State Senate District K, encompassing the neighborhoods of Jewell Lake, Sand Lake, a small portion of Spenard and Turnagain, along with its two House Districts (21 and 22), is the most contested election district in the state. There is not a single incumbent running to maintain their seat in the district. That means that two House seats and one Senate seat will go to newbies. Portions of this district voted for President Obama in 2012. However, since reapportionment, led by former GOP Chair Randy Ruedrich, who carved out the district with x acto-knife like precision, the district has arguably become more conservative.

Here’s a little about the two candidates running for state Senate and the candidates running for the two House seats in the district, and my take on the current states of these races, for what they’re worth.

Republican Mia Costello v Democrat Clare Ross Continue reading →

This anonymous comment left on the Senate fisheries debate story is one of the best pieces I’ve read on fisheries in a long time:

Did anyone ask real fisheries based questions, such as why has it taken so long to implement a quota share program in the Gulf of Alaska, or if they support aggressive reductions in salmon and halibut commercial trawl bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska, or if they support 100 percent observer coverage in federal fisheries to ensure fishery conservation measures, or if they support the attempt by rural Alaska Natives to shut down or severely restrict the lucrative Bering Sea trawl fishery because of king salmon bycatch and its perceived devastation to Yukon and Kuskokwim river king salmon populations? Probably not in any great detail because actual fishery issues are often absent to a large degree in fishery debates and conversations these days in Alaska.

Or instead, did we get questions at “fishery debates” from hip commercial fishermen poised against and criticizing any and all other natural resource industries in Alaska – oil and gas industry (Bristol Bay, SB 21, TAPS, OCS Arctic), mining (Pebble, Red Dog, Donlin, Greens Creek), forestry (Tongass, Chugach), and tourism (cruise ship initiative, dismemberment of ATIA, Cook Inlet fish wars).

Commercial fishermen nowadays portray themselves as the frontline, green environmentalists of Alaska (whether or not they are actual residents) in opposition to every other natural resource industry in Alaska. Except of course the state’s commercial fisheries, Continue reading →

Here’s the first ad of the general election paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan. The ad features the often controversial, plainspoken Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m guessing that Paul plays as well in Alaska as any senator other than Lisa Murkowski would. Thoughts?
http://youtu.be/BqYEZWs_PMk

• Last night’s debates were informative and entertaining. The Juneau Empire has a great article about the U.S. Senate debate, the Dispatch about the U.S. Congressional debate, and this site has a compilation of tweets from the debate.

• The Dispatch leads with a long piece by Richard Mauer and Jill Burke about Gov. Sean Parnell’s years of inaction regarding the sexual assaults and misconduct within the Alaska National Guard. There isn’t much new in the story—and it might be interesting to note that the unnamed “acquaintance,” Bill Walker approached about the issue was former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Whitaker and that McClatchy’s Sean Cockerham broke the story--but it’s a damning summation of Parnell’s handling of the issue. The issue isn’t going away, as it shouldn’t. The Dems are having a protest in front of the Atwood at noon, and Parnell’s having a press conference at 11 a.m.

• The University of Virginia Center for Politics has come out with their “Sabato’s Crystal Ball” and has now declared that Alaska’s gubernatorial race has gone from “leaning Republican” to “Toss up.”

• PoliticalNews.me has a story on Sen. Mark Begich’s new Tax Fairness Bill for Tribes which has become law. This new law gives Alaska tribes the same tax protections as state and local service programs. This also coincides with a supportive op-ed written by Valerie Davidson in Alaska Native News about Begich supporting rural, tribal and veterans’ health.

Continue reading →

Pebble Mine, electronic monitoring, climate change, the Magnuson Stevens Act, subsistence, oil and gas development in Bristol Bay, quotas, CDQs–were just a few of the subjects that the Senate candidates wrangled with on Wednesday night at the fisheries debate in Kodiak, an island 250 miles south of Anchorage, and a place where such subjects are regularly discussed at coffee shops and bars. This was obviously Sen. Mark Begich’s crowd. For the past three years, he’s chaired a key fisheries committee in the Senate, and is much more conversant on the subject than is his challenger Dan Sullivan, whose knowledge of fisheries has in the past seemed spotty. Begich won the night, and his supporters won the twitter war. But though he appeared unsure of some issues, and fell back too often on the “federal overreach” meme, Sullivan proved that he could hold his own. Of the seven debates and forums scheduled before Election Day, this will likely be Sullivan’s toughest.

Here are some tweets from the event: Continue reading →

Gov. Sean Parnell hasn’t been known for being a base-galvanizer. But if not exactly on fire, they seem at least a little stoked after the most recent debates. During the debates, Parnell has come out forcefully against Bill Walker, among other things, forcing an admission that education and Medicaid could be on the chopping block. Some wondered what got the governor uncharacteristically charged-up. Has he been eating his Wheaties? Did Walker really privately insult the governor right before the Juneau debate started when the two were shaking hands?  it doesn’t sound like him, but some folks supposedly in the know seem to think so.

So much for the notion of loyalty as payback for cronyism. Just ask Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan, who was friends with Dan Kendall, and served on the Anchorage Assembly with him. While Sullivan was mayor, he put Kendall in a high-paying job in the mayor’s office. Later, he was placed as the interim CEO at ML&P where the mayor took heat from at least one reporter (me!) questioning the appointment, Consider this: Kendall’s only qualifications were that he worked at ENSTAR for 30 years as a corrosion technician. During that time, he was a member of the plumbers and pipefitters union and didn’t supervise or manage any employees. He was never involved in any of the company’s gas supply contracts, regulatory matters nor participated in the operations or management of the company. He likely never participated in one employee’s evaluation while at ENSTAR. And then he’s the head of one of the largest utilities in the state? Anyhow, because of Mayor Sullivan, Kendall got his tier-one, high three years, which significantly enhanced his retirement paycheck. And then he goes and joins the Republicans for Walker committee and writes an op-ed on Tuesday, criticizing Sullivan’s running mate, Gov. Sean Parnell. All of which confirms the saying about reaping what you sow, or something.

It’s all any of us can do to keep up with the November 4th general election. Yet, Ivan Moore Continue reading →

Here’s the first ad paid for by an Independent Expenditure (IE) group in support of “Unity” ticket candidates Bill Walker and Byron Mallott. An IE in the state basically acts like a federal super-PAC in that it can accept unlimited funds and can’t coordinate with a candidate. The disclosure rules however, like listing the top three contributors, are distinct to Alaska. This knockout ad, which begins to run statewide on Thursday, comes courtesy of Alaskans for Walker-Mallott.  The chair is Alaska AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami, and Joelle Hall, AFL-CIO director of operations, is the treasurer of the group. The Alaska AFL-CIO was instrumental in the unprecedented pairing of Walker, a Republican running as an Independent, with Mallott, a Democrat, who was on the top of the ticket and who is now running with Walker as his lieutenant governor.  Jim Lottsfeldt, who is running the pro-Mark Begich super-PAC Put Alaska First, said he produced the ad. This project is separate from the Begich super-PAC he said. Local film crew SprocketHeads filmed the spot.

• The biggest non-story story circulating Alaska story of the moment is that U.S Senate candidate Dan Sullivan was considered a Maryland resident from 2006-2008 according to the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation. The HuffingtonPost pointed out that Sullivan filed paperwork with the FCC that he was a resident of Alaska for the past 17 years. KTUU, the Dispatch, the Mudflats and many more outlets are reporting on this; each with their own take on the implications. As many know, Sullivan left the state after 9/11 to work at the White House and the State Department. He took his wife and children with him. A marine, he was called into active duty from 2004-2006. According to the Alaska Division of Elections, you’re “considered an Alaska resident if you reside in the state and intend to remain here or you leave with the intent to return.” But nobody should allow such facts to get in the way of a good attack, and while they’re at it, offend thousands of Alaskan residents who are now or who at one time served outside of the state.

• The Dispatch’s Nat Herz has a good primer on tonight’s Senate debate on fisheries in Kodiak. Senate candidates Sen. Mark Begich and Dan Sullivan square off at 7:00 p.m., Word is that Begich, who knows fisheries much better than Sullivan, is expected to take this one. That debate is followed by Rep. Don Young and Forrest Dunbar. Listen live here.

• The Ketchikan Daily News is sponsoring a governor’s debate starting at 11:30 today. Follow live tweets here. 

• Could the future of the U.S. Senate be determined in the Mat-Su? Yes, if I don’t say so myself, and I do in Politico, where I analyze the current state of the race.

Continue reading →

Forums and debates that both Sen. Mark Begich and GOP challenger Dan Sullivan will be participating in:

• Wednesday, October 1, Kodiak Chamber of Commerce (Kodiak)
• Tuesday, October 21, Soldotna Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum (Soldotna)
• Thursday, October 23, Resource Development Council Candidate Forum (Anchorage)
• Friday, October 24, Alaska Federation of Native Candidate Forum (Anchorage)
• Tuesday, October 28, Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce Forum (Fairbanks)
• Wednesday, October 29, KTUU Channel 2 Debate (Anchorage)
• Thursday, October 30, Debate for the State  – Alaska Public Media (Anchorage)

Addition forums and debate that Begich has agreed to participate in:

• Tuesday, October 14, League of Women Voters and Anchorage School District Student Forum (Anchorage)
• Sunday, October 26, KTVA Ch. 11 and Alaska Dispatch Debate (Anchorage)
• Monday, October 27, Anchorage Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum (Anchorage)

You can read straight news stories about the debate between Gov. Sean Parnell and “unity” candidate Bill Walker here, and here, This account, from a reader, who obviously favors Gov. Sean Parnell, is also interesting:

Fun debate in Juneau today. Parnell has an improved style, and he certainly won the day.  Walker sometimes seemed confused…. The audience, about 250 people, were much more with Parnell.  No bombs were dropped.  Nothing shocking was revealed….Parnell quoted Walker from some Sept. 5 radio show in which Walker is to have said he would cut 16% – $224 million from personal services costs – the first year in office.  Parnell asked where Walker would make the cuts  to achieve that level of reduction.

Walker answered, “I will ask the departments to work smarter.” That doesn’t answer the question for me.

Both candidates are voting for the minimum wage increase and against the marijuana legalization, and they gave reasons that revealed no differences between the candidates. Both candidates favored keeping the capital in Juneau but Walker went a little further and said he would require all commissioners to live in Juneau, and the audience liked that.  Continue reading →

Today’s mail. #aksen pic.twitter.com/9XaB0Iwpgt

— Ben Rowell (@benjaminrowell) September 30, 2014

Unlike the DSCC ad below, here’s an ad featuring icon Bella Hammond endorsing Sen. Mark Begich,that will likely be effective:

I highlighted this ad from the DSCC attacking GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan on women’s issues in the news roundup, but thought it deserved its own post. Certainly women in Alaska need to know where Sullivan stands on these issues, but I have mixed feelings about how effective this particular ad will be. What do you all think?

• The AP reports that the plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Walker/Mallott merger will not be appealing last Friday’s ruling that the Unity ticket is valid.

• The DSCC has released a new ad targeting U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan’s anti-choice stance and support to empower employers to deny coverage for birth control.

• Governor Sean Parnell’s lawyer as well as his policy director Randal Ruaro have used Sen. Mark Begich’s Jerry Active ad as one reason not to release documents pertaining to the Alaska National Guard scandal to Alexandra Gutierrez with APRN.

• KTVA’s 11 Daybreak interviewed U.S. Sen. Mark Begich during a live, sit-down chat about Syria, November’s ballot measures, attack ads and public debates.  According to KTVA, U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan has been invited to Daybreak, but hasn’t yet responded.

• Alaska’s polling issues have piqued interest in the UK. UK  Progressive has a piece written by Sam Wang that delved into the consistent problems pollsters have when trying to get an accurate portrayal of Alaska’s shifting political landscape.

Continue reading →

Today was a day of endorsement-hedging. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski declined to say who she’s supporting in the governor’s race, and gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker, a Republican who is running as an “unaffiliated” candidate with Democratic blessings, as well as with the endorsement of Sen. Mark Begich, declined to return the favor.