Yesterday, I wrote that former DNR commissioner Joe Balash had been selected as Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan’s chief of staff and an official announcement would be made this week. Today, a spokesperson for Sullivan confirmed Balash’s position. It was also announced that DeLynn Henry and Mike Anderson would be joining the senator’s staff. Henry will serve as Sullivan’s director of scheduling, a position she held in former Sen. Ted Stevens’ office.  Anderson, the Sullivan campaign’s press secretary and former spokesperson for Rep. Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, will serve in the same capacity in Sullivan’s office.

While it has not yet been announced, Kathlene Rowell, who worked for Sullivan at DNR and who was the first employee of his campaign, will be joining his staff and will work out of his Anchorage office.

Sullivan and Balash are in D.C. this week and will be interviewing potential staffers with particular emphasis on identifying and hiring a legislative director for his office.

Here’s the release from Sullivan announcing the hires: Continue reading →

Below is an interesting comment about the Susitna Hydro dam,  elicited by a report commissioned by Trout Unlimited and written by Juneau economist Gregg Erickson that says the project isn’t economically viable. It’s unclear if Gov. Bill Walker supports continuing to fund the project—which the state has already invested $193 million into, this time around–and for which there’s $20 million in the current Parnell-budget. In August, Walker told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he would support the project if it stabilized Fairbanks energy costs. But that was before $65 barrel of oil was in sight. In any case, the comment below—which I don’t necessarily endorse–is fairly representative of the complaints I hear about the so-called alternative energy options:

For all the talk of how environmentally unfriendly the Susitna Hydro dam would be, has anyone ever noticed the single hydro feature that provides and protects much of the fish habitat in Bristol Bay and on the Kenai Peninsula, two of the most productive salmon systems in Alaska and the world?

Very large lake systems that have the ability to hold large volumes of water and mitigate harmful flash flood events so common to the Mat-Su.

These extreme flash flood events, Continue reading →

• Alaska is the 7th best-run state in the country, so says 24/7 Wall St.

• It’s not confirmed yet, but many now know since, I reported it, that former DNR Commissioner Joe Balash is going to be Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan’s new chief of staff.

• After more than a year of legal wrangling, the Deepwater Horizon settlement is on the horizon. The Fuel Fix is reporting that on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied BP’s request for the court to review the 2012 oil spill settlement it reached with thousands of Gulf Coast businesses and residents in the wake of the spill. BP claimed that “vast numbers” of those who were part of the multibillion-dollar settlement weren’t financially harmed by the spill.

• Bill Walker said one of his first acts as governor would be to declare an energy disaster in Interior Alaska, which was supposed to provide the residents there relief. APRN”s Alexandra Gutierrez reports that it’s not that simple.

• Bill Walker also said one of his first acts as governor would be to expand Medicaid. KTVA’s Rhonda McBride, interviewing DHSS Commissioner Val Davidson, reports that it’s not that simple.

• The BBC reports that due to falling oil prices, the company will be enacting long-held plans to cut some of its 84,000 employees, 20,000 of whom are in the U.S.

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Gov. Bill Walker was at the White House Friday with six other new governors meeting with President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and members of Obama’s Cabinet. According to national media accounts, Obama said that the new governors “represent a wide variety of states but they all have a common interest.” That common interest is to ensure that their constituents “are able to gain opportunity, work hard, prosper, feel secure. And that happens best when we work together.”

During an hour-long meeting with Obama and the governors in the Oval Office, Walker said that he talked to Obama about infrastructure, the high cost of energy in the state, and about the natural gas pipeline, something that Obama was “very receptive to,” Walker said.

“Today’s meetings opened the door for potential opportunities to expedite the process for achieving an all-Alaska gas line,” Walker said.

Walker was the only independent in the group, a fact, according to a press release, that Obama acknowledged.

Other governor’s in attendance were: Greg Abbott (R-Texas), Charlie Baker (R-Massachusetts), Larry Hogan (R-Maryland), Gina Raimondo (D-Rhode Island), Bruce Rauner (R-Illinois) and Tom Wolf (D-Pennsylvania).

While in D.C., Walker met with the governor’s D.C. office staff, stopped by the National Governor’s Association Office and attended a briefing at Department of Homeland Security.

• Big news: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a challenge to ObamaCare subsidies, which the law hinges on. The case boils down to a sentence that was left out of the original legislation. The court will hear the challenge as early as this spring and will rule by the end of June.

• According to the November jobs report, the U.S. has added 321,000 jobs — the 10th month in a row in which the economy has added  at least 200,000 jobs. Unemployment has stayed at 5.8%. The Washington Post reports that the last time we saw such forward movement was back in 1994.

• Saudi Arabia has continued to slash oil prices, but only for Asian and U.S. buyers in a move that Reuters interprets as a continued escalation for market share.

• It turns out that when CEO’s complain about “uncertainty”, what they are really saying is “more corporate tax cuts, if you’d be so kind.” That’s the assertion of the Huffington Post and they have the data to back up their claim.

• Alaska’s acting Attorney General (yet to be confirmed by the Legislature), Craig Richards, will begin reviewing the ongoing issues of the Alaska National Guard; including gay marriage, according to Stars and Stripes.

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If you thought that Americans for Prosperity would chase the sun after the Senate race, think again. The conservative group spearheaded by the Koch brothers and now backed by a bevy of conservative patrons, has pared down since the Senate race, but it’s kept its Anchorage office open and some of its staff.

“We’re here to defend the tax payer, and we aren’t going anywhere,” said Jeremy Price, the head of the Alaska chapter of the group, at an AFP-hosted dinner in downtown Anchorage on Thursday night. The dinner drew about 150 people, including legislators, tea party and Republican Party activists.

Anchorage is one of the 33 chapters across the country which have recently sprouted to counter the technological and organizational advantages held by the Democrats, at least nationally. In Alaska, the lack of such advantages hasn’t necessarily kept so called conservatives from getting elected—both the Senate and the House have a Republican majority. The problem seems to be what happens after they get to Juneau.

Alaska isn’t a right to work state, for instance. We don’t have a broad-based tax, but government employment is among the highest in the country, as is government spending per capita, which is anathema to hardline conservatives like the Koch brothers. Continue reading →

Coinciding nicely with a poll that shows Republicans are increasingly sour on paths to citizenship for illegal residents, particularly if that path requires presidential executive action, on Thursday the U.S. House passed H.R. 5759, the Executive Amnesty Prevention Act of 2014, a bill that would make such executive action illegal. Rep. Don Young voted for the bill, saying that he’s keeping his pledge “to work with my colleagues in the House to pass legislation to rein in (President Obama’s) overreach.”  (See Young’s press release below.)

The bill is specific to Obama’s orders to Homeland Security to stop enforcing deportations against illegal residents who were brought to the country as children, as well as parents with children who are citizens. The order could affect up to 5 million illegal residents. Obama took the action because the House refused to hear a comprehensive immigration reform bill that  passed the Senate in 2013 with Republican support, including the support of Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

House Republicans didn’t touch other forms of executive action, like unapproved covert action used by such presidents as Ronald Reagan, and the various ways that George W. Bush used presidential authority on national security issues.

It also has no chance of passing the Senate.  Continue reading →

• Many of us wrote about how Sen. LIsa Murkowski’s Sealaska lands bill is on the cusp of passing Congress. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner takes it further and writes about how the defense bill which it was attached to will impact the state’s economy.

• Now that his time in the senatorial sun is over, many potential Democratic mayoral candidates are waiting to see if Sen. Mark Begich, the patriarch of Alaska party politics, is going to claim the spot on the ticket for himself.

• Many staunch supporters of ObamaCare are now wondering if the passage of ACA has been worth the electoral backlash, according to The Hill.

• The Peninsular Clarion wants to know how do you count Alaska’s governors? That question is one for the ages, just like How Do You Solve a Problem Like AGIA?

Continue reading →

A Quinnipiac University and CNN poll on Republican views on immigration indicate that the chances of getting comprehensive immigration reform passed are slimmer than ever. Here’s an analysis of the poll by the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake:

The Q poll shows support for allowing illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship falling to its lowest point since the survey started asking the question two years ago. Fewer than half — 48 percent — now support a path to citizenship, down from 57 percent one year ago. The poll also shows that 35 percent say these immigrants should be required to leave (the word “deportation” is not mentioned). That’s a new high, and it’s up nine points from the last poll. And here’s the real kicker: The shift is almost completely among Republicans. Although they supported citizenship over deportation 43 to 38 percent in November 2013, today they support deportation/involuntary departure over citizenship, 54 to 27 percent.

That’s two to one — a stunning shift.

Some are blaming Obama’s executive action, which have motivated the Republican base. Whatever the cause, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who’s likely going to face a tough 2016 primary and who had supported comprehensive reform, probably won’t be pushing for it anytime soon.

At long last, the complicated and controversial Sealaska lands bill is on the cusp of passing Congress. The bill, along with other lands claims, was attached to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, which is expected to land on the president’s desk before the Christmas break. U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski sponsored the bill, and Sen. Mark Begich was a co-sponsor.

The compromise measure transfers about 70,000 of the 375,000 acres of timberland owed to Sealaska Corp. under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Most of the land will be used for logging, some of it in the Tongass National Forest, hence the push-back from environmentalists. About 2,000 acres will be used for renewable energy resources and recreational tourism projects, and 490 acres for Native cemetery and historic sites.

The measure also places 152,067 acres of old-growth timber in new conservation areas to protect salmon and wildlife habitat.

Also in the bill: Wainwright’s Olgoonik Native Corp. will be able to acquire the 1,518 acres that make up a former Air Force defense site. It will now be used for economic development. It allows Anchorage to sell the Egan Convention Center property and two other parcels of land downtown Anchorage for redevelopment, and streamlines BLM permitting for oil and gas on federal lands.

Below are releases from both Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich on the measures:

Continue reading →

Late Tuesday night, after nearly everyone had gone home, Assemblyman Bill Starr offered a motion to reorganize the Anchorage Assembly, and to install longtime Assemblyman Dick Traini as chair. An earlier version of the story said that Traini got a majority vote. That isn’t true. Turns out that nobody received a majority, which would have normally require a re-vote, but because the results of the vote weren’t declared before adjournment, and because a motion wasn’t offered to extend the time, all of it appears to be void. Municipal clerk Amanda Moser said that as a result, things will stay as they are and Flynn will remain chair.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced that Michael Pawlowski and Colin Hayes will be joining her team on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which she’ll chair.

Pawlowski is better known in Alaska political circles as “Fish,” for no discernible reason. He was most recently a deputy commissioner at the Alaska Department of Revenue. He’s a life-long Alaskan and a graduate of Alaska Pacific University. He’s well-liked and respected by many, and can explain RORs to a five-year old. He helped shepherd through the new oil tax legislation, as well as legislation that began to establish the framework under which the state can participate as an equity partner in the natural gasline.

Former Murkowski staffer and energy adviser Colin Hayes will also be joining the committee. He’s a graduate of Hobart College and most recently earned an MBA from George Mason University. According to a Murkowski press release, he played a key role on multiple bills while a staffer, including the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposal to designate a “Texas-sized” ring around a chunk of the northern coastline as a critical habitat for ringed seals. KTUU has Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s reaction, backstory and maps (!)

• The Peninsula Clarion was on hand while the Kenai Peninsula Board of Education quizzed House Speaker Mike Chenault about his plans for the upcoming legislative session. It’s required reading for House Minority Leader Chris Tuck.

• Should Caelus Energy Alaska get relief for its Nuna project on the North Slope? The new administration will make the decision.

• As regulations and policies are being drawn up to legislate the soon-to-be legalized use of marijuana, this article from the Washington Post about Amsterdam’s realistic and sane drug policy might warrant a reading.

• The Fairbanks News Miner reports that the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board will be advising Alaska legislators to loosen alcohol penalties in the upcoming legislative session.

• KTOO reports that the University of Alaska system has delayed (again) its survey on sexual assault on campus. What the university’s attorney, Michael O’Brien’s told KTOO is that the university didn’t want the survey to run up against the holiday season, as if there’s a good time to discuss sexual assaults.

Continue reading →

Inauguration fever: Alaska Airlines added an additional flight just to get folks to Juneau. Some of the out-of-town faces spotted included former Gov. Bill Sheffield; AFN’s Julie Kitka; Honorary Consulate of Canada Karen Mathias; Malcom and Cindy Roberts, UAF’s Brian Rogers, Vicki Otte; Chugach Corp’s CEO Cheri Buretta; Janet Weiss and Phil Cochrane from BP; former state senator and labor leader Joe Thomas; former DOL commissioner and Fairbanks mayor Jim Sampson; one of the Valley’s three amigos Roger Purcell; AOGA’s Kara Moriarty; Stephen and Dana McAlpine, Paul Brown; former Juneau legislator and Obama administration employee Beth Kerttula, and Sen.-elect Dan Sullivan to name a few.

Only two members of legislative leadership attended the inauguration—House Majority Leader Charisse Millett and Majority Leader John Coghill. The other House members attending the event: Reps. Sam Kito III, Bob Herron, Benny Nageak, Lora Rinebold, Harriet Drummond, Scott Kawasaki, Rep.-elect Jim Colver, Rep.-elect Liz Vazquez. Senators: Click Bishop, Lyman Hoffman, Bert Steadman, Gary Stevens, and Dennis Egan.

Some of the food served at the VIP party of about 300 at the governor’s mansion after the swearing-in: Smoked salmon, scallops with béarnaise sauce, prosciutto and lots of Christmas cookies. The “little squid” were much discussed, as was the foie gras, which freshman Rep.-elect Jim Colver—a salmon and moose burger kind of guy– gave wide berth to. Colver did want to make the point that he’s not a culinary rube. His wife is Dutch and he’s spent time in Europe. And “I do like a good pinot noir,” he said. Alas, only punch at the mansion.

Where in the world has Hollis French been? Continue reading →