• Gov. Sean Parnell, with the help of the Midnight Sun Republican Women’s Club, hosted a big campaign headquarters open house on Saturday afternoon. It was, in a word, wholesome: kids, balloons, Miss Alaska, ice cream and a vanilla almond cake with cream cheese butter cream lovingly baked by Robin Phillips. All told, about 200 showed.
• Gov. Sean Parnell filed for re-election at the Division of Elections in Anchorage on Monday at 12:00 p.m.
• New RNC Alaska team: Last fall, I reported that Michael Shirley was on the ground in Alaska as the RNC’s state operative. His focus in the last months was on the East Anchorage Assembly race, which didn’t really work out well for Adam Trombley, the Republican in the race. Now Shirley’s gone and a new team of RNC operatives is on the ground, headed, people say, by Greg Bailor, who was most recently the RNC state director for Nevada.

Upcoming events:

1. May 19th, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. Women for Mallott Kick-off at Mallott for Governor campaign headquarters located at 505 West Northern Lights Blvd., Anchorage. (This one is interesting enough to draw me out of my cave.)
2. May 19th, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell for Senate fundraiser at Turkey Red in Palmer. Co-hosted by former Rep. Lynn Gattis staffer Erick Cordero, and state Sen. Lesil McGuire’s campaign manager Harmony Shields, among others.
3. May 21st, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Dan Sullivan for Lt. Governor Fundraiser at the home of Larry and Wendi Partusch, 900 Botanical Heights Circle, Anchorage.
4. June 5th, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Fundraiser for Reps Gabrielle LeDoux and Mia Costello at Le Mex off Diamond Blvd., Anchorage.

• In some places they golf. In Wasilla, they shoot things. All in all a perfect place for Saturday’s Outdoor Heritage Foundation’s charity shoot. Who knew that Rep. Lynn Gattis has such aim? She hit 75 out of 100 birds, beating former special ops Senate President Charlie Huggins. Rep. Don Young was there and was reported to be impressed with Gattis’ shooting, too. Sen. Cathy Giessel hit the fewest birds, but she got an “A” for effort. Other legislators that participated in the event included Reps. Craig Johnson, Eric Feige and Dan Sadler. Kevin Sweeney showed representing Sen. Lisa Murkowski. And where there’s guns, the Safari Club president and lobbyist Eddie Grasser will follow.
• The anti-pot folks got their first big donation from Chenega Corp, which is giving $25,000 to fight against the pot legalization initiative. The group that’s getting the dough is calling itself Big Marijuana. Big Mistake. Vote No on 2 Campaign. Wait for it… BM² for short? “Rural Alaska will be disproportionately harmed if the initiative passes, and we have a duty to protect our communities,” Chenega said.
• As a reminder of a lost friend, U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s campaign is putting Stephen Gingrich’s initials on 4 x 8 signs. Gingrich was a dedicated volunteer who always put up the “big signs” in Anchorage for races large and small, and then he took them down when races were over.  He passed away in a tragic accident last year and he is sorely missed.
• Deborah Bitney, the administrative services director for Alaska Gasline Development Corp. is leaving to pursue other professional interests. Deborah is wife of lobbyist and former Palin staffer John Bitney.
• Former KFQD talk show host, Dan Fagan, who has been spending his time talking in front of a mic in the lesser state of California, is heading back to Alaska and is looking to get back into radio. He’s supposedly picked up some bad habits in the land of milk and honey. He eats better, for one, and has shed some pounds. And even more disturbing: he’s supposedly kinder. As we all know, there’ a fix for that. It’s called Alaska. Anyway, word has already gotten around and on Monday, he got a call from Sen. Mark Begich, congratulating him on his imminent return. This even though there were few in Alaska that were harder on Begich during his time as mayor of Anchorage and in his run for Senate. There’s a lesson in there…

 

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com