- Katie John’s son, Fred John Jr., has a moving compass piece in the Dispatch about his mother’s legacy to preserve Alaskan Native rights and the role Dan Sullivan played by suing her and taking the state’s case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
- Scott Kawasaki and David Guttenberg were the two Interior legislators that said at the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce that they were backing Ballot Measure 2, the initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana. The Fairbanks News Miner has the lowdown on where the other Fairbanks area candidates stand on 2, and on the other ballot measures.
- LA Times columnist Doyle McManus calls Mark Begich’s Jerry Active ad “the worst Democratic attack ad of the Senate race.” And TIME calls it one of the five most dishonest political ads of the year.
- The blogger who first made a mess out of the the Jerry Active mess was Outside incendiary blogger Charles Johnson, who was a friend of Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell’s, who stayed at his house when he traveled to Alaska, and who was supporting Treadwell’s campaign. Johnson got kicked off of twitter briefly on Tuesday for tweeting the address of a Dallas woman under quarantine for the Ebola virus.
- Nat Herz interviews Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell about his Senate bid, and about rumors that he’s considering running for Anchorage mayor. “I haven’t ruled it out,” he said.
- According to Politico, an AFL-CIO affiliated organization, Working America, has released a memo today detailing efforts to target 150,000 ‘drop-off voters’ in Anchorage, Wasilla, Eagle River, Fairbanks and Palmer to get them to the polls in November.
- The Juneau Empire has the results regarding the Juneau Assembly race and their School Board race. Get info on local races in Fairbanks here, in the Mat-Su here, and in the Kenai here.
- Can Bill Clinton save the Senate? Fox News and ARISE News political contributor says so in The Hill.
- Speaking of Clinton: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Begich will be attending a DSCC fundraiser in San Francisco today held by venture capitalist and Democratic donor John Doerr. Clinton will be the special guest. Barbara Boxer, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Ron Wyden are also planning on attending. Tickets are going for $15,000 to $32,400.
- Further head scratching about Alaska’s U.S. Senate race by The Daily Signal. It seems that the winner in November and the future of the Senate is not going to be decided based on nationally resonating issues, but on local hot button topics like fish. Alaskans take their fish really seriously and is part of what gives us a “unique political culture” so says the Signal.
- The latest and greatest on Alaska Senate District C, including Fairbanks House candidate Adam Wool’s web ad.
- Remember when Sen. Mark Begich was one of the few Senate Democrats that voted against the Manchin-Toomey gun control bill after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary and people nodded their heads in approval for Begich being politically prudent? The New Republic has an article detailing exactly how the NRA are not returning the favor despite the fact that Begich’s vote tipped the results in their favor.
- The Fiscal Times has an article that claims that U.S. Senator Mark Begich is the most vulnerable Democrat this election cycle.
- Martin Sheen is featured in a video explaining the history of Social Security and healthcare in the United States and ends with support for Sen. Mark Begich, because “We earned it”.
- Dan Sullivan has a new ad tying President Obama to Sen. Begich using Obama’s infamous 28 words from last week’s speech.
- KTUU’s Grace Jang sits down with Congressman Don Young. Best excerpts: “ I’m tearin’ ‘em up and making little pieces out of them.” And, “I’m Don Young. I’m an Alaskan congressman, and I’ll always be the Alaskan congressman until they decide not to vote for me. But I’ll continue being Don Young. I’m not going to change because somebody wants me to change.” The real question has yet to be asked: Who did Don Young kill?
Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com
As if Alaskans give a rip about what anyone outside, let alone some columnist in LA, has to say about anything.
I bet Sen. Begich didn’t like the LA Times article that said his ad was one of the most dishonest of the year. Surprise? Not to Alaskans that are paying attention to his six tears of deceit.
The John article in the Dispatch is plain and simply wrong. It is inaccurate. In fact, it is so inaccurate that I can only believe it was ghost written by one of Rogoff’s reporters to advance her liberal, pro-native agenda. It’s sad when the state’s largest newspaper is so biased.
The Katy John piece may be moving but it is inaccurate. The litigation began before Dan was AG. The issue was the scope of Federal management over waterways in the state.
The feds said they could control many waterways. The state said the fed jurisdictIon was more narrow than the Feds maintained. Katy John and NARF said virtually all waterways in Alaska should be manager by the Feds. The district court agreed with the Feds.
The state, under Dan, appealed the adverse ruling to the 9th Circuit, because he was compelled to do so by the Alaska Constitution and bc most Alaskans don’t want the state to cede control to the Feds on subsistence issues on every waterway in the state.
Bottom line is the 9th Ciruit agreed with the Feds. I would also note the Katy John, or NARF, also lost — ANILCA does not compel the Feds to manage all waterways in the state to provide a rural preference.