Bill Walker and Byron Mallott are racking up the endorsements. In the last few days, they’ve been endorsed by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, and the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood Grand Camp. And last night, I’m told, Walker and his wife Donna appeared at a function with Sarah and Todd Palin, who gave them their endorsement. I’ve emailed and called the Walker campaign to confirm, but haven’t heard back. Until I do, here’s the picture that’s floating around the tubes, commemorating the moment. (UPDATE: Just checked my email. Walker’s spokeswoman said she’s working on a release. So I’m taking the question mark down from the headline.)
UPDATE II: Here’s the press release confirming the endorsement:
“Last night my family, along with Byron and Toni Mallott, and our campaign staff attended a reception hosted by Todd and Sarah Palin at their lakeside property in Wasilla. Byron and I are seeing diverse and wide reaching support that spans the state and crosses party lines.”
At the event, Sarah addressed the crowd of approximately 100 guests, stating that she supports Bill and Byron because she “trust[s] them to develop our God-given resources responsibly and to the maximum benefit of Alaskans.”
Walker concluded: “We look forward to a state where Alaskans work together, where politics are set aside in favor of common goals, and where we all experience a renewed determination to serve Alaska first.”
Spokesperson Lindsay Hobson added: “The Unity Ticket has received wide ranging support from across Alaska’s political spectrum. Sarah Palin is the most recent to join a long line of Alaskans eager for an administration that puts Alaska’s interests above all else.
Also notable from the event was the endorsement of three Wasilla mayors, both past and present: Bert Cottle, Vern Rupright, and Sarah Palin.
Hello,
To the many people at work and around town who have asked if the above comment is mine: NO. It’s someone else with the same name.
Sincerely,
Amy Carroll (from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Juneau Alaska)
You just showed your true colors when you said that Walker might just take advice from Palin….. Palin would only give him good advice, and the fact that you would change your mind about her because of a brawl….The family was sticking up for each other, was no bad language out of Sarah`s mouth infact at one point Sarah tells Bristol to stop cussing
Yep, agree with Lynn Willis. Seen all the other comments here full of rhetoric. One sentence describes the problem Alaska has that PARNELL has created with his incompetent Republican legislature: Alaska does NOT have a revenue problem, it has a SPENDING problem. I think all you folks going around yammering how wonderful Parnell is, and how bad Sarah Palin is etc, please put on your critical thinking hats and understand that oil prices are falling the world over, SB21 or no SB21. Alaska has declining oil production, and will continue doing so moving forward. So at this point the government HAS to put a brake on spending. The revenue coming in is fairly irrelevant. At current spending largesse, you will shortly see the PFD raided, an imposition of a state income tax and or a sales tax and much more bigger deficits moving forward. Solution: STOP THE SPENDING. And throw Parnell out. Period. I’m not a fan of Sarah Palin, but she did manage to get a hefty nest egg for Alaska. And I for one support the Walker-Mallott ticket.
Sarah Palin, Byron Mallott, Tlingit-Haida, and the Alaska Democratic Party all supporting Bill Walker, and the media not asking Bill Walker exactly what he would do if elected. This is a train wreck. I hope enough grown-ups vote for the stability, intelligence and reasoning strength of Sean and Sandy Parnell.
It is comedic the connections people attempt to create and grand statements they make about Walker because a single Alaskan said they support him. Every Alaskan has a right to support who they want and that support won’t make a bit of difference in how he will run our state. Palin is just one of thousands of Alaskans that know Bill Walker is much better equipped to get the gas line done and pull us out of this tailspin Parnell has put us in.
Or, if Parnell/Sullivan wins there will be a party at the petroleum club sponsored by Exxon, Conoco Phillips with Jerry Prevo as master of ceremonies. Praise Jesus and tax breaks!
Stockholder – clearly ACES built up a huge reserve, which is great. The issue isn’t the past. It is going forward. Was ACES sustainable – could we continue to pay for between 50 to 75 percent of very project on the North Slope when production was declining? Was ACES attracting new companies to Alaska? Was it attracting investors who fund independent companies’ exploration and development programs? Was it creating an environment to attract the necessary capital to reverse the production decline? Did ACES protect us when prices went below $100? Did ACES incentivize getting more oil into the pipe?
The answer to all of these questions is pretty straightforward: No.
Unfortunately Alaskans never had a factual debate about these issues. It was driven by bumper stickers and emotion. To give one example: How many people supporting ACES realize that SB 21 totally fucked Exxon at Point Thomson and Conoco at CD-5? These are multi-billion dollar projects where under ACES the state was paying, depending on the price of oil, somewhere between 50 and 65 percent of the project’s costs. Not so with SB 21.
So to say that SB 21 is a giveaway without recognizing what we took away and how we protected ourselves when oil prices dropped is one of the most frustrating things about this debate. The Yes crowd did a marvelous job of misleading Alaskans, including you.
Jon,
You’re last line:” assuming oil prices don’t stay low”, says it all. You might have mentioned natural gas prices at the same time. Parnell has put us in a situation where external factors will control our fate more than they ever should have. His was a risky and stupid strategy that stimulated the growth of state government beyond what we needed and now operating costs are out of control.
Lynn,
Parnell has done so much for Alaskans within his Choose Respect campaign beyond what Jon K. just listed. He worked with the legislature to pass HB 359 and SB 22, two bills that, together, raised the age that a child was considered a child to 19; made the crime of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking a serious felony; changed the misleading term “promoter of prostitution” to “sex trafficker;” removed the statute of limitations for prosecuting child pornography cases and increased the sentencing range for sex traffickers, who are trafficking Alaska’s children. Alaska now has some of the toughest penalties in the country for sex traffickers, which is a complete reversal from a few years ago. This isn’t just a pet project or an empty platform for Gov. Parnell. This is a personal crusade for him and the first lady. You really need to do your homework before making such blanket accusations.
The safety of all Alaskans, especially our most vulnerable, is paramount. WIthout life, there are no other issues.
Lynn, you won’t vote for a “nice guy,’ but you’ll vote for a guy who will sell out his friends and principles just to win? How sad.
We have nearly $10 billion in Alaska savings accounts because Sarah Palin worked in a non partisan relationship with legislators to get ACES passed. The money we earned with ACES is keeping Alaska from absolute economic collapse.
Rational people from across the state are working hard to elect Bill Walker.
Republican strategists have looked at the polling numbers and know Walker will now win by a landslide- and they have even considered trying to find a replacement candidate. Get Parnell to step down, and run someone with a chance of winning.
But its too late.
Stockholder,
WALKER stole our representative form of government with his shady shenanigans with the AK Democratic Party.
So true, Sam! So true!
No, Shawn, it shows that Palin and Walker are cut from the same cloth. Neither have loyalty to their friends. She only came out to support Walker because she opposed SB 21 and likely took offense to Parnell scrapping ACES. I used to support Palin, even when her gaffes bothered me, because I felt she was a decent person. But, now, after hearing the account of the recent brawl and what fame has done to her, I am wondering if all of the rumors of her being vindictive are true. It appears that way as she aligns herself with a democrat-engineered ticket and a gubernatorial candidate that sways with the wind. Walker is so much of an opportunist, he doesn’t care where he gets his support from, as long as he can get support. This is so disappointing to see such a comedy show like the Walker Mallot Palin alliance.
And, don’t be so fooled that Walker wouldn’t take advice from Palin. Remember, anything goes with this guy.
Sarah Palin Oct 15: So what do you call an “independent” candidate supports Obamacare? You call that candidate a liberal Democrat.
She flip flops as much as Walker. They go together well.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152806952473588
Lynn, you continue to exhibit little understanding of basic facts. Under ACES revenue fell dramatically. We were on a path to poverty because we weren’t attracting investment and companies to develop the many billions of barrels that remain on the North Slope. Consequently, production continued to decline and revenue dropped off. Worse, under ACES we were paying for anywhere between 50 to 75 percent of the Big Three’s capital costs. The combination of production declines with the ACES subisidies just creamed the state budget starting in 2012. Hence we were losing billions despite prices going up.
At the same time, the operating budget swelled largely because of health care costs, pensions, and inflation. Cutting dumb capital projects from the budget isn’t going to a damn thing to address the fiscal issues in this state.
Fortunately, however, we have over $60 billion in the bank and a ton of oil and gas on the North Slope. We have the resources the deal with this fiscal shortfall – assuming oil doesn’t stay low for a sustained period.
This is sick.
Now Shannon Moore and Sarah Palin are supporting the same ticket. That’s how I know this ticket is wrong. When liberal Democrats and Tea Party whack jobs support a ticket that should be a sign of how wrong it is.
Walker accepted the support of someone who wants to see the state of Alaska prosper. He didn’t seek it out or attempt to publicize her support, but rather chose to not shun away someone that believes he is the best candidate to clean up Parnell’s mess. Just because everybody knows who Palin is and what she’s done, doesn’t make her support any different than anybody elses. She’s not a running mate, an advisor or any part of his campaign and will have zero impact on how Bill Walker leads this state as Governor. This just shows that people can come from the far right and the far left and put differences aside for what’s best for Alaska.
Well, the mood is bad around the homestead this evening, Wife insists it’s time for her to move back to the east coast. Claims that between having no real democrat on the ticket for governor and now this thing with Palin endorsing the quasi democrat it’s the last straw. Says she misses the east coast. Says back there the Democrats are ‘Liberals’ not ‘Progressives’ and that besides that they are loyal to the party.
For my part, I told her she should be happy… we been hitched near on 20 years, never missed an election and this’ll be the first time we voted the same ticket. (I’ll admit I’m a bit shocked as well)
Well, they certainly tried to sanitize that news release by burying the lead as far as they could. No wonder it took them 24 hours to get it out of the “Unity” ticket headquarters. Hey, Zack Fields, how do Virginia-based folks spin that one?
Up next, an endorsement from Bristol Palin. Oh, the humanity.
The price of gas is –$1.00 cheaper in the lower 48 today — the Palin’s are not the problem– they promote Alaska tourism world wide more than the state of Alaska does—-wake up and support Alaskans people
Jon,
Our problem is not less production. Our problem is we spent the revenues from our non-renewable resources more than we should have. Soon revenue from the Permanent Fund will soon exceed oil revenues and it could have been much more.
To illustrate; in the morning I have $100 dollars in the bank. At 2:00PM I receive a payment of $50 so now I have $150 dollars to spend. At 4:00 PM I spend $135 for basic needs which would leave me $15 in reserve. Instead of holding onto my reserves I decide to go purchase an additional $17 worth of things I really don’t need. Now I am in deficit spending to the tune of $2.
Multiply my example numbers by a billion and you will understand what has happened over the last five years under our current Governor and that has nothing to do with production.
I’m sure everything will be just fine, as long as the Walker/Mallot team doesn’t invite the Palins to any gatherings.
Stockholder – the deficits have been caused by one factor: falling production under ACES revenue dropped by $4 billion because of production declines and ACES credits where we gave a bunch of free money to Exxon, BP and ConocoPhillips.
Our only hope is to reverse this decline by attracting capital and companies to explore and develop the massive resource potential that remains on the North Slope. SB 21 is Parnell’s answer. It is working. We are seeing a huge uptick in competition with new companies arriving and as a result a ton of new drilling. 15 companies are now pursuing exploration and development programs on the North slope. This is great news. Better still, we are no longer heavily subsidizing the Big 3 w generous credits.
What is your solution to reverse the production decline?
Sarah left Sean with massive surpluses. Sean has now created the biggest deficits in Alaska history.
Sarah left Parnell with AGIA, and the markets tried to get a gas line built starting in 2012. But Parnell killed that too. So much for gas flowing in 2019.
Sarah was populist in approach when she was governor- putting Alaska first. Not too worried about offending the crooked Republicans. She did take office after the worst corruption in Alaska’s history was exposed.
Interesting why the venom directed at Sarah is not directed at those who stole away our representative form of government.
This makes me sick. What has the party come to. Byron Mallott is obviously brain dead. He’ll be shoved aside soon. Just watch.
Lynn,
Choose Respect isn’t an empty slogan. It is a comprehensive iniative designed to address an awful epidemic. Under the initiative, Parnell secured legislative support to greatly expand law enforcement presence in rural Alaska by getting funding for more Troopers and VPSO, he got more funding for victim services, he rallied the legal community to provide more pro bono services to victims, he changed the bail statutes and enhance penalties for sexual assault, he got funding for PR campaigns, and he led efforts to educate students, etc etc. This campaign isn’t just about marches. Instead of politicizing Choose Respect, Alaskans need to focus on how we can improve the initiative. Too many small minded people unfortunately prefer to score cheap points.
Ah,
Palin is nothing if not a politically astute schemer so you make a valid point. Is she trying now to get to the political center? I really do wonder though if the “Palinistas” in Alaska any longer number more than two digits. Palin has pretty much now burnt all her fuel with Alaskans and I can’t see how she could account for a noticeable net vote for (or against) Walker.
A fiscal glacier is creeping toward all of us. When it arrives, those who don’t get crushed outright (including most current elected officials) will be shoved into reality and into a location where we haven’t been in years.
Go calm you wife. Remind her that the Palin she sees today might well not be the one she sees tomorrow.
Sarah Palin is a completely disloyal nitwit. When she came back to her job as governor after her disastrous performance as a vice presidential candidate, Sean Parnell was unfailingly loyal to her.
She is angry because he scrapped her oil tax scheme, which was a failure. For her to stake out a position like this is absolutely without scruples. If she disagrees with SB21, all she should have done was oppose it (which she did), and when she lost, the ex-governor should have kept her mouth shut. That was the only decent and loyal thing to do. Maybe she had her brains scrambled during the ‘Thrilla in Wasilla” brawl.
Too bad all those rumors about her relocating to Arizona are not true.
Lynn, Well apparently the “Palinista’s” are not as bad as the Dems have been claiming…. This is a two way street…. Palin endorses the candidate on the left and in turn, the party on the left gives Palin a tacit endorsement.
My Wife, A dyed in the wool Mud Flats reading lefty is up stairs considering Hari-Kari. I guess I better go talk her down…..
Poor ‘ol Byron must be sick to his stomach…. But at least he stood still for it. He must be far more moderate than the alternative.
I suspect Frenchy would have had a tantrum…..
I don’t think having Palin endorsing him is a good thing for Walker. But, it does show that she is as loyal to her friends as he is. Birds of a feather…Shame on you, Palin.
Jon,
Forget empty platitudes like “Choose Respect” and “Alaska first! Its Time”. What are soon enough going to be empty are our cash reserves. And what is not available is sufficient revenue to support current budgets. The creation of that situation over the last five years is my primary reason for supporting Walker particularly when Parnell has the line item veto over budget items. As we have discussed (ad nauseum?) I don’t see how any gas line project is going to work – so that is a neutral issue to me. The Guard scandal is a botched leadership effort if I ever saw one and if the nicest guy in the world can’t lead or manage his way out of a wet paper bag, I don’t want him as Governor.
Lynn,
What we are seeing is a lot of Alaskans who hate Parnell and were fired-up over SB 21 being seduced by Walker’s empty populist platitudes. If Walker wins, a lot of his supporters are going to be very disappointed. I know a fair share of Alaskans that HATE Dan Sullivan for taking positions that are identifical to Walker’s – e.g., pro-life. Yet they have Walker pins on their jackets.
Jon,
You point out exactly why the two-party system is going extinct. After ‘Citizens United’ where unlimited funds can be spent on political messaging by these “independent” groups, either major party is now a teat on a boar hog.
I suspect you will see more independent candidates for Executive branch offices and, in the legislative branch, all that counts now is caucus membership and seniority.
Democrats, welcome to the Tea Party.
Bring them back? How did you extrapolate that deduction from this announcement?
So the Ds are embracing a pro-life, anti-gay marriage, state rights (until recently?), and Palin-endorsed candidate. The same issues that they are using to crucify DNR Dan get ignored with Walker. Interesting.
Whoop ass. Wasilla gonna get their own inaugural brawl. The boys will go shirtless, the girls will wear their lowest cuts up top and their shortest down low. Then we get drunk and brawl Palin style. Party down.
This is the ultimate intelligence test for Alaskans. Do we really want to bring the Palinistas back? I don’t. If we do, the pipeline is dead. Dead as a dog hit by a semi.