- Senate candidate Dan Sullivan has a new ad titled, “Committed”. Jamilia George speaks right into the camera (ala Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s powerful ad) in support of Sullivan’s commitment to prosecuting Sexual Assault offenders while Alaska’s Attorney General. Here’s the The Washington Post’s take on it.
- Want to know why Senate District K (Jewel Lake/Sand Lake area of Anchorage) is leaning Clare Ross? Read the breakdown of the senate district and its accompanying House Districts HERE.
- Greg Sargent of The Washington Post is predicting that U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s next line of attack will be to focus on older voters beginning with “Begich’s proposal to shore up Social Security’s finances.”
- Fox News under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) conducted a random sample poll of 1,049 registered and found that 74% of those polled felt that Obama’s actions toward ISIL were “not tough enough” while another 52% were in favor of allowing the president the use of ground troops if airstrikes were not enough in Iraq and Syria.
- Becky Bohrer with the AP has an article detailing Gov. Sean Parnell’s response to allegations against him and his administration regarding the sexual assault abuses and resulting scandal that has marred both Parnell and the Alaska National Guard.
- According to CQ Roll Call, just getting to one of the 441 precincts across Alaska is only the first hurdle to determine the winners on the ballot in November. The second is getting the results officiated and tallied. Becka Baker, State Elections Supervisor, told CQ Roll Call, “By the time Election Day rolls around, elections officials may also have Alaska-specific, last-minute changes to make. That includes needing to find emergency polling places because of broken heat or frozen pipes. Those are rare occurrences, but they do happen”.
- Martin Kaste with NPR has an interesting piece about Outside money, the U.S. Senate Candidates and the unique struggles to appeal to Alaskan voters.
- Katie Moritz with the Juneau Empire had a one-on-one interview with Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, Care Clift.
- The Hill reports that federal auditors have found that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has not been regulating the safety of offshore O&G drilling and/or been enforcing federal rules regarding permit reviews within their three regional offices including Alaska.
- The Center for Public Integrity has two articles regarding the U.S. Senate races. The first focuses on the concentration of political television ads and the second reveals who’s behind said eyeball-burning ads. Both have their usual helpful, colorful graphs and maps that CPI is known for providing.
- Politico is wondering if the big three U.S. Senate races might be slipping from the Democratic Party’s hands.
- The Anchorage Assembly is requesting an external audit of the Anchorage software project. Devin Kelly writes, “The renewed calls for scrutiny come as the city is bringing on additional staff to work on the SAP project, and the Sullivan administration is asking the Assembly to authorize a request to increase the project budget by another $3 million.”
- Wondering why the Chamber used Rand Paul to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan in their latest ad? According to the PPP, 50% of Alaskans polled said they plan to vote for Paul for president in 2016.
- Weston Morrow with the Fairbanks News Miner has an in-depth report on the Fairbank’s School Board Seat G race.
- Considering the heat the University of Alaska has taken regarding THAT bonus check, offering free classes with the Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service might help win back good feelings among the general public. The Fairbanks News Miner reports that the Extension will be offering 14 completely free classes to the public between October 13-17th. Details on these classes are available.
- The AlaskaCommons has an article claiming U.S. Senate candidate was practically dragged away from a KTUU’s Grace Jang after the Kodiak debate. The video doesn’t show Sullivan at his best, but was he really dragged away? You decide.
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandacoyne@yahoo.com
What happened to the soldiers and the overall breakdown of discipline and loss of effectiveness to any degree within the organization, followed by what happened to the concerned Officers and NCOs who advocated for correction, is cause for deep concern by Alaskans.
Why were two political appointees, one a State Commissioner allowed to wear the uniform of an Army Lt. General and the other a Civilian Deputy Commissioner were given rein to do such damage to the organization over such a long period of time? Why did the legislature with a standing Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and whose party holds the Governorship refuse to exercise any oversight?
I am dismayed that the Office of the State Attorney General and other state law enforcement agencies were not involved, and apparently still are not, given the number of transgressions reported over time. Now that we have heard from an outside National Guard Bureau Office of Complex Investigations, only resignations are being requested.
What we need are now are firings and the involvement of an authority, State and/or Federal, with subpoena power and the associated authority to prosecute for criminal conduct including perjury. Sometimes in the military you have to deal with people who are not motivated by what you can do for them if they obey, but what you will do to them if they don’t.
I heard the Martin Kaste story last night on NPR. I thought it was much too long for the few facts it had.
This morning a pollster called regarding the US Senate race. The caller was an inner city minority woman, and she could not pronounce libertarian. She tried 3 times. It is common for pollster calls to mispronounce names as well as words like subsistence. Uniquely, when she asked my age she first gave her own age. Who could say if either party was truthful?
It didn’t look to me like Dan Sullivan was being pulled away. Having someone remind you of your schedule is a polite way to dispense with a reporter.
The Begich campaign has all the money in the world but it is struggling to gain traction with anyone except the far-left. Isn’t it interesting and unusual that the one issue and instance when Begich really did stand up to Obama was when Obama wanted to take guns away from law-abiding Americans following that CT school shooting yet Begich never mentions that? Instead the ads mention fabricated and manufactured instances. Two different people told me that last year they attended Begich town meetings and tried to stand up and thank him for pushing back on the gun grab but Begich staffers wouldn’t call on them after they had told the staffers what they wanted to do. Can anyone explain this?
I appreciate the links to other sites and the wide range of news and opinions made available here. I suspect most reasonable, free-thinking people would feel the same way.
Hi. Another reader here. I actually read AK Commons all the time and enjoy it immensely. You know, for what it’s worth. I didn’t find anything objectionable about that particular article, other than I don’t really care all that much about Sullivan not having a good answer. That’s old news.
Nice try, but your candidate’s inability to answer a question has nothing to do with the questioner.
Why are you promoting the Alaska Commons on your site? It’s been around for quite awhile and hasn’t caught on. Probably, for good reason. This reader, anyway, feels that you’re not doing justice to your site by including their liberal rants daily. If they had an article worthy of drawing attention to it would likely be once every other month or so.
Obviously, it is your site and you can do what you like; however, I thought maybe you’d like some feedback from a regular follower.
KTUU is a much better station than to have Ms. Chang as an on-air personality. Her reports are flat usually and now she has regressed to gotcha journalism. What a stupid question. Why didn’t she ask Begich the same question. Super PACs are independent and don’t allow coordination. On the other hand, Begich’s campaign took Koch brothers money, cashed the check and used it.
II wish KTUU would get a new reporter to go along with their new studio. This reporter sucks.
Didn’t the staffer know that the first rule in politics is “We do not touch the First Ladies” or in this case, “We do not touch the U.S. Senate candidates”?
Did Sullivan’s arm grabber take him outside for a spanking for his blunder? The look of horror on his face is either from what awaits him outside those doors or at his own realization of how bad an answer that was to give on video.