairbanks while Young was campaigning. But I don’t know who asked the question or who’s holding the camera.

Young is referring to Begich’s claims in recent ads about a road in NPR-A, and about his role in other projects across the state. I’ve been hearing grumblings for years from some of both Young and Murkowski staffers about Begich taking full credit for things that he had but a part. And that might be true, but I’m not in D.C., and it’s nearly impossible to know which congressional member should get credit for what. I do know that contrary to what Young says in the video, Begich should get credit for getting the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center built. As mayor of Anchorage, he fought tirelessly for the convention center. In any case, it’s the most explosive video yet of the campaign season. Young is popular in Alaska, and this will not help Begich’s campaign.

I also know that to the extent there’s been a détente between Young and Begich, that’s probably over, for now at least.

This just in from Begich’s spokesperson Max Croes:

Congressman Young and Senator Begich had known each other for a long time and have a strong working relationship. Along with Senator Murkowski, they have been able to rack up big accomplishments for Alaska. The combined seniority of Alaska’s team will continue to bring new jobs, oil and gas development, and infrastructure investments for Alaska.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

GOP Senate hopeful Sullivan calls on Begich to sign pledge limiting Outside spending

In a bold move that surprised many, this writer included, GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan on Tuesday announced a plan to try to counter the influence of third party money in Alaska’s Senate race. First, he asked U.S. Sen. Mark Begich to call on third party spending groups, including super-PACS, to cease all television and radio ads which “clearly identifies either of us and supports or attacks our campaigns.” And if the groups don’t obey, Sullivan wants Begich to agree to donate 50 percent of an individual ad buy to the charity of the opposing candidate’s choice.

Sullivan called it “The Alaska Agreement.”

The money that each candidate raises on his own would not be subject to the deal.

“We’re confident in our ability to go mano-a-mano with Mark Begich,” Sullivan said, referring to direct candidate contributions. That said, Sullivan said that he supports Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that allowed unlimited PAC money into races such as this one.

A similar plan to what Sullivan is proposing has worked elsewhere. In the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown agreed to the “People’s Pledge,” It worked to cut outside spending to about one-tenth of what the candidates themselves spent.

In the Alaska Senate race alone, campaign spending placed on TV and radio has now exceeded $20 million from February through election day in November. This leaves little, if any, airtime for other races, including the governor’s race.

As of this writing, it’s unclear if Begich will sign the agreement. If he doesn’t, it will make it more difficult to decry Outside spending and super-PAC money, something that he’s done no less than 100 times in fundraising emails and press releases, even as his own campaign has greatly benefited from such spending.

I’m trailing Sullivan today in the Valley and this will definitely come up. I’ll have more later.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Loose Lips: Mayor Dan gets his glow on. Parnell a no show at Native forum. French is confident.

Loose Lips, getting hooked: AP reporter Becky Bohrer and Juneau Empire sports writer Klas Stolpe were married on a boat on the waters outside of Petersburg. They wore Norwegian sweaters and according to a news account, exchanged gaff hooks.

Gov. Sean Parnell didn’t attend the opening ceremonies for the National Congress of American Indians on Monday morning in Anchorage. Nor, did he attend a governor’s forum that the Congress, in conjunction with AFN, held Monday night. “We’re here again together,” said Democratic candidate Byron Mallott to independent candidate Bill Walker. Mallott said that the two were getting used to sharing the stage together, without Parnell and that they were becoming friends. Walker urged the crowd to remember who showed when they went to the voting booth. “The person who didn’t show up?” Walker said. “He’ll come in third.”

In addition to the governor’s forum, there was also a U.S. Senate candidate forum, where Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell and former DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan talked about everything from ObamaCare, which Alaska Natives generally favor, to the state’s relationship to tribal governance, which the state is generally opposed to, to voting rights. Both were on tricky ground, but both earned respectable applause for showing up and trying. Joe Miller, the other candidate in the Republican primary, didn’t make it for the forum, but showed up later and hung out in the back, listening to the other candidates.

And then other candidates crowded on stage to introduce themselves. Some of the candidates were from Outside, but most were from Alaska. Lt. gov. candidates Bob William and Craig Fleener were there. Hollis French wasn’t. Newly created House District 6 Democratic candidate Wilson Justin of Slana gave brief remarks. So did state Senate Democratic candidate Dorothy Shockley, who will face either Mike Miller or Sen. Click Bishop in the general election. U.S. Congressional candidate Forrest Dunbar made his statement blessedly brief. Republican gubernatorial candidate, Brad Snowden, didn’t. Snowden, who has “strong opinions” and lots of them, was politely hurried along by the moderator when he began to talk about, well, lots of things. The last I saw Snowden was late last month, when he had his thumb out on the Park’s Highway, making his way from Wasilla to Anchorage after the Freedom Festival.

High School freshman Sophie Hultberg, daughter of Becky Hultberg, blasted three home runs on Saturday helping the Juneau Douglas Crimson Bears win the ASAA small school state softball championship. The young Hultberg might have gotten some of her punch from Becky, who as Gov. Frank Murkowski’s spokeswoman, learned how to take swings right back at the media. Also on the team was Mattie Herman, daughter of DOE legislative liaison Marcie Herman.

Upcoming Events:

• June 10, 4:00 -6:00 p.m. Picnic in the Park with Rep. Scott Kawasaki, 1503
Turner Street, Fairbanks.

• June 14, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. BBQ Fundraiser celebrating Flag Day with state senate candidate Harry Crawford and state house candidate Laurie Hummel at the home of Hal and Barb Gazaway, 8620 Boundary Avenue, Anchorage.

• June 17, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Fundraiser for Reps. Lynn Gattis and Gabrielle LeDoux at Le Mex, off Diamond Blvd, Anchorage.

Sen. Mark Begich’s campaign had a brunch fundraiser on Sunday at the south Anchorage home of Greg and Jeanette Wakefield. From all reports, it was a success. More than 50 people showed. Some of the guests attending included former lite governor Stephen McAlpine, Marion Davis from Horizon Lines, former Gov. Bill Sheffield, and Mike Gallagher from Laborers Local 341.

Organized labor held its solidarity picnic in Anchorage on Sunday and hundreds showed. Both Sen. Mark Begich and gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott gave rousing speeches. Labor favorite state Sen. Bill Wielechowski also spoke. Sen. Hollis French and Bob Williams, both vying for the Democratic Party’s number 2 spot, were there as well. Bill Walker, Independent gubernatorial candidate, who also enjoys some support from organized labor, showed too. And what’s a solidarity picnic without Vince “Baldtrami”?

In a show of electoral confidence, Democratic lite governor candidate Hollis French, given the expected tight market for television air time, bought some time on KTUU – Channel 2 for the week before the general election.

Miracles never cease: Mayor Dan Sullivan had a busy Sunday in his official capacity of being Hizzoner. He threw out the first pitch of the season opener for the Pilots v. Bucs baseball game. Then he headed to Cuddy Park where he gave welcoming remarks to thousands of people gathered for the Love Alaska Festival. One person there, who’s not necessarily a fan of the mayor, said that he did a “beautiful job,” and described him as “humble and funny.”

Congratulations to the Alaska Aces on Monday night’s victory and clenching their 3rd Kelly Cup. Most Alaskan candidates tripped over themselves to congratulate the victors. The Alaska Democrats took to Facebook, wondering if the sound of GOP candidate Dan Sullivan’s silence indicated that he was secretly routing for Cincinnati, his home town’s team.

The smaller of the two Pribilof village corporations, the St. George Tanaq Corporation, held their 40th annual shareholder meeting on Saturday. Congratulations are in order for Anna Tetoff for being named Elder of the Year and to Sara Merculief for being named Aleut of the Year.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Happy Birthday Don Young

In the scope of world history, 1933 was a big year. It was the year that North Dakota state Rep. Minnie D. Craig became the very first female in the country to become Speaker of the House. It was the year that German president Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as chancellor and the year that he dissolved Parliament. In 1933, the first issues of Newsweek and Esquire magazine were published and President-elect Franklin Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt. The gold standard was abolished in 1933, as were trade unions in Germany. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created and the Golden Gate Bridge was completed. In London, 500,000 people marched against anti-Semitism. FDR created the Civil Works Administration and Albert Einstein escaped from Nazi Germany and came to the United States. Prohibition ended and the Lone Ranger began on radio.

And on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California, Donald Edwin Young was born. After serving in the U.S. Army’s 41st Tank Battalion and after college, Young made his way to Alaska, where he taught in a 25-student BIA school house. He also captained his own tug and barge and delivered supplies to villages along the Yukon. He met his wife Lu in Fort Yukon. They were married for 46 years.

Young was elected to the House in 1973, and he hasn’t lost a race yet. He is fourth in House seniority overall and is the longest serving Republican in the House.

He’s ornery. Cantankerous. Shrewd. And I’ve heard told that he can even be kind. One thing’s for sure: he knows how to win.

He’s spending his birthday in D.C. with one of two daughters and three of 14 grandchildren.

His staff fed him cupcakes.

Another day, another Senate ad

From the Sunday New York Times piece about the Alaska Senate race:

Political ads are ubiquitous here already. They have run on Alaska airwaves nearly 20,000 times since early last year, according to Kantar Media, a monitoring and research firm. That is more than in North Carolina (18,000), Arkansas (13,000) and Louisiana (12,000), all of which are conservative states where Republicans believe they can pick off Democratic incumbents.

And as if on cue, here’s another ad. This one’s from GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan, who, after months of silence, appears to be on a roll.

This ad is supposed to be a counter to a recent one by Put Alaska First, a pro-Begich super-PAC, which attacks Sullivan HB 77, one of the most controversial bills introduced in the state Legislature recently. The rap on it is that it proposed to give unprecedented powers to the DNR commissioner to issue permits. At the time of its drafting, Dan Sullivan was the DNR commissioner.

The ad, however, pivots away from HB 77, and instead focuses on federal gun control laws.

Smart, maybe.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Loose Lips: More Three Amigos. Young in Chicken. Spoils of love: The tale of Tuck’s license plates.

You heard it first here: The Colony Days’ Bed Races took place Friday evening in Palmer. I don’t know what’s involved in a bed race, and because there’s so much to know in the world, I decided not to ask too many questions. I do know that Rep. Bill Stoltze was the only politician who partook. And, wait for it… The 2014 Bed Races champion was the Matanuska Electric Association team captained by their president Joe Griffith!

This is more like it: Some have been wondering why KFQD talk show host Bernadette Wilson’s Chevy Tahoe has legislative license plates. Wonder no more: Wilson’s former boyfriend, House Minority Leader Chris Tuck, didn’t get around to taking them off until Friday, when he heard a blogger was calling around about it. Tuck said that when he and Wilson were dating, he was driving her car. His own went to legislative aides. So he put one of his three allotted sets on hers and always meant to get them off when they broke up last year, but never got around to it. The license plates, which are numbered based on seniority—Tuck is number 23–don’t get you free parking or other perks, unless you count as a perk driving in a car that announces that you’re a state lawmaker. And I guess politicians like that kind of stuff. So, apparently, do talk show hostesses.

Legislative staffer Anna Latham, from Rep. Kurt Olson’s office, is now at the Alaska Department of Labor where she will serve as the department’s legislative liaison.

Upcoming events:

June 10, 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Ron Arvin for state House fundraiser at the Petroleum Club, Anchorage.
June 14, 4:00- 6:00 p.m. Bob Williams for lieutenant governor, hosted by Judy Youngquist and Phil Munger, 7127 E Shorewood Drive, Wasilla
June 19, 5:30 – 7:00 pm. Mat-Su Parnell for Governor Fund Raiser, New Horizons Telcom Hanger, Palmer.

Quien Es Mas Macho? We’ve heard about the Three Amigos in the Valley: Roger Purcell, Steve Jacobson and Verne Rupright—who are running against Reps. Keller, Mark Neuman, and Lynn Gattis. Here’s another Three Amigos for you of a different breed: Wiley Cason, Travis Smith, and Democratic congressional hopeful Forrest Dunbar. UAA debate team guru Cason is the communications guy for Forrest Dunbar for Congress campaign. Cason ran state Sen. Hollis French’s campaign in 2012. Dunbar’s campaign manager is Travis Smith, a recent grad of Willamette University.

Alaskan Lee Goodman’s spanking new legal thriller Indefensible got a starred review by Publisher’s Weekly. Goodman’s my friend, and wrote a damned good book.

About 200 people showed for Vic Fischer’s 90th birthday party on Wednesday to show their support for the Yes on 1 campaign. The haul was more than $30,000. It’s a pittance compared to the millions being spent on the other side. But $30,000 goes a long way when you’re buying Facebook ads and when you’re got a trove of true believers involved in a cause that they believe is a just one.

There were at least three fundraisers that I was aware of on Thursday evening. Gov. Parnell had an event in Fairbanks. I’m told that the take at the door was north of $10,000. Rep. Shelley Hughes had an event that drew almost 50 people in Palmer. And in Anchorage, Reps. Gabrielle LeDoux and Mia Costello held a joint fundraiser at Le Mex. Each of the candidates were rumored to have raised more than $5,000.

Congratulations to former Juneau Rep. Beth Kerttula on her appointment and new role as White House director of ocean policy.

More hot news: All three major gubernatorial candidates – – Sean Parnell, Byron Mallott and Bill Walker – – participated in Saturday’s Colony Days Parade in Palmer! A bunch of other politicians were there as well: Democratic Lite Gov. candidate Bob Williams, GOP senatorial candidates Dan Sullivan and Mead Treadwell, Rep. Bill Stoltze, to name a few. Smiles were bestowed! Candy was thrown!

Rep. Don Young was in Chicken on Friday. Deantha Crockett, executive director of the Alaska Miners Association was there too. I’ll bet you dimes to donuts, or hens to chickens, they discussed last year’s visit from the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force, when the agents showed wearing body armor and jackets announcing that they were POLICE! And that they were going to check for DIRTY WATER! And that NOTHING was going to stop them from doing their JOBS, enforcing Section 404 of the Clean Water ACT! It sounds like the good miners of Chicken could have used the help of the Three Amigos.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Democratic governor hopeful Mallott calls out Parnell for budget claims

On Thursday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott said that Gov. Sean Parnell was misleading the public about the state budget in a fundraising email that Parnell’s campaign sent out bragging about his fiscal record. “As Washington D.C. continues to overspend and overregulate, Governor Sean Parnell cut state general fund spending by $1.1 billion in the 2015 budget,” the fundraising email said.

Mallott, who isn’t known so far for his brass-knuckles responses, fired back: “Under Sean Parnell, Alaska has undergone an unprecedented fiscal collapse. Parnell took a $5 billion surplus and turned it into a $2 billion deficit,” Mallott wrote.

Indeed, Parnell is on tricky ground here. While he can technically say that he cut the budget, it’s only because his past budgets were so big. Too, the state took a whole category out of that budget. In previous years, the state’s contribution to the state’s retirement program had been in the operating budget. In fiscal year 2015, it’s not. In part, that’s because the state took an unprecedented $3 billion from the Constitutional Budget Reserve and put it towards the ballooning retirement program.

Many lauded Parnell for pushing, and for the Legislature passing, the one-time payment. But though it was likely wise fiscal policy, at least some portion of that should have been included in the budget in order to get an accurate comparison to previous years’ budgets. (See Brad Keithley’s blog post on that issue here.)

For his part, Mallott also appears to be doing some creative accounting. He leaves out the $3 billion when he refers to “liquidated budget surpluses.”

What is true is that under Parnell, the state is going into nearly $2 billion deficit spending. And at the same time, Parnell who signs the budget, as well as the Legislature which proposes it, have continually excoriated Washington D.C. for overspending. In April, Parnell signed a resolution passed by the Legislature calling for a federal balanced budget.

“Now it is time the federal government takes the necessary steps to address its out-of-control debt. America remains on an unsustainable spending path and we cannot rely on Congress or the president to fix this problem,” he said.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan returns favor and fires back at Begich

Sen. Mark Begich, as well as the super-PAC that supports him, have repeatedly gone after GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan for everything from residency questions to support of a permitting bill. In an ad released last week, Begich mocked Sullivan for a commercial Sullivan shot atop the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center, which was built during Begich’s tenure as mayor of Anchorage, and which he considered one of his crowing achievements. Begich then offers Sullivan advice on other sites he might consider for future ads.

Sullivan accepts the advice and fires back at Begich for the first time. The results are pretty good. And for the first time, Sullivan appears relaxed, proves that he has a personality, and seems to be having fun on camera.

The power of political ads: Iowa Senate race now in play

The Senate race is unexpectedly in play in my adoptive home-state of Iowa. Relative unknown Joni Ernst won that state’s Republican primary on Tuesday. Credit is being given to two ads for her surge. One, descriptively titled “squeal,” featured castration. In another she pointed a pistol at the camera and fired. ObamaCare down. The ads got her lots of national attention and earned her tons of free media in the state. She’ll face Democrat Bruce Braley in the general.

Via Politico:

The late surge of momentum for Ernst — who first got on the national radar with a commercial about castrating hogs — really was something to behold. She got huge last minute help from both establishment and tea party figures. Romney came last Friday, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio helped her finish on Monday night. …If Republicans win this seat, which is very possible, a Senate majority is well within reach.”