• Often times I roll my eyes at the Capitol building, boys-on-the-bench hallway chatter. For one, the bench warmers tend to be white males who make too much money and have too much time on their hands. Secondly, they use their time gossiping instead of say, doing something really useful like reciting poetry. But often they know what they’re talking about. Recently, some of the gossipers were talking about the most vulnerable legislator. The general consensus is that it’s Rep. Lindsey Holmes, who has two Democratic challengers: former Assemblyman Matt Claman and Clare Ross. They boys on the bench think that Holmes has a better chance against Ross than Claman. Indeed, Ross is campaigning hard, if campaign literature drop-offs are any indication.
• Meantime, finding a challenger to Rep. Mike Hawker has become a project of Jeff Landfield’s. The young, impetuous Landfield is taking to Facebook, as is his wont, sending out a call for possible candidates to run against Hawker. What he has against Hawker is anybody’s guess, except that Landfield, who ran against Sen. Lesil McGuire in 2012, just won’t stop getting stuck on and into things. Just call him the tar baby of Alaska.
• Moore and Landfield? I told you he doesn’t stop. And neither does she. Shannyn Moore has a new radio show which runs from 4 to 6 p.m. on Fox News Talk Radio KOAN. The station is holding tryouts for a conservative co-host who can go “toe-to -toe” with Moore and “keep the left in check.” Landfield, is, of course, on the docket for Friday. Listen at 95.5 FM or 1080 AM.
• Rumors are flying about the possibility of the tennis court money being re-appropriated by the Legislature.
• Days until the election: 202.
• Last week, GOP senatorial candidate Dan Sullivan announced that he raised $1.3 million in the first quarter of the year. I’m told that this week, former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura each contributed $1,250 to his campaign.
• The Republican National Committee’s six-city short list for their national convention is Cincinnati,  Dallas, Denver, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Las Vegas. If it’s Ohio, Sullivan can expect some “Welcome Home,” banners, courtesy of the national Democrats.
• Does anybody else see some similarities between Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and the former chair of Alaska’s GOP Russ Millette? In the Melville story, Bartelby was fired from a law office because he had a breakdown. But he just wouldn’t leave. Millette, in a sense, was likewise fired from his position as chair, and he likewise refuses to leave, or at least to give up the title. On April 14, he signed an email to Sen. Mike Dunleavy as “Dually Elected Chairman of The Alaska Republican Party per April 2012 ARP Convention.” The email Millette sent as “Dually Elected Chairman” is about amending the constitution to allow for school choice. He urges Dunleavy to “seriously consider going with an Advisory Vote and get the school choice question on the August Primary ballot.” Last I heard, that idea had been floated around but quickly dismissed. Apparently Millette is too busy being chair of the party to have noticed that those who oppose school choice are far more organized than those who support it, and chances are, at this point, it would lose at the ballot box.
• At at press conference last Sunday evening following passage of the minimum wage bill, the House Rules committee chair, Rep. Craig Johnson, suggested that he thought the session would likely go beyond the scheduled adjournment date of April 20th. “I can’t see how we can get out of here in time,” he said.
• In my ADN column last Sunday, I said that City Hall-cum-bench-warmer rumor mongers were saying that Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan had been avoiding Juneau these last weeks because of the tennis court controversy. Sullivan himself responded to the rumor:

Amanda – you need better sources. I never go to Juneau during the last two weeks of the session – everyone is too busy. I have made three trips this year, most recently March 24th.

• Richard Petersen of Kasaan was elected president of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. He replaced Ed Thomas who has lead the Southeast tribal government for nearly 30 years.
• I know that the “breastfeeding is sexy” story is getting overplayed, including by me. But, as Rep. Shelly Hughes herself indicated, if there’s an “abundant” resource worth extracting, then by all means, we should. In that spirit, the press release that called breastfeeding sexy, was also offensive to at least one other person in another way. Hughes said that, among other things, breastfeeding, “could reduce anti-social behavior, incarceration and sex-trafficking” which produced the following tweets:

@Amanda_Coyne not only that, since my supply was only half “abundant” my son is doomed to…jail? Sex trafficking?

— Megan Collie (@m_collie) April 15, 2014

@m_collie We might as well just put him in prison right now.

— Amanda Coyne (@Amanda_Coyne) April 15, 2014

@Amanda_Coyne he will be missed.

— Megan Collie (@m_collie) April 15, 2014

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

• The Anchorage Daily News on Saturday published a story about how Anchorage Sen. Lesil McGuire’s ballot missed arriving at the Division of Elections by the due date in the last muni race. According to the piece, her staff faxed in the ballot, but it didn’t go through. Then they tried again. Emails were exchanged. Phone calls placed. Lots of time was put into it. Lawmakers aren’t supposed to use their staffers time for things that aren’t directly related to state business except in “infrequent and unusual situations.” McGuire is running for lite gov. If she wins, she’ll be in charge of the Division of Elections. That she can’t get it together to vote isn’t going to go down very well with the electorate and will likely be used against her.
• One of Mead Treadwell’s last remaining paid campaign employee, the quick witted, vituperate tweeter Fred Brown who was serving as his press secretary, resigned earlier this week. The RNC has hired him and dispatched him to Arkansas where he will be working with Rep. Tom Cotton in his bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor which has become one of the most watched and tightest races of the campaign season. According to sources, Treadwell didn’t take too kindly to losing the gifted Brown.
• Federal Election Commission reports are due no later than April 15th. Mark Begich and Dan Sullivan have both released their numbers and have raised $1.05 million and $1.3 million respectively for the 1st quarter of 2014. While Treadwell has not yet released his numbers, the buzz is that his take for the quarter could be less than 20 percent of what either of the leading candidates raised. No reports on Joe Miller’s campaign cash numbers, though I’ve been told fundraising is picking up.
• Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan is said to be shaking up his campaign. Deputy campaign manager, Ben Sparks is now campaign manager. Additionally, the campaign has hired a political director, Phil Bartell, who is from Wisconsin and appears to be a disciple of Gov. Scott Walker. The former campaign manager, Ben Mohr who recently became a father, will be working on coalition building.
• More on Joe Miller: I’ve been told that we’ll see a kinder, softer, more media-savvy Miller than what we saw in 2010. In his first public appearance of the campaign season at UAA, however, there was some debate whether or not his staff was going to let reporters who showed to be able to tape his talk to students. Unlike in the past, things didn’t get heated. But it still doesn’t bode well that he had to be reminded that when he’s running for office in a public place, the cameras and recorders can follow. With impunity.
• About 100 people, including Sen. Mark Begich himself, showed up for the “Alaska Natives for Begich” gathering at CIRI’s headquarters in midtown Anchorage on Saturday. Pamyua provided the entertainment. The food included moose stew, moose and black cod soup, lots of salmon and lots of pilot bread. And Begich’s staff has to win the award for the most creative campaign giveaway yet: a bingo marker with his name on it.
• Anyone close to the legislative process knows that legislative organization is never too far from the minds of our elected state officials. The current Speaker of the House, Mike Chenault, is the only legislator to have served three consecutive terms in that position. Now, some are speculating that we shouldn’t be surprised to see him serving in the same position, after the elections, when the next Legislature convenes in 2015.
• Mayors from around the state descend on Juneau, off and on, during the last three weeks of the legislative session. Absent this year, during this time, has been Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan who in the past was a fixture in the halls of the Capitol at this juncture. According to sources, he’s staying out of Juneau during the closing days of the session because of the controversy surrounding the “infamous” tennis court appropriation from last year.
• From the good amendment department: On Saturday the state Senate adopted an amendment offered by Anchorage Sen. Johnny Ellis that would prevent the use of eminent domain to destroy properties in the residential neighborhoods of Government Hill until a $350 million federal loan is approved. It’s the same loan that’s been denied five times in the past. The full bill is heading to the House, and rumor has it that because its passage is a priority for Senate President Charlie Huggins, and Speaker Mike Chenault has his own priorities, like the minimum wage bill, it might sit for a while until someone blinks.
• And finally, even though it’s in a land way far away, who can resist a good political ad about castration? This one’s from Iowa, my home state, where a new Suffolk University poll of the Iowa GOP Senate primary shows state Sen. Joni Ernst narrowly leading wealthy business executive Mark Jacobs. The jump is being attributed to the ad. Enjoy, if you’re wired that way:

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

• The joint session of the Legislature to confirm executive appointments was originally scheduled for this week; however, it has now been delayed, without explanation, until April 18th. It’s said that the delay is to give House Speaker Mike Chenault time to pass his legislation that would allow Richard Rabinow to serve on the Alaska Gas Development Corp. even though he is from Texas and not a resident of Alaska.
• Republican Senate hopeful Mead Treadwell is traveling east this week looking for campaign cash. Rumor has it that he’s traveling to his home state of Connecticut and then to Massachusetts where he’s holding fund raising events.
• While Dan Sullivan, also a Republican Senate hopeful, has done his share of fund raising in the Lower 48, this week he’s running around Alaska with plans to attend the Alaska Miners Conference in Fairbanks on Wednesday, Arctic Man on Thursday and then will be the feature speaker on Saturday at the Sitka Republican Women’s Lincoln Day Dinner.
• Sen. Mark Begich’s office wants you to know that the White House will send congratulatory cards to high school and college graduates. If you’re interested in having your favorite graduate receive one, please provide your name, address and date of graduation along with the name of the high school or college. Information should be forwarded to leslie_ridle@begich.senate.gov.
• The kickoff for “Alaska Natives for Begich” is on April 12 at CIRI’s corporate headquarters. Pamyua will be providing the entertainment.
• Spring has sprung and Bill Walker for Governor signs are sprouting up in my neighborhood and folks tell me there are a fair number of 4 x 8 signs up the Parks Highway. These are the only gubernatorial campaign signs I’ve seen this election cycle so far.
• The group “We are Alaska,” formed by Rebecca Logan from the Alaska Support Industry Alliance, filed with APOC on Monday. Here’s the description of the group:  “We Are Alaska intends to promote responsible development of Alaska’s oil, gas and mining resources by providing the public with relevant information regarding referendums, initiatives and candidates for state office.” The filing says that it’s a “Ballot Proposition Group.” The group was active in the 2012 state races. Much of the money it raised, about $100,000 of it, went to PS Strategies, a firm owned by talk show host Dave Stieren and Mary Ann Pruitt, wife of Alaska state Majority Leader Lance Pruitt.

— Randy Ruedrich isn’t the official chair of Alaska’s Republican Party anymore. But everyone knows that he’s still highly involved, if not still in charge. An email from him is as good as getting an email from the party itself. Anyway, a reader alerted me to the following:

At 5:42 pm, Randy R sends out an email endorsing local candidates in the muni race. In that email, he says, ‘Your votes for Dean Williams and Don Smith will remove liberal Democrat spenders from the School Board.’ At 10:53, he sends out the same email, except now it says, ‘Your vote for Dean Williams will remove a liberal Democrat spender from the School Board.’ Wanna bet that he didn’t hear about Smith’s comments until after 5:42 p.m. and then retracted his blessing?

Most know by now that Don Smith said some offensive things about refuges, people of color and those with special needs during an Alaska Public Media interview. He might have survived to get the Republican’s endorsement even after that had he been contrite. He wasn’t. He came back swinging and blaming liberals.

— It appears Sarah Palin is up to her old tricks of getting media attention by criticizing all the attention the media gives to certain issues and politicians, not so much her these days. In a Facebook post on Saturday, she slammed the media for “ridiculous overkill” in covering Gov. Chris Christie, who she initially called “Chris Christy.”

Good Lord, media — distract much? The Middle East isn’t a tinderbox today? Our economy isn’t in the tank today? Scandalous liberal politicians aren’t getting busted in rapid succession today?” she wrote.

And Palin herself has a new reality show that involves guns and people who aim them at animals and call themselves patriotic for doing so.

— Rep. Bob Lynn’s cat had a birthday. Lynn is my favorite legislative Facebook poster and a cat lover to boot. Who knew? Read all about Dexter on Lynn’s Facebook post here.

— GOP Senate candidate Mead Treadwell’s last fund raiser of the quarter will be held Monday evening at the Embassy Suites from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. His host committee is: David and Connie Morgan, Lynne Curry, Patricia Kriendler, and Dr. Adrian Ryan.

— Insiders say DNR Dan Sullivan continues to rake it in and that he’s on track to be the first second candidate in the state’s history to have back to back seven figure totals. FEC reports are due April 15th. The first one was Begich in 2008.

— Going into the final weekend before the local elections in Anchorage, Sen. Mark Begich has doubled down in his support of D.C. Ward 6 candidate Darrel Thompson., according to CQ’s Roll Call. Read more here.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

–On Monday, Alaska state Sen. Lesil McGuire, who is running for lite gov, took a break from the session to attend an Anchorage Chamber luncheon thanking the city’s first responders. McGuire was invited to sit at the head table and say a few words about how important firefighters, police, etc. are to the city. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, who is also running for lite gov, wasn’t at the event. Nor was he at the 2014 Anchorage Police Department graduation ceremony that same day. McGuire was there, however, and took the mayor’s empty seat. Sullivan chose to spend the day in Juneau, where he attended a Capital City Republicans’ event.

–Speaking of fundraisers, DNR Dan Sullivan’s Senate campaign is having a fundraiser Tuesday evening hosted at the home of John and Candace Hendrix which is better known as the “Atwood Mansion.” It begs the question: what’s the bigger draw – – the candidate or the house?

–Women for Sen. Mark Begich will be holding house parties on Wednesday in seven communities across the state to write postcards to friends and neighbors about why they’re supporting Begich. Mark’s wife, Deborah Bonito, will appear via teleconference. Anchorage is not one of the communities hosting an event. Here’s the page for the Anchorage event.

–Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell would win in a head-to-head against Begich according to Rasmussen Reports. The question remains if he has enough money or staff left to support continuing the race. Last week, he let go communications adviser Rick Gorka, and campaign manager Adam Jones, who has already hooked up with another race in Oregon.

–Gov. Sean Parnell methodically and successfully continues to raise funds for his campaign. Since Friday a week ago, he has held at least five fundraisers and is rumored to have raised in excess of six figures at them.

–Wasilla teacher and lite gov candidate Bob Williams has been traveling around the Bethel region this week attending, among other things, the Cama-I dance festival. From his Facebook page:  “I have never been so excited to be running for Lt Governor as I am right now. The warmth and friendship of everyone I’ve met in Bethel is encouraging, motivating and inspiring. Thank you Bethel!” Williams is, to put it mildly, exited and excitable.

–About that American Crossroads pro-Dan Sullivan ad: According to Politico, “This is the first time Rice has weighed in on a Senate campaign this cycle, and is the first time Crossroads has played in a primary campaign.”

American Crossroads has ties to Sullivan booster and adman Art Hackney, who is running a homegrown, pro-Sullivan PAC.

–The supposedly non-partisan, D.C.-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government in Washington (CREW) sure has a heyday with Alaska Republican politicians. The group hounded Rep. Don Young tirelessly, and had a thing or two to say about Ted Stevens. Now, its target is Alaska state Rep. Lynn Gattis, and a complicated deal before she was a state rep that Gattis had with the Mat-Su Borough and the state. In a nutshell, the borough wanted to use a piece of land that Gattis owns, and paid $65,000 for it. It then decided that it didn’t need the land. Should Gattis have paid it back? Gattis said a deal was a deal. Besides, she and her husband put time and energy into the deal. The voters, apparently, agreed when they voted her into office. Too, other entities who got money from the borough for their land didn’t pay the money back. However, CREW thinks there should be an investigation against Gattis and doesn’t shy from telling the world as much.

But speaking from experience, trying to get the group to comment on a story involving Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trading in Citibank stock while he was a senator, smack dab in the middle of the financial meltdown, is a lesson in frustration. They were very excited before I told them who the senator was. After? No comment.

–A series of Choose Respect rallies will kick off Thursday. All told, there will be 171 of them across the state, up from about 12 when the rallies first started. Check out the map of rallies here. It’s really amazing. Kudos to Parnell on this.

Need a Brad Keithley fix? If nothing else because saying his name aggravates certain members of the state’s Republican Party? Or because he’s smart? Whatever your reason, you have your chance this Saturday, at Willie Hensley’s  “Alaska Policy Frontiers” class at UAA. He’ll be debating SB 21 with one of my favorite professors, Steve Haycox.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

— In my Sunday column in the Anchorage Daily News, I wrote that it had been rumored that my favorite Facebook poster Rep. Bob Lynn would be retiring after he got his bill on immigration and driver’s licenses passed. As you know who might say, au contraire mon cheri. Lynn isn’t going anywhere, he said on his Facebook page. On the subject of his retiring, he writes, “Despite maybe someone’s wishful thinking, Bob Lynn is definitely a candidate for re-election. I’ve worked hard to represent folks effectively and, quite frankly, I think I’ve done a very good job.” Lots of others in Lynn’s district, who have sent him to office since 2002, think so too.

— The Capital City Women’s Republican Club luncheons usually draw at least 50 or more people at their monthly luncheons. On Monday, the speaker was Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate Mead Treadwell. About 20 people showed, the worst turnout of the year. Officially, the low turnout was blamed on the rain. Unofficially, however, the women are said to be smarting from a press release Treadwell campaign released following the Lincoln Day Dinner last month, where he violated Ronald Reagan’s commandment not to criticize a fellow Republican.

— In Alaska, Joe Miller might be winning some friends by being the enemy of the enemy. But the beginnings of the odd alliance between him and Alaska’s left — who would love to see him win the primary to run against U.S. Sen. Mark Begich in the general—is lost on lower 48 media. While in D.C. for CPAC, Miller conducted an interview with a reporter from Salon. The gist: Miller repeatedly defends state’s rights and the reporter repeatedly asks if those rights extend to discriminating against people of color. It goes on. The way the interview wraps up says it all. “You know, I’m willing to engage in a dialogue, but we aren’t going to go into the moronic on this, OK?,” Miller says as a statement rather than a question. The piece is titled, “’Absolutely moronic’: Inside the mind of a Tea Party Senate candidate.”

— Carol Austerman, a Kodiak Borough Assemblywoman, has filed for the Kodiak House seat. Her father is incumbent Rep. Alan Austerman. Supposedly he’ll be retiring and supporting his daughter’s candidacy, all which brings back memories of…

— Former Gov. Frank Murkowski inserted himself in the gas pipeline debate today by sending a letter to legislators questioning how much revenue the state will lose by turning over to TransCanada what would otherwise be the state’s interest in the gasline. I’ll post the letter when I get it. (Got it. See here.)

— Gov. Sean Parnell is taking a beating for his appointment of a California former oil company executive to an Alaska board that sets the value of pipelines for tax purposes. Expect more to come. And expect Parnell, as is his wont, to remain silent on the subject.

— Unions are coming out strong for Pete Petersen for Anchorage Assembly against incumbent Anchorage Assemblyman Adam Trombley. Word is that the firefighters have organized an independent group that recently made a media buy of at least $27,000, another made a $15,000 $19,000 media buy and there’s at least one more pro-Petersen group organizing. Trombley’s got his own tricks, however. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the most popular politician in the state, is supposedly showing up at his fundraiser on Friday night in Anchorage.

— Sen. Hollis French had a constituent meeting on Saturday at the Spenard rec center. About 30 people showed to munch on pizza and talk politics. Here’s a snippet of one conversation French had with a constituent:

Constituent: I want you guys to change the time zone.

French: Sen Fairclough, a really good organized legislator tried it and it’s a lot more difficult than you expect.

Constituent: Well, if you guys can’t even do that, how in the heck are you guys going to ever pass a gasline bill that makes sense?

— Shout-out to Eagle River resident Cierra Mickens who advances to the next round of the NBC show The Voice.

— Shout-out to Eddie Ahyakak for winning season 2 of the reality show Ultimate Survival Alaska. According to a press released by the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, of which Ahyakak is a board member, the teams raced across the backcountry, from Southeast Alaska to the Interior while living off the land. The show’s season finale had the remaining teams racing to the top of 4,100’ Augustine Volcano in southwestern Cook Inlet.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

• Energy Council is this week. Every year a hand full of legislators travels to D.C. to learn more about the oil and gas industry. While there, legislators also visit members of Congress to educate and lobby for Alaska issues. Among those wandering the Capitol halls this year — talking about lands locked up in the National Petroleum Reserve, opening ANWR, and offshore revenue sharing — are Reps. Mia Costello, Benny Nageak, Eric Feige, Dan Saddler and Pete Higgins. Senators include Bert Stedman and Johnny Ellis.
• Full disclosure: I had planned to have a little fun with Energy Council and write about how if it met in Aleknagik, say, it wouldn’t be nearly as popular. But then I talked to Mia Costello, and if there’s one person in the world that can squeeze the sneer and snark right out of me, it’s she. Lesson? Don’t call Mia Costello when you’re writing a column that’s supposed to cater to the worst of of our impulses.
• Sandy Parnell’s uncle passed away in Nebraska. Gov. Parnell and the First Lady are out of state attending the funeral.
• What else can’t I have fun with? Alma Upickson, the North Slope Borough’s most recent government affairs director, was terminated this week. Rumor has it that she got sideways with the borough’s Chief Administrative Officer Jake Adams. Upickson is just the latest of many who have gotten fired from the North Slope Borough, which is said to be a mess that’s really messing with people’s lives. There’s nothing fun about that.
• And again something serious: Ten Alaskans who donate thru Pick. Click. Give will be chosen to win a cash prize equal to the 2014 PFD thanks to a donation by ExxonMobil. There’s still time to give.
• Here’s one: Rumor has it that Rep. Bob Lynn, who’s 81 years old, told folks that he would retire upon passage of HB 1, which limits the time a non-citizen with a temporary visa can have a driver’s license before having to get it renewed. On the face of it, it sounds pretty innocuous, but I’m nervous. There’s something that gets conservatives too excited about the words “driver’s license” and “immigrants” in the same sentence. In any case, it was so important to Lynn that he’s been hanging around to see it pass. We’ll see if he is serious about retirement. Hopefully, whatever he does, he’ll continue writing his Facebook posts, which are fascinating. I’m being serious here.
• APOC requested a $75,000 increment and actually got a $100,000 decrement reducing the commission’s budget to $175,000 less than they were hoping.
• Speaking of APOC: the organization’s staff said that even though Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott lives in Juneau and his campaign headquarters is in Juneau, he can’t solicit or receive money from Juneau residents during the session. To put it another way, for at least three months, Juneau residents are denied their constitutional right to express free speech by giving to a candidate of their choice. It gets worse: Incumbent legislators aren’t allowed to raise money at all during session. Paging the ACLU?
• Another subcommittee said no to a request from the Alaska Gasline Development Corp. for about $670,000 $620,000 for employee performance bonuses and incentives. There might have been a mix up in the request, however. Or maybe the AGDC guys read the Wall Street Journal and are familiar with executive bonus compensation? Okay. That’s a little snarky.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com  

Democrats sometimes tell me that I write more about Republicans than I do about them. If that’s true, it’s because we have more Republican elected officials than we do Democrats. Besides, Dems are less willing to dish than are Republicans. That’s not to say that Democrats aren’t worthy of attention. And if Republicans continue with what can be viewed as a radical social agenda, and if more Democrats at least pay lip service to being pro-business, which they might, I suspect that the majority will slowly whittle away.

Anyway, last week was a big one for Democrats in Juneau. So this Loose Lips is devoted to them.

–Sam Kito III took the oath of office and filled the Juneau house seat vacated by former Rep. Beth Kerttula. He has made no secret of the fact that he will run in the 2014 election cycle to keep the seat. In related news, Jesse Kiehl, who was also on the short list of applicants sent to the governor to be considered for appointment, is now telling folks that he has decided not to challenge Kito in the election. Kiehl sits on the Juneau Assembly, is an aide to Sen. Dennis Egan and is said to be very popular in Juneau, the perfect candidate to run for Senate when Egan retires.

–Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott met with House and Senate Democrats last week to discuss his campaign and get their thoughts on his activities and the upcoming election. Word is the talks were cordial and productive. They centered around how well the campaign is doing at raising cash and the campaign’s need to slow down their campaign cash burn rate.

–In the 1990s Democrats trumpeted the great work they were doing to fight corruption by passing campaign reform. One of the laws that passed forbids a gubernatorial candidate from campaigning and raising money in Juneau during the legislative session. They likely didn’t figure that one of their own would be from the capital city. Byron Mallott lives in Juneau and his campaign is based in there. For now, pending an official ruling from the Alaska Public Offices Commission, the same rules apply to him as to Gov. Sean Parnell. While in Juneau, he can’t raise money. Consequently, Mallott lost a whole week of fundraising while he helped his wife, Toni, recover from knee surgery. He’s flying to Anchorage this week to continue campaigning efforts and to attend at least one fundraiser.

–About 100 people showed up at a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Mark Begich on Friday evening at the home of former Gov. Bill Sheffield. Begich was joined by the junior senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, who was elected in a special election to fill the seat of Robert Byrd and will become the senior senator for the Mountain State when Jay Rockefeller retires in 2015.

–The same night, developer Mark Pfeffer, who lives next door to Sheffield, had a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Word is that Manchin, the senator from West Virginia, crashed the party just as Murkowski was giving a speech, which stopped her in mid-sentence. What was he doing there, she wanted to know?  “I’m next door at my friend Mark Begich’s fundraiser, and I just wanted to let your folks know they ought to come over to Mark’s event,” he said. The crowd loved it.

–Southeast Alaska Democrats held their annual Bartlett-Gruening Dinner Sunday evening at the Juneau Convention Center. State Sen. Dennis Egan served as the evening’s master of ceremonies. The evening speakers included Phil Smith who gave a brief presentation on the historical role that Bob Bartlett and Ernest Gruening played in the state. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott spoke. (It was noted that a table of labor leaders failed to clap when Byron enthusiastically talked about repealing SB 21). The evening’s keynote speaker was U.S. Senator Mark Begich. Although sometimes Begich keeps his distance from his party, he was all Dem on Sunday, as he proudly pointed out that each state has two statues in the U.S. Capitol and Alaska’s are both Democrats – – Bartlett and Gruening.

–And Begich gave his unequivocal support for one Democratic cause during his annual address to the Legislature on Monday. “Public dollars are for public schools, period,” he said, as momentum is building to put a vote to the public on whether or not the state’s constitution should be changed to allow for private schools to receive money. With Begich’s words come the full-throttled support of the NEA.

–Begich declined, however, to weigh in on another issue that’s near to the Dems. Should the public vote to repeal the oil tax bill passed last session? He said it was a state issue. Let’s be honest: this one is a loser for him either way, at least right now. On one hand there’s the Democratic base which is lockstep on repeal. On the other is business and the huge hunk of independents who are undecided on the issue. Ask him again in a few months. His answer should be a good barometer on how the independents are leaning.

–Rumor has it that Anchorage lawyer Walter Featherly is preparing to run against Rep. Mike Hawker, who has gotten some bad press lately for his role in the Anchorage Legislative Information Office fiasco. Besides having a name straight out of Dickens, Featherly is the managing partner for Patton Boggs’ Anchorage office, got his law degree from Harvard, and is Alaska’s Honorary Consul of the Republic of Croatia.

(From the did you know department: Alaska has honorary consuls to 18 countries. Former Attorney General Talis Colberg is the consul of Latvia.)

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

–There’s a lot of interest in the newly created state Senate district in the Mat-Su Valley. Former legislator and now Palmer city council woman Edna DeVries is running and has even posted on Facebook that she’s praying to find a good campaign manager; however, to date, there have been no indication that prayers have been answered. Other candidates that have expressed interest include Rep. Shelly Hughes, Palmer Mayor DeLena Johnson, and possibly even Rep. Bill Stoltze. Many who know the area say that the seat is Stoltze’s for the taking if he wants it. However, rumors have it that a poll is being conducted just in case. Expect some announcements or movements in this race soon.

–Calling all artists: In a time of budget crunches, did you see the 44-page request for proposal from the Alaska’s Department of Military and Veterans, calling for an artist to draw and frame approximately 15 past and present Adjutant Generals of the Alaska National Guard? Artists will be given photos to draw from, presumably ones without lollipops.

–Former Democratic legislator and always upbeat Joe Hays who was UAF Alumni director left the University and has resurfaced as a contract lobbyist for Golden Valley Electric Association.

–The Safari Club raised north of $500,000 at their auction Saturday night. The head count was about 850 people, which has to make it one of the most well attended fundraisers in the state. About 20 legislators showed, as did Gov. Sean Parnell, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, Mayor Sullivan, and DNR Dan Sullivan. Independent gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker was there with running mate Craig Fleener. The biggest auction item? A Cape Buffalo Hunt in Africa that went for $19,000. Rep. Bill Stoltze won a gun, as did Treadwell. Sen. Pete Kelly won a gun and was named Safari Club International Alaska Chapter legislator of the year. His prize? A big, sloppy kiss from Eddie Grasser. Joke! If only!

–More on the Pebble Mine death watch. From a story on from Dillingham public radio station KDLG:

A member of the Northern Dynasty Minerals Board of Directors has resigned. Stephen Scott is the General Manager with Rio Tinto’s copper division and he was appointed to the Northern Dynasty Minerals Board in 2007… It’s unclear if the resignation of Stephen Scott from the Northern Dynasty Minerals Board of Directors is a precursor for Rio Tinto making an announcement about divesting itself of the 19-percent interest in Northern Dynasty.

–From a comment made on this site about the Koch brothers attacking Sen. Mark Begich for hurting the economy following Koch Industry’s announcement that it’s closing its Flint Hills refinery in North Pole, a mainstay of Interior Alaska’s economy:

I own property near North Pole. The sulfolane plume has been expanding from the North Pole Refinery for years so that now it contaminates ground water sources over several square miles. This contaminate has been found as deep as 300 feet. Why was this spill allowed to propagate over such a large area? I understand Flint Hills knew that the contamination existed when they purchased the refinery and that Flint Hills has spent money mitigating the impact; however, purchasing bottled water, treating some water, and handing our water filters will not eliminate significant pollution as long as the source remains. I would like to know why the state utterly failed to protect the residents of the North Pole community over the last several years by demanding that the source be eliminated. Recently Flint Hills has proposed raising the allowable contamination level in the people’s well water from the current 14 parts per billion to 362 parts per billion. That certainly is one way to reduce your responsibility for clean up – increase the allowable level of pollution.

–From a statement that Rep. Lance Pruitt made during a House committee hearing on Flint Hills and possible legal avenues available to the state to make the refinery clean up the sulfolane plume:

I am very pro-development, but you’re not going to come to my state, rape the land and then leave.  If they’re responsible, we need to go after them.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com 

Mark your calendars: next Friday is the perfect evening for the politically confused. Neighbors Bill Sheffield, former governor and current Railroad board member, and Mark Pfeffer, the politically active developer most recently known for his role in the Anchorage legislative office deal, are hosting side-by-side fundraisers for Alaska’s junior and senior senators. Begich’s event has a pay-for-access hour for the deep pocketed followed by an event for everyone else at $100 each. The hosts are planning a snow shoveled walkway between the houses for those guests interested in making it a bipartisan evening.

Politico is calling Jim Messina the Democratic version of Karl Rove. Messina, former campaign manager to President Barack Obama, is using his long ties to the Democratic Party, political operatives and donors to build “a political fiefdom.” Some Alaskans will remember Messina from the time he spent in the state in 2004 trying to get former Gov. Tony Knowles elected to the U.S. Senate. It was a tight race, but U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski ultimately prevailed, despite the fact that she had been appointed to her seat by her increasingly unpopular senator-turned-governor father. According to an interview with High Country News, Messina still has “nightmares about that loss. I have replayed it several hundred times in my head,” he said.

Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration has four commissioners that need to be confirmed before the adjournment of this year’s legislative session. Consequently, those commissioners from Revenue, Public Safety, Administration and Natural Resources are spending considerable time in the Capitol going door-to-door visiting legislators to make nice and insure their confirmations. Around the Capitol it’s called speed dating.

Senate candidate Mead Treadwell gave a long, four part interview to a reporter writing for a publication called State of Reform, where he talks about repealing Obamacare, his support of Gov. Sean Parnell’s decision not to expand Medicaid, the death of his father, and lackluster fundraising compared to another GOP candidate Dan Sullivan, who is from Ohio. “The fact of the matter is, we certainly have a lead on him at home.  I haven’t done as well with the business community in Ohio as Dan Sullivan has, but I have done very well with the business community in Alaska.” In the last FEC report, Treadwell had about $95,000 cash on hand. His campaign debts totaled more than $141,000, including money that Treadwell lent his campaign. So it appears that he was operating in the red. Sullivan’s campaign says that it has about $1.1 million cash on hand. Begich has $2.8 million.

According to Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Democrats are headed toward a tough midterm election this fall — and nowhere will it be worse than at the state legislative level. Political junkies are familiar with the so-called “six year itch” effect in federal elections. If you’re not, it goes like this: The party of a re-elected president tends to get walloped in the following midterm election.

A new lobbying firm with deep Alaska roots was recently formed in D.C. Capitol Strategies, headed up by longtime former Fairbanks resident and former Ted Stevens staffer Wally Burnett, appears to be starting off strong. It already boasts 18 clients, including Boeing, Cook Inlet Region Inc, Raytheon Missile Systems and Washington State Department of Transportation, to name a few.

The National Organization for Marriage, the group that’s fighting same sex marriage, has been using Alaska’s Attorney General Michael Gheraty as a model for AGs who are standing up to“judges across the country.” In an interview with the Associated Press, Geraghty said that although other AG’s across the country are calling a ban on same sex marriage unconstitutional, he will continue to support Alaska’s Constitution, which forbids same sex marriage. The organization is calling on its members to send a ‘thank you’ note to Gheraty “for his commitment to the rule of law and the sovereign voice of the people of Alaska.”

 Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com