Mayoral candidate Dan Coffey is apparently working on Gov. Sean Parnell to stop the razing of the houses in Government Hill. If he can convince the governor, he’ll gain lots of street cred with the residents of Government Hill.
I believe that the Parnell administration will direct DOTPF not to tear down the houses and the apartments on Govt Hill.
— Dan K Coffey (@Coffey4Mayor) July 12, 2014
From a Brad Keithley Facebook post on where Alaska has fallen short on managing its oil patch:
There are success stories also where government owns the lands, but no disrespect intended, Alaska is not one of those and has done a horrible job at managing the lands. Basically we have lived off of the two large lighter oil discoveries at Prudhoe and Kuparuk (and a few satellites along the way) for decades and never had to do much else to manage the lands better. Now that those are producing at much lower levels, we don’t have a good strategy in place — as the owner of the lands — for further development. Given our position, the two best corollaries to look to are how the US has managed the Gulf of Mexico and Norway. The US has been successful in the GOM by only charging royalties and no severance taxes. The resulting low costs have encouraged investment and development, despite the higher cost and risk environment. Norway has gone about it differently by eliminating lease bonus payments, royalty and engaging in co-investment. As a result, even though it has imposed higher costs Norway actually has reduced risk and created alignment in a way that has enabled it to drive investment and activity in a way Alaska hasn’t….But of course …. no one wants to listen to that. The existing players on the Slope are satisfied with the current (largely non-competitive) arrangement where they set the pace of development and most of the Alaska players don’t have a clue (and don’t bother to take the time to learn about) alternative approaches, and as a result just rely on the current industry to continue to identify the terms for development.
Anchorage mayoral candidate Dan Coffey has entered the fight to stop properties in the Government Hill neighborhood of Anchorage from being razed in preparation for a potential bridge that would span from the neighborhood. Coffey is adding his voice the voices of a handful of state Democratic officials and community activists, including Rep. Les Gara and Sen. Johnny Ellis, in calling for a halt of the demolition.
On Thursday, Coffey emailed Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration, urging them to hold off on the demolition until funding sources needed to build the bridge are secure. He plans to continue to communicate with the administration about the project.
“It makes no sense what so ever to tear down those properties when there is a housing crisis in the community,” Coffey said. He’s made affordable housing one of the big issues in his nascent campaign. Continue reading
I’m joining Dan Fagan and Glen Biegel on their show tomorrow 8 a.m. to interview GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan. Tune in at 95.5 FM, and 1080 AM in Anchorage and 92.5 FM and 1020 AM in the Valley. Or listen on line here.
A bipartisan bill that would have opened up more public lands for hunting and fishing got trapped in partisan muck on Thursday as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lost Republican support for the bill by not allowing it to be amended, which has become a pattern for Reid.
The Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act was sponsored by 26 Republicans and 20 Democrats and had the support of the National Rifle Association, Safari Club International, the American Sportfishing Association, Ducks Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation, and Trout Unlimited.
Because Reid refused to allow amendments, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the prime sponsors of the bill, voted to allow it be filibustered, which basically killed it. Continue reading
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich had his personal best fundraising quarter, raising more than $1.25 million from April until the end of June. According to his campaign, 700 new Alaska donors gave this cycle, bringing the total Alaskan donor-count to more than 5,000, the campaign said. Official FEC reports aren’t due until July 15. The last two quarters, Begich was outraised by GOP contender, Dan Sullivan. In the last quarter, Begich brought in $1.05 million and had $2.8 million in the bank, while Sullivan raised $1.3 million and had just under $2 million on hand. No word yet on what the other candidates have raised, nor how much Begich has on hand.
Here’s the release from Begich’s campaign: Continue reading
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If the only thing Alaskans were voting on in the Senate race were television ads, Democrats and Mark Begich would win hands down. Below is the latest attack ad against GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan from Put Alaska First, the pro-Begich super-PAC, featuring Dillingham fisherman and lawyer Joe Faith. Once again, the ad goes after Sullivan for his role in HB 77, a controversial bill that gave 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. The public came out in droves to testify against it and the bill died in the Senate. This is the fourth 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. Beth Northlund, the executive director of Anchorage Park Foundation, played a lead role in the third ad. The issue is custom-made for good attack ads. If Sullivan or any anti-Begich super-PAC has found a similiar issue to use against Begich, they’re keeping it a secret.
The Alaska Legislative Council on Wednesday voted to authorize $500,000 to furnish the new Anchorage Legislative Office building. The expenditure, proposed by Committee Chair Rep. Mike Hawker, passed the committee 10-2. Reps. Bill Stoltze and Max Gruenberg voted against the measure.
Hawker came under fire for his vote by his Democratic opponent Sam Combs, who called it an “appalling example of fiscal mismanagement.”
“How on earth can he justify spending a half million on furniture–a 500% increase–while the state is in deficit spending and Anchorage teachers are being laid off,” Combs, an architect, said. Continue reading
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich co-sponsored a bill that takes a direct shot at the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow corporations such as Hobby Lobby, which brought the case, to opt out of the ObamaCare birth control mandate for religious reasons.
Begich’s bill makes it illegal for any company to deny its workers specific health benefits, including birth control, as required to be covered by federal law.
“Because of the Hobby Lobby case, more than 60,000 Alaska women could be denied access to birth control and reproductive care,” Begich said. “This bill will make sure that these types of health care decisions stay between a woman and her doctor – not her boss.” Continue reading
A cautionary tale for federal primary contenders, courtesy of Politico: “Eric Cantor’s stunning primary defeat is leaving his campaign in a financial bind…Under federal law, Cantor would also have to repay any funds meant for the general election spent during his unsuccessful primary campaign battle against fellow Republican Dave Brat. Since he lost and has no general election in November, Cantor would be required to return those general-election contributions to the donors.”
In federal elections, donors are allowed to give up to $5200 to a candidate: $2600 for the primary and $2600 for the general. GOP candidate Dan Sullivan has quite a few $5200 donations, but his are said to be segregated. Just in case he doesn’t win, let’s hope Treadwell’s $5200 donations are likewise segregated. BTW: State candidates aren’t going to have this problem. Alaska law doesn’t have the primary-general donation distinction. Donors can only give candidates $500 per calendar year. Continue reading
Here’s the latest ad from GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan. It’s not very subtle, but probably effective in helping to establish his Second Amendment creds, which have been under fire recently over the “Stand Your Ground” bill that was passed last legislative session. The woman featured is Elaina Spraker, an icon in the largely male-dominated hunting world. She’s married to former Board of Game member Ted Spraker, a well-known, outspoken hunting rights advocate in the Kenai.
The ad below from Wasilla teacher and lieutenant governor candidate Bob Williams will begin airing statewide on KTUU Channel 2 beginning Wednesday. Williams and Alaska state Sen. Hollis French are both running for the seat in the Democratic primary. Whoever wins will join gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott to run in the general. Williams, a first time candidate, doesn’t have the name recognition that French does, but he’s worked tirelessly to try to change that. The ad, much like the candidate, has a homegrown, compellingly earnest quality. To my knowledge, it’s the first one released by a lieutenant governor candidate.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about candidates making music videos for their campaigns. I said that as far as I knew, Forrest Dunbar, the Democrat running for Rep. Don Young’s seat, was the first candidate of this season to use a music video as a campaign tool. I was wrong. Alaska Constitution Party candidate J.R. Myers, a counselor from Haines, was the first, as he reminded me in a comment on the music video post. Neither Myers nor his party get a lot of media attention, as third party candidates tend not to. But he’s interesting, in a greeny, lefty, tea partesque, pro-development kind of way. He’s a pro-life Christian with a deep environmental streak, and aside from Gov. Sean Parnell, Myers is the only gubernatorial candidate that I know of who is against repealing the oil tax legislation. “Alaska needs to present a stable and disciplined fiscal environment,” he said recently. “We have had enough economic chaos and reckless spending. We need to stabilize the tax structure.” Go figure. And then there’s this video:
Below are some recent tweets from the controversial blogger Charles C. Johnson, who has worked for Senate candidate Mead Treadwell’s campaign and who is currently at the center of the Mississippi Senate race mess. As I wrote earlier, Johnson worked on Treadwell’s campaign to help prepare him for the debates this summer. I also wrote that it’s unclear how much more Johnson would be involved. From his tweets, it’s clear that he intends to be very involved, particularly if he continues to raise money. Read some of those tweets below:
The more $ I get, the more I can bring the research skills to #aksen #arsen #lasen #kssen. We aren’t stopping with #mssen.
— Charles C. Johnson (@ChuckCJohnson) July 7, 2014
A conference call organized by U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s Mississippi campaign broke down and turned into chaos last week when supposed tea party activists began asking racially tinged questions about “picking cotton” and if it was “okay to harvest the votes of black people,” and playing clips from “Animal House” on the call.
Cochran, the “establishment” candidate, narrowly beat tea party favorite Chris McDaniel in that state’s June 24 primary. Legal challenges are imminent. Conservative blogger Charles C. Johnson has been at the center of it all. Johnson, who is supporting McDaniel, and who has also worked on Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell’s Senate campaign, urged his twitter followers to crash the call. They did. Continue reading