Category Archives: Politics

Parnell responds to his handling of allegations of sexual abuse in the Guard

After a candidate forum on Monday, Gov. Sean Parnell answered questions about his administration’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse in Alaska’s National Guard, something that appears to have plagued the Guard for years. The problems in the Guard were reported in the media last October, and were revisited in a Sunday column by Shannyn Moore. More is likely to be revealed about the issue. For now, however, below are the allegations that I questioned Parnell about, followed by his response.

Allegation: Parnell waited for four years to act on allegations of a widespread culture of abuse in the Guard. In 2010, three chaplains had a meeting with Parnell to discuss the culture. Republican Sen. Fred Dyson called on Parnell three times to take action. However, it wasn’t until March 2014 that Parnell called on the federal government to conduct an official investigation into the allegations.
Response: Parnell said that the allegations lacked the specificity that he needed to take action. He said he met with now Adjutant General Thomas Katkus about the issue. He said he reviewed charts and spreadsheets that documented the allegations, and saw that the appropriate ones had been referred to the Anchorage Police Department and the troopers. On February 26, Republican Sen. Fred Dyson brought forth a “specific person who was able to make specific claims about what went wrong,” Parnell said. Parnell himself talked to this person, and within 24 hours, called on the feds. That investigation is expected to be complete in May. A report will follow likely sometime late summer.
Allegation: Parnell’s deputy commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, McHugh Pierre, tried to get a sexual assault investigator to stay quiet and not talk to legislators about the issues in the Guard by having her sign a letter saying she wouldn’t do so. He then tried to get the Guard chaplains to sign the same letter.
Response: Parnell said that he was “surprised’ by the accusation. But when he looked into it, it was “less nefarious than what had been reported,” he said. Indeed, the letter in question, which you can read here, is one that went to other department employees. It says that employees should not give official statements without prior authorizations, and that although, according to the letter, “the mandate does not mean that an employee cannot reach out to one’s legislator to address a personal situation,” such contact had to take place during personal time using personal resources.

Finally, Moore reported that Mike Nizich, Parnell’s chief of staff, was using his personal email to correspond with the chaplains about the issues in the Guard. Personal emails are not subject to public information requests. Parnell said that if those emails were about state business, they should be forwarded to Nizich’s state account and will direct him to do so.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Parnell administration under fire for allegations of sexual abuse cover-up

Generally speaking, Gov. Sean Parnell’s loyalty is admirable. So is his unwillingness to act impulsively and be deliberative in trying to gather the facts before he makes a decision. But like all qualities, those can go horribly awry, which appears to be the case in his failure for four years to address a culture of sexual abuse that’s permeated Alaska’s National Guard.

On Sunday, Shannyn Moore added on to a story first reported by McClatchy’s Sean Cockerham about the abuses. At last count according to Cockerham’s October article, 29 cases of alleged sexual assault have been reported to local law enforcement. So far, no one has been charged or prosecuted.

As these things go, the details and timeline can get confusing, but what is clear is that Parnell himself was told by Guard chaplains and at least one other member of the Guard about the abuses in 2010. Parnell appeared to have taken no meaningful action. He passed the issue onto his chief of staff Mike Nizich. He also subsequently promoted Thomas Katkus, who was implicated in the complaints, to adjutant general of the Guard.

According to Moore, the chaplains were directed to communicate with Nizich on his personal email, which members of the administration are known to use when they don’t want their communications subject to public information requests. That was in 2011.

Only when Republican Sen Fred Dyson got involved did Parnell take action. Still it took months and it took three visits from Dyson. According to Moore, Dyson first approached Parnell about the issue in early fall of 2013. It wasn’t until March, 2014 that Parnell took the unusual, and possibly telling, step of calling on the feds for help.

It gets worse: Parnell’s deputy commissioner of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, McHugh Pierre, appears to have threatened, or attempted to intimidate, a sexual assault investigator into staying quiet and not talk to legislators about the issues. He then tried the same thing on the chaplains. Enter their outspoken Republican lawyer Wayne Anthony Ross. Enter a big mess.

That was nearly five months ago. Pierre still has a job.

This is clearly the biggest potential scandal that Parnell has yet encountered and could be devastating politically, as it should be, if the facts bear out what’s so far been reported.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Goodbye To All That: Condoms, Egg Timers, and Pregnancy Sticks in Juneau.

Last week was supposed to be my last column, this time around, about the Alaska Legislature. So imagine my surprise, touched with dismay, that for five days after they were supposed to have left, some sort of strange stasis overtook the bunch. Until Friday, that gavel was tucked away in a drawer somewhere, perhaps next to House Speaker Mike Chenault’s cattle prod and Sen. Cathy Giessel’s egg timer, behind Fred Dyson’s condoms, atop Pete Kelly’s pregnancy sticks, embedded in Sen. Hollis French’s croissants. Sacre Bleu!

The House blamed the Senate and the Senate blamed the House and everyone was fuming that Rep. Lora Reinbold skipped town on Monday to spend her 50th birthday in Dubrovnik. For one, had she been in Juneau, she probably could have gotten them out of there on Thursday, saving the taxpayers another $30,000, and perhaps saving KABATA, which as of Friday is all but KAPUT.

Secondly, where in the world is Dubrovnik?

But it’s all good. The five extra days in Juneau cost only about $150,000, and what’s another $150,000 between friends with great government-funded benefits? After all, it’s only oil money. And if the state has learned nothing else since Prudhoe began to gush in 1968, it’s that oil money comes and oil money goes.

Lately, it’s been going. Deficit spending began in fiscal year 2012 and hasn’t stopped. The state’s officially blown through one-third of the money that was amassed during the peak oil prices of the Palin years, when maybe not coincidentally, the Senate majority was a bipartisan one, of which Hollis French, among others, was a member.

This is French’s last term in the Legislature, where he’s been since 2002. He’s now going to run for lite gov. Sometimes, as smart people will, he comes across as condescending and pedantic. But he’s always working for the people. He’ll be missed. Also leaving is Sen. Fred Dyson, and Reps. Alan Austerman and Peggy Wilson.

Adieu from all of us.

And now that the session’s over, the real fun begins! Enter stage right: once-and-always Senate candidate Joe Miller, who kicked off his campaign in Wasilla on Monday. I didn’t go to Mead Treadwell’s kickoff, but I saw pictures and a video clip. I did go to DNR Dan Sullivan’s, which was very nice, very polite, and unlike the Miller gathering, everyone appeared well shaved.

If a Hollywood producer wanted to film a Tea Party candidate kickoff, he couldn’t have done better than Miller’s. Liberty. Guns. God. American. Balloons. Banners. Amens. Whiskers.

Perhaps Miller’s reputation is too damaged from his last run to make a mark. But if Monday is any indication, people will have fun trying.

More fun, if you’re wired that way: GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan spent the weekend as Lt. Col. Dan Sullivan as he headed out for Marine Reserves training. As he did, Treadwell’s whisper campaign about Sullivan being soft on guns is turning into a buzz.

In an op-ed in the Peninsula Clarion, former legislator Gail Phillips, who’s on Treadwell’s advisory committee and whose daughter works for the campaign, reminded readers that Sullivan didn’t support the Stand Your Ground bill that passed last session. You remember, the proposal to let you shoot someone in the back as he’s trying to get away. Next target, I’m told, is Sullivan’s support for Brazilian waxes, I mean Brazilian biofuels, when he served in the U.S. State Department.

More election fun: The Dems are pulling out the stops for retired Col. Laurie Hummel, who’s challenging Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux. A packed Wednesday fund-raiser at the home of Tom Begich, brother of Mark, brought big-time D supporters like Rocky Plotnick, Nick Moe, Kay Brown, Tim Steele and a few Begich staffers. Hummel’s campaign treasurer, Paula Delaiarro, didn’t tell me how much she brought in, except to say the event was “wildly successfully.”

A Jeopardy question worth $800 asked on the show Wednesday: “This State’s Only Representative In The House Is Don Young — Who Hails From Fort Yukon.” You know you’ve arrived when you’ve made Jeopardy.

From the Whittier borough: City managers have it rough in the town dubbed the “strangest” in Alaska. Two have come and gone in the last few years. Both were pretty much drummed out of town, along, most recently, with the mayor. Chalk it up to isolation. To long, snowy winters. To an overly politically involved citizenry where nearly everyone lives in one of two buildings. The latest manager, Don Moore, is only temporary but he has high hopes for the time he’ll be there. Moore is a hired gun city-manager. In the past few years, he’s worked for Dillingham, Wasilla and Cordova. He’s been in Whittier for three weeks, and is already appreciating the town.

“It feels like when you go through that tunnel, you leave everything behind and nothing in the world matters except for Whittier,” Moore said.

Perhaps the same thing happens when you walk through the fortress walls of Dubrovnik?

This piece was first published in the Anchorage Daily News. Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Loose Lips: We’re off to the races edition

Rep. Sam Kito III, the newest member of the Legislature who was appointed to serve the remainder of Beth Kerttula’s term, got something special for his birthday: adjournment sine die.
Republicans will be gathering this upcoming weekend in Juneau for their state convention. The meetings will be held at Centennial Hall, and unlike the convention of 2012, the Ron Paul/Joe Miller factions aren’t expected to make a scene. This is because it’s expensive to get to Juneau. This, by the way, isn’t a coincidence. I’ve been told that one of the main reasons that it was held in Juneau was to keep them away.
Miller is expected to show, however. He, along with fellow GOP candidates Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan, will participate in a candidate forum. But I’ve heard that the choice of moderator, Ben Brown, isn’t making Miller very happy. Not sure what the problem is. From what I’ve heard he’s polite and well spoken. In fact, maybe that’s the problem.
There’s a kind of sort of new political consultant in town. Former legislator Tom Anderson has hung out a shingle offering political consulting services. You can expect that he’ll likely be involved in at least one statewide campaign and several legislative races in Alaska this cycle.
Rep. Peggy Wilson announced her retirement as the legislative session shut down. She has served in the Legislature since January 2001. Already Republican Patti Mackey has announced her candidacy. Mackey is the president and CEO of the Ketchikan Visitors Board. She also serves as a board member on the Alaska Travel Industry Council. She ran in the primary against Wilson two years ago.
With the legislative session behind us, politicians are wasting no time swinging into full-throttle fundraising mode. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott hosted an event on Saturday at his Juneau campaign headquarters from 3 to 5 p.m. And Gov. Sean Parnell, who is leading in the grab for campaign cash among the three gubernatorial candidates, will be having a fundraiser this Tuesday evening at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Anchorage.
The Anchorage Chamber will be hosting a gubernatorial forum on Monday. All three candidates—Gov. Sean Parnell, independent Bill Walker, and Democrat Byron Mallott—will be there. (Bonus drinking game: take a slug of water each time Parnell says “fiscal discipline,” Mallott says “communication” and Walker says “gasline.”)
The buzz from local broadcasting outlets is that California-based Target Enterprises is making inquiries and starting to place media for Gov. Sean Parnell’s campaign. The likely connection between this firm and Parnell is Nick Ayers, who is a partner at Target Enterprises and served as campaign manager for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s 2012 presidential campaign, as well as executive director of the Republican Governors Association.
Speaking of fiscal discipline, Parnell’s campaign has so far been pretty good at it, employing only a campaign manager full time. Now he’ll be gearing up. Luke Miller, a member of the governor’s press office, is expected to resign his position and become the chief spokesman for the Parnell campaign. Prior to becoming a state worker and part of the governor office’s press operation over a year ago, Miller worked for Rep. Don Young in D. C., where he actively reached out to reporters and tried his best to avoid the bunker mentality that seems to beset political spokespeople. It’s a mentality that, if put into dialogue, would go something like this:

Spokesperson “Most of the press don’t like us, so we’ll try to only talk to those who do.”

Media: “They won’t talk to the press so they must be doing something wrong.”

Spokesperson: “We can’t get a break because they constantly are suspicious of us.”

Media: “They’re hiding something and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”

This, in dialogue, is the mentality of a good spokesperson:

Spokesperson: “Most of the press don’t like us, but we’ll continue to try to work on them, mostly through their egos because, aside from legislators and lobbyists, they’re the most egotistical bunch of people alive.”

Media: “They must be doing something wrong, but at least they’re trying!”

Spokesperson: “These poor, penniless people are such tools.”

Media: “I’m such a good reporter that the spokesperson talks to me!”

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan’s first broadcast TV ad

I don’t think anyone would say that GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan’s ads so far have been as good as Sen. Mark Begich’s. The one released today–Sullivan’s first broadcast ad– is better. At least he’s talking to the camera with some conviction.

As to the ad’s veracity: Sullivan claims that Obama has gone to “war on American energy.” But domestic oil production has surged since Obama took office. In 2013, the United States was the world’s top producer of hydrocarbons, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. In Alaska, however, the major undeveloped fields are on federal lands, and the Obama administration has been sluggish to open those.

Begich’s campaign swiped back, and pointed to his work in what is poised to be the first commercial oil produced out Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. Sullivan is ignoring Begich’s “solid record of delivering for Alaska’s oil industry,” his campaign said in a statement.

However, Begich did campaign in 2008 on opening ANWR, which was as far fetched then as it is now.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

It’s a Wrap: Sine Die

Speaker of the House Mike Chenault’s departure gift. The toilet is full of golf balls. This will be Chenault’s sixth consecutive year as speaker, which is unprecedented. Word is that his colleagues might vote him in again.
sine die

Two parodies of Mark Begich

Why do they think that “authentic” and “conservative” often means talkin’ “country” while using lots of references to a particular private part? Or, more to the point, who thinks that the video below, made by an unknown conservative group, is funny?

Particularly compared to this from Alaska Robotics.

Full disclosure, Roll Call also compared the two in a recent blog post.
Continue reading →

The mess of Oregon’s state health care exchange

Those, including me, who have used Oregon as a model for a state health care exchange to criticize Gov. Sean Parnell’s decision to turn Alaska’s over to the feds, must now say our mea culpas. So, mea culpa. Oregon is on the cusp of nixing its nonfunctioning exchange and going all federal. It’s a mess. From The National Review:

The $305-million “fiasco” left several state health officials in its wake, leading to several resignations and removals since October. Democratic governor John Kitzhaber also got some heat for his role in overseeing the program; in January, he walked out of an interview with KATU when asked about Cover Oregon. The situation escalated to the point that the FBI investigated the program for fraud in misleading the federal government in the state’s progress.

Loose Lips: The birthday in Dubrovnik edition

The big news on Wednesday night, the 93rd day of the session, was the House’s failure to concur with the Senate’s version of the Knik Arm bridge. The House needed 21 for concurrence. It was shy one vote. Both Reps. Bob Lynn and Lora Reinbold were excused. Lynn’s wife was sick and he needed to be with her. Reinbold has been absent from Juneau since Monday, when she left town to head to Dubrovnik to celebrate her 50th birthday. It’s a trip that she had been planning for a year and is more important, apparently, then education or KABATA. This is is only her second session of her first term, so perhaps she, unlike others in her position, doesn’t know yet to not plan anything for a few weeks after session is supposed to be over. Eight majority members voted against the bill, including surprisingly Eric Feige, who is a member of the Mat-Su delegation, and Mia Costello, who is close to bridge booster Bill Stoltze, who is also House Finance co-chair.
A Jeopardy question worth $800 asked on Wednesday:

jeopardy

My money is that the Legislature will wrap up and finish on Thursday, the 94th day.
The state Senate today, passed an amendment to HB 306 keeping the state’s film tax credit alive until 2018. The legislation originally had the tax credit expiring in 2016. Only three senators — Sens. Charlie Huggins, Anna Fairclough and Fred Dyson, voted against the amendment.
Alaska Department of Administration hosted a town hall meeting Monday evening for state workers and retirees to discuss their problems and concerns with their health care program that is now being managed by Aetna. Approximately 300 people showed up to complain, causing the state to be even more unhappy than they already are with Aetna. A similar scenario played out on Tuesday in Fairbanks, where about 250 people came out.
Sarah Palin hits the campaign trail this week: On Thursday, April 24, she’ll be in Tulsa, Okla., joining Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to support constitutional conservative candidate T.W. Shannon’s senatorial bid. On Friday, April 25, she’ll be in North Platte, Neb., joining Sen. Mike Lee and Governor Kay Orr to support conservative U.S. Senate candidate Ben Sasse. And on Sunday, April 27, she’ll be in my little sister’s town of Des Moines, Iowa. (Hi Charity!) She’ll be joining Sen. Deb Fischer, Governor Kay Orr, Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds, and U.S. Senate candidate Joni Ernst for the “Heels On, Gloves Off” Rally hosted by ShePAC.
GOP Senate candidates Dan Sullivan, Mead Treadwell and Joe Miller gathered today for the first time together at a KTUU Channel 2 news forum, moderated by Steve MacDonald. It’ll be aired on Friday at 7 p.m. Early word has it that it was relatively tame. No knock out punches. Not even any heated debates, which doesn’t bode well for ratings. But for me at least, it’s either that or Gavel to Gavel, wondering if Reinbold is having fun in Dubrovnik.
Word is that the tourism lobbyists left Juneau before the Legislature passed a bill that would create the Alaska Tourism Marketing Board, which is important to the tourism industry. Perhaps they’re taking a tour of Dubrovnik?
Report cards are usually given after work is done. Right? Well, Rep. Scott Kawasaki thought that he might get a jump on things, apparently. On Wednesday, before the Legislature gaveled out and before the education bill passed, he gave the leadership an “F.” For fail.
Days before the general election: 195.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Mallot points out irony in Parnell’s call for a federal balanced budget

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallot also caught the irony in Gov. Sean Parnell’s signing of a resolution that calls on the federal government to balance its budget, at a time when state is on the cusp of passing a budget that will put it in unprecedented deficit spending. The resolution was sponsored by Republicans Rep. Wes Keller and Sen. John Coghill. It passed the House 22 to 12, and the Senate 14 to 6.

From Mallott’s statement:

Gov. Parnell appeared unaware of the irony in castigating the federal government while Parnell himself has overseen an unprecedented deterioration in state finances. While the federal budget deficit has gone down more than 50% since 2008, Gov. Parnell has taken Alaska’s state budget into massive deficits. After entering office with a $5 billion annual surplus, Parnell has wrecked the state budget with spending increases, creating a $2 billion annual deficit that is draining Alaska’s savings. Parnell went from a $5.8 billion operating budget to an $8.9 (billion) operating budget last year. This year’s total is still uncertain, but is likely to top $9 billion. According to the Washington Post, Alaska had the worst fiscal performance in America last year, and was one of only two states to lose revenue.

To be fair, the Washington Post piece Mallot is referring to was sloppy in its facts. The article was about the fiscal situation between 2012 and 2013, which it attributed to the oil tax break signed into law in 2013. That law wasn’t even in effect until 2014. In fact, under ACES, the old tax regime, the decline in total unrestricted petroleum revenue went from $8.9 billion to $6.4 billion between fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

It’s hard to say for sure because the budget’s a moving target and so much depends on the price of oil. But it appears that current deficit has as much if not more to do with declining oil production, lower oil prices, and the state’s increased spending than with the tax break.

But regardless of the causes, the point remains that the current budget is a buster and is nowhere near balanced.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandmacoyne@yahoo.com

Irony alert: State calls on feds to stop deficit spending

As the Alaska state Legislature is on the cusp of passing a budget that will force the state into unprecedented deficit spending, Gov. Sean Parnell signed legislation on Tuesday sponsored by Republicans Rep. Wes Keller, and Sen. John Coghill, calling for a Balanced Budget Amendment to the United States Constitution.

From a statement issued by Parnell:

We have worked hard to get Alaska’s financial house in order by addressing our largest budget cost driver – the state’s pension liability. 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. A Balanced Budget Amendment will be an effective tool to rein in federal spending and not saddle future generations with our country’s debt.

Continue reading →

U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller draws large crowd for campaign kickoff

Redemption makes for a powerful story. So does being an underdog who claims to speak truth to power. Of the three candidates running to be the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race–Joe Miller, Mead Treadwell and Dan Sullivan–only Miller can claim both. Both Treadwell and Sullivan have much going for them, but they don’t have the power of those two stories.

This wasn’t lost on the fired up crowd of as many as 200 on Monday night at the Wasilla Lake Resort where they gathered for Miller’s official campaign kickoff. As most know, Miller ran in 2010, won the primary, and then suffered a devastating loss to Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s write-in bid. It was a brutal campaign, and Miller’s reputation took a beating.

But some things are different this time. Miller’s official campaign kickoff in 2010 was in the town square in Anchorage. About 12 people showed, said Mark Fish, who has been one of Miller’s main volunteers from the beginning. “I think I begged six of my libertarian friends to come,” Fish said.

And Miller appears to be softer and more relaxed this time around. On the stage on Monday, he was even able to poke fun of the fact that in 2010, a member of his “security” detail handcuffed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger at a campaign event. Referring to his young children who were sitting next to him who are taking martial arts, Miller said that this time “we decided to have in-house security.”

It was probably the loudest laugh line of the night from a crowd that wasn’t shy about laughing, as well as yelling out an occasional “Amen,” or “Say it like it is Joe.”

The event lasted more than 2 hours, and featured national radio talk show host Lars Larson. Tim Macy, vice chairman of the Gun Owners of America, flew up that morning from California for the event. Adele Morgan and Paul Wainamo sang songs about God and country. Speeches about liberty, guns and God were made. It was a classic Wasilla tea party, with some beer on tap.

Before Miller spoke, they showed the above three minute video about Miller and his life. It’s easy to forget that Miller actually has an impressive resume. He went to West Point and has a law degree from Yale. He was awarded the Bronze Star in Desert Storm. He has a masters in economics from UAF. And he was raised by poor parents in Kansas. He has eight kids, and is now a grandfather. And he now will have run twice for U.S. Senate and has developed a large following.

Another thing that’s changed since 2010: Miller has developed a stump speech that is actually digestible. He still talks with passion about repealing ObamaCare, abolishing the IRS, and federal overreach. But he doesn’t go on and on. And on Monday, he peppered his speech with the personal. He told a story about being a little boy with a disfigured lip from a fall. He alluded to being bullied because of it. He talked about working for his father’s bookstore and mowing lawns to get enough money to pay for an operation to fix it. He raised the money, took the bus to Wichita, and got his lip fixed.

He was only in 7th grade.

The money is going to be tight for Miller. Although all told he has about $300,000 cash on hand, he only raised $101,000 last quarter. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell has less cash on hand, but he has name recognition and long history in the state. The big money is on former DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan, who raised $1.4 million last quarter alone and has about $2 million on hand.

But then again, Miller won the last primary with only $300,000 against Murkowski’s huge war chest.

Miller didn’t mention Sullivan in his speech, but it’s clear that he’s going to attack him as the establishment candidate who is supported by those partaking in “generational theft,” and by the “same forces” that fought him so hard in the last election.

I asked him what’s different since the last election and why he thinks he can win now when he didn’t then.

He pointed to the crowd. “Look at this,” he said. “This is different.”

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Education and KABATA still on table as Legislature goes into 92nd day

Going past the regularly scheduled 90-day legislative session and into the 92nd legislative day, lawmakers continue to be far apart on the specifics of the governor’s education bill, forcing a conference committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate.

The House conferees are Reps. Mike Hawker, Lynn Gattis, and Sam Kito III. The senators are Mike Dunleavy, Kevin Meyer, and Lyman Hoffman. They have been given limited power of free conference. In other words, they are being given more flexibility than is normally granted to a first-time appointed conference committee. They are scheduled to meet Tuesday at 10 a.m.

The capital appropriations bill is being held on the House floor pending an agreement on the education bill so that the fiscal costs of what is agreed upon can be provided for in the appropriations bill. The only other high profile issue remaining is a concurrence vote in the House on KABATA.

Legislators are said to be optimistic that they can expect to wind up their work on Tuesday.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Pro-Begich super-PAC ad ties Koch brothers to GOP challenger Sullivan

Put Alaska First, a super-PAC which supports U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, released another TV ad over the weekend focused on the Koch brothers and GOP challenger Dan Sullivan. This one is narrated by Alaska resident Todd Hoener, who lives in Ester, a small community outside of Fairbanks. The ad talks about how the Koch brothers, who own Flint Hills Refinery in Fairbanks, are shutting the refinery down and costing about 80 jobs. It claims that the Koch brothers are supporting Sullivan.

The claim is a stretch. Although the Kochs do support a group that has been attacking Begich on healthcare and a carbon tax, Continue reading →

Alaska state Legislature works overtime

UPDATED: Monday, 7:30 a.m.: A bill which would make 20 Alaska Native languages official languages of the state of Alaska passed after 3 a.m. The vote was 17-2, with Sens. Pete Kelly and John Coghill voting against it. Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, was the bill’s prime sponsor. However, the education bill and the capital budget, which are linked, did not. The Senate adjourned at about 5 a.m. and will be back this afternoon to debate what’s remaining. Here’s ADN’s Rich Mauer explaining what happens next:

Under the deal reached by the House and Senate leaders, (Sen. Lesil) McGuire said, the House will immediately vote on whether to accept the Senate version. If the answer is no, as is likely, a House-Senate conference committee would be quickly convened. If the conference committee couldn’t resolve the difference — McGuire said the leaders expected the versions to be irreconcilable — the House and Senate would appoint a free conference committee, which would have more authority to craft a completely new version acceptable to both bodies. McGuire said the House was keeping the capital budget in its chamber and would use it as the vehicle to absorb whatever funding changes was called for in the education bill. If the conference committee version and the capital budget were accepted by House and Senate, the Legislature could wrap up and adjourn. That could happen Monday night, she said.

ORIGINAL STORY: Alaska Legislature went past the midnight deadline on Sunday to push the Legislature into an extended session, which, among other things, means that ballot measures legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, and making it more difficult to mine in Bristol Bay will be moved from the August primary ballot to the general election. It’s unclear how long the Legislature will continue. They could gavel out on Monday. It could be days. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, extending the session costs up to $30,000 a day.

At 11 p.m., the Senate concurred with the House on the operating budget, which all told, is $9.1 billion, made up of $5.8 billion in state general funds, $2 billion in federal funds and $1.3 billion in other funds. That one is heading to the governor for his signature. It also passed a bill that is supposed to advance the large diameter natural gas pipeline. Still at play early Monday morning was the capital budget, which will be upwards of $2.2 billion. Although it can get blurred, the operating budget generally funds the operation of state government, and the capital budget generally covers infrastructure.

In the Senate, the mammoth education bill still had to be voted on, and it appeared that a controversial bill to give tax subsidies to refineries was also still in play.

Perhaps the bill with the largest constituency in the halls of Juneau was one which would make 20 Alaska Native languages official languages of the state of Alaska. On Sunday tribes from all across the state staged a sit-in waiting for the Senate to convene, which didn’t happen until 10 p.m. on Sunday night. That bill had yet to be voted on by Monday at 12:30 a.m., when the Senate called a 30 minute recess. APRN reporter Alexandra Gutierrez tweeted that she overheard one supporter in the gallery say, “What is wrong with these people?”

Moving the initiatives from the primary to the general ballot is said to be good for another referendum to repeal an oil tax break that was passed last session. The thinking is that those who would vote for marijuana and minimum wage would also be likely to vote to repeal the tax break. Conversely, some say that moving those initiatives to the general election benefits U.S. Sen. Mark Begich.

To bed now. More tomorrow.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com