On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the now-well known Hobby Lobby case that companies can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare. The ruling marks the first time that the Supreme Court has allowed companies the ability to declare a religious belief.
The ruling could have huge implications for other mandates under ObamaCare. Continue reading
She described it “as the most magical day of her life.” Cook Inlet Tribal Council CEO Gloria O’Neill and Roger Phillips stood on the Kachemak Bay’s McDonald Spit last Friday and said, ‘I do” and that they would, forever and ever. For eternity. Congratulations and best wishes for a wonderful marriage.
APOC has “accepted” Randy Ruedrich’s complaint against the Anchorage Women’s Republican Club, for what he says is funky bookkeeping.
Long time state worker Jerry Burnett who recently Continue reading
On Thursday night, the three Republican Senate candidates—Joe Miller, Mead Treadwell, and Dan Sullivan—took to the stage for the first primary debate that featured all three. The lead-up to the debate was not without drama, which culminated with the former chair of the Republican Party, Randy Ruedrich, filing a complaint with APOC against the Anchorage Women’s Republican Club, which organized it.
But all that drama, as these things do, fell away as the candidates stepped on stage, where for two hours–without a break–they answered questions from the organizers, Continue reading
A poll conducted for GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan’s campaign released on Thursday shows that Sullivan has a 9 point lead over Lt. Gov. Treadwell among all primary voters, and a 23 percent lead over Joe Miller. Among “likely” voters, Sullivan leads by 18 percentage points over Treadwell and about 28 percent over Miller. Among “very likely” voters, Sullivan is at 46 percent, Treadwell is at 23 percent and Joe Miller is at 13 percent.
Still, 24 percent of all primary voters are undecided. And about 17 percent of likely and very likely primary voters are undecided as well, the poll finds.
The poll was conducted by Portland-based Moore Information, Continue reading
Below is an American Crossroads ad attacking U.S. Sen. Mark Begich for taking credit for things that the ad claims he shouldn’t take credit for. The ad continues a theme that has been playing out between the campaigns of GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan and Begich for weeks now. (See the ads here, here and here.)
As expected, it quotes Rep. Don Young, who recently told a camera crew during a recent campaign shoot in Fairbanks, that he was tired of Begich’s claims about his accomplishments. “Don’t take credit for something you did not do,” Young said in an impromptu interview by a camera crew that regularly works for Young and for Art Hackney, an Anchorage based ad-man and strategists for American Crossroads.
Among other things, Young was referring to a road that was recently built in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, that was an effort by Continue reading
Here’s another ad from Put Alaska First, the pro-Mark Begich super-PAC, going after GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan over HB 77. The ad features Beth Northlund, the executive director of Anchorage Park Foundation, talking about the controversial, complicated bill that got scuttled because of the controversy last legislative session. On one side, 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, Sullivan was the DNR commissioner. Those who helped draft the bill, including Sullivan, said that it cut through red-tape that was impeding development. In any case, the public came out in droves to testify against it and the bill died in the Senate. This is the third ad Put Alaska First has made featuring HB 77. The first featured a moose hunter—the claims of which were a ‘stretch’—and the second featured well-known former Democratic lawmaker Sam Cotten. I’d bet that Put Alaska continues to focus on the issue because it works.
Here’s the response from the Sullivan campaign to the ad: Continue reading
To the extent that Alaska has power brokers, many of them were at Rep. Bill Stoltze’s political fundraiser for his state Senate bid at the Aviation Museum in Anchorage on Monday. About 70 in all showed, with a hefty dose of sports fishing enthusiasts in the room lead by Kenai angler Bob Penney. Spotted: Linda Leary from ACS; Bill Eckhardt and Dan McCue from Alaska USA Federal Credit Union; Tom Gimple with Geneva Woods Pharmacy; AOGA’s executive director Kara Moriarty; GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan and his lovely wife Julie Fate; Verne Martell; Mat-Su Borough Assembly members Steve Colligan and Ron Arvin; SCI President Eddie Grasser; awesomely dressed Marie Evans and Michael Hurley from ConocoPhillips; AK Republican Party Vice Chair elect Frank McQueary; Rasmuson Foundation President Diane Kaplan; Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux; Mark Davis from AIDEA; retired Superior Court Judge Karl Johnstone; and Ketchikan state House candidate Agnes Moran. Rumored take at the door was north of $15,000.00. Continue reading
In a rare move that’s likely to shock many in political circles, former Alaska Republican Party chair Randy Ruedrich has filed an APOC complaint against the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club, the club chaired by Judy Eledge.
In his complaint, which was filed late Tuesday afternoon, Ruedrich alleges that the ARWC is not keeping proper donor-records. Specifically, he says that it has failed to disclose aggregate contributions. Contributions to political groups under $100 are not subject to detailed APOC reporting rules. However, names and address of donors are required when donors exceed more than $100 a year, even if those contributions are in small increments.
Ruedrich said that it appears that the ARWC wasn’t keeping track of small donations, and therefore couldn’t account for aggregate contributions Continue reading
What was supposed to be a relatively seamless GOP Senate candidate debate sponsored by four Alaska Republican women’s’ clubs, including the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club, has turned into an event which, as planned, might violate federal election laws.
The debate is scheduled for Thursday night at East High School in Anchorage, and all three major candidates—Joe Miller, Mead Treadwell, and Dan Sullivan—were expected to attend. The organizers were charging $10 at the door.
At issue is who, Continue reading
Anybody else think that APOC is stretching here?
A report by the state agency that regulates campaign finance laws says Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan broke state law by issuing a campaign-related press release through his city spokeswoman last month. The report, written by an agency staff member, recommends that Sullivan pay an $187.50 penalty.
At issue is whether or not Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan should have sent an apology for comparing union membership to slavery. Sullivan made the comments at the candidate forum, but many, including the NAACP asked for comment from him as the mayor. He, his spokesperson Lindsey Whitt, Continue reading
The Washington Posts’ Election Lab, a joint effort between the Post and a group of political scientists, now only gives Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich a 43 percent chance of retaining his seat in the upcoming election. That’s a six-point drop since May, when the Lab gave Begich a 49 percent chance of keeping his seat.
What’s changed? Campaign contributions, said political scientist Eric McGhee, who is a contributor to the project. The group has yet to include polls in its model, and unlike other people and organizations that predict races, its model doesn’t include subjective information, Continue reading
Below is lieutenant governor candidate Craig Fleener’s response to the dust-up between Fleener and Gov. Sean Parnell’s campaign. Fleener is running as an independent with Bill Walker. Read the back story here:
I and NCAI conference organizers and participants expected Governor Parnell to speak as listed on the program. When he did not take the stage after he was introduced and I was told by an organizer that he was delayed in traffic, the universal opinion was that Gov. Parnell was a no show. It is now known that Parnell declined the invitation by email to the NCAI office manager but apparently the information never made it to the meeting coordinators, Alaska Native leaders, or conference attendees and Parnell remained on the program. While I did check my sources all the way to the top of those in charge at the conference, I apologize for stating Governor Parnell was an unexcused no-show. I would ask that Governor Parnell and his campaign manager, Jerry Gallagher, apologize for calling me a liar. I would also ask that the underlying Native Alaskan issues addressed in my opinion piece not be lost in this unfortunate dust-up concerning event attendance.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, along with the North Slope Contractors Association and the pipeline trade unions, held a press conference on Friday afternoon to urge voters to vote against ballot measure 1 in August. The measure would repeal a recently passed oil-tax overhaul, and would revert it back to ACES, the system that was passed during Sarah Palin’s tenure in Juneau.
Murkowski, the eight union reps and contractors all said basically the same thing: The future of Alaska is at stake. Under the new regime, the state stands an economic chance. Under the old regime, it doesn’t. Continue reading
On Friday, the U.S. House Committee on Ethics released its final report on the panel’s investigation into allegations that Rep. Don Young misused travel expenses and accepted gifts improperly.
The report follows years of various investigations into Young’s activities, all of which now are over. Ultimately the panel issued a letter of reproval for actions which “demonstrated a lack of appropriate safeguards and an inattention to the relevant standards of conduct.” It also said that Young did not act “corruptly” or in “bad faith.”
The panel ordered Young to pay $59,063 to his campaign fund and to various gift-givers, and to amend his financial disclosure reports, Continue reading
U.S. Rep. Don Young, not known for always being appropriate, was caught on camera on Tuesday being particularly inappropriate as one of his colleagues, Rep. Scott Garrett, was talking about a bill to rename a post office after Joseph D’Augustine, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2012. Watch the video here.
Matt Shuckerow, Young’s spokesperson, sent a statement to The Daily Caller, which first had the story:
“ The House cameras caught Congressman Young in a light-hearted moment interacting with a colleague. As a veteran himself, his actions were obviously not related to the legislation being discussed on the House floor and he clearly meant no disrespect.”
