Tag Archives: alaska senate race

GOP shutdown damages party and slows fundraising

We all know that the public mood can change on a dime. And Republicans better hope that it does, and fast. Polls are coming out nearly daily showing the abysmal public perception of the GOP in the aftermath of the government shutdown.

A Washington Post-ABC poll released on Monday shows that the party’s image has sunk to an all-time low. About 32 percent of the public says that they have a favorable image of the party, while 63 percent say they have an unfavorable view. Further, a CNN poll finds that 54 percent of the public say it’s a bad thing that the GOP controls the House, and only 38 percent say it’s a good thing.

The Post-ABC poll also finds that only 25 percent of the public has a favorable image of the tea party, which is the lowest rating ever in that poll.

Congressional Democrats aren’t doing that great either. More than six in 10 disapprove of how they handled budget negotiations, and the party’s unfavorable ratings is at a record high of 49 percent. However, all three federal Democratic congressional committees outraised their Republican counterparts in September.

According to The Hill, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $8.4 million, more than $3 million above the National Republican Campaign Committee’s $5.3 million.

The Democratic National Committee raised $7.4 million. The Republican National Committee raised $7.1 million.

And the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee outraised the National Republican Senatorial Committee by about $1 million, $4.6 million to $3.4 million.

As expected, the Alaska Democrats also did better on federal fundraising than the Republicans. In September, the party raised more than $41,000 while the Republicans raised $11,425. For the year to date, the Dems in Alaska have raised $348,418 to the Republicans $64,821.

This money doesn’t include money raised by either party for state candidates, only to help federal candidates. For the Dems, most, if not all, of that money will go to getting U.S. Sen. Mark Begich elected. The Republicans still have to choose their candidate. After the primary in August, the national committees will assess the viability of their candidate and transfer money accordingly.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Lisa Murkowski announces that she’s running in 2016

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski put to rest persistent rumors that she wasn’t going to run again in 2016, when her seat is up. “Yes, I’m running,” she said on Friday, where she was attending the first Alaska Women’s Summit at Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. “I guess I’m announcing on AmandaCoyne.com,” a fact which she and others in the room found amusing.

She did admit that she gets frustrated with her job, but then she thinks about all the work that went into her 2010 write-in campaign to make sure that Joe Miller didn’t take her seat.

“I didn’t work so darned hard to give it up,” she said.

The rumors were perpetuated in large part because she hasn’t been fundraising in the state. She said she wasn’t doing so to allow other Republicans who are running for office in 2014 to raise money. She said she’s doing her fundraising outside of the state.

Indeed, it’s tough for federal candidates to raise money in the state. The only state or territory that gave less so far in the federal 2014 cycle is Guam and Vermont.

Murkowski, a moderate, will likely face a challenger for her seat, and she’ll have to get through another grueling primary. And while she has gained a great deal of respect nationally for her role in ending the shutdown, many say that her stances, particularly on social issues such as gay rights, is going to make it very difficult for her to win the Republican primary.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Alaskan politicians playing games with our money and our health

As of October 1, the federal government is shut down. Driving the shutdown are some Republicans intent on repealing or delaying the Affordable Care Act. Come January roughly 66,000 Alaskans, some even with preexisting conditions, will be able to buy affordable health insurance on the private market for the first time ever.

That includes me. According to a broker, I’ll probably be paying about $500 a month for a plan with a $1200 deductible.

For me that’s a great deal. If not for the new health care law, I would be paying about $1500 a month for such insurance.

That’s a $1000 a month difference. That’s real money. That’s a mortgage. That’s money that can be used to support private Alaska businesses.

U.S. Rep. Don Young voted on Monday yet again to delay the program for a year. Senate hopeful Joe Miller would go further. He would repeal the whole thing. The other Republican hopeful, Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell has indicated that he would do the same.

For decades, Young has been the beneficiary of the best health insurance available, which has been highly subsidized by the tax payers. He’s now on Medicare. However, in 2009, the plan most favored by members of Congress was Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covered a family for about $1,030 a month. Taxpayers paid $700 of that.

Young, and all the members of Congress, also have government-funded private doctors on the Hill available to them.

As a veteran of our armed services, Miller is eligible for tax funded healthcare.

As a state of Alaska official, Treadwell doesn’t have to pay anything for his insurance. The state health insurance plan is better than almost any plan available on the private market. And, it’s all funded by the citizens of Alaska.

Let me repeat that: As a state worker, Treadwell doesn’t have to pay any monthly premiums for a plan that’s better than nearly any plan normal Alaskans get or can buy themselves.

Funny how politicians always seem to know how to get theirs.

If the health care act is delayed and I can’t sign up for it, I’ll be spending roughly more than $12,000 than I would otherwise. And if only 10,000 Alaskans of comparable health, age and income sign up under ObamaCare, it will save us a collective $120 million.

That’s more than Alaska makes off of taxes from mining, cigarettes and alcohol combined.

The federal government shut down at midnight while the House continues to leverage the budget continuing resolution as a means of delaying ObamaCare. Federal workers all across the state will be affected. So will the elderly and the disabled. The stock market has already fallen as the result of instability. Most of Alaskans who have retirement accounts have at least some of it in the stock market. We’ve all lost money that we’ll probably never get back.

The health care law will not be delayed. Obama will not allow it.

So what’s happening is this: Some Republican politicians are playing partisan games with our money and our health.

I’m going to go to a broker tomorrow and sign up for health insurance through the exchanges, which will be available on January 1. For the first time, I’ll be able to buy affordable, private health insurance. I won’t be getting as good of a deal as Young, Treadwell or Miller.

But I won’t complain. I’m going to have better and more affordable health insurance. And I’ll pass on some of what I’m going to save to Alaska businesses.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Mead Treadwell courts tea party and applauds Ted Cruz

Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell posted on his Facebook page that he “applauded” Sen. Ted Cruz’s attempt at defunding the Affordable Care Act. He said that “when” he’s elected, he would “stand and work with Senators like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.”

Treadwell is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate. So far, the only other declared candidate is tea party favorite Joe Miller. For years in Alaska, Treadwell had a reputation as being a moderate Republican. He gave money to liberal Democrats, talked about global warming being at least in part caused by human activity, and worked to get the U.S. to sign on to the Law of the Sea Treaty, all of which, particularly the latter, are verboten to the tea party.

That began to change when he ran for lieutenant governor in 2010 and began to court the conservative and tea party vote. In 2010, he declined to endorse Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was a long time friend of Treadwell’s, against Joe Miller.

He did, however, support her during her write-in campaign against Miller, which infuriated many tea party activists.

Treadwell is now staunchly anti-abortion, repeatedly rails against federal encroachment, and has made repealing the Affordable Care Act a major part of his platform.

A spokesman for Miller indicated that Miller would not readily cede the tea party vote to Treadwell. “Joe has been standing strongly with fellow tea partiers Cruz and Lee and has signed the Senate Conservatives Fund pledge to defund Obamacare,” the spokesman told the conservative site The Daily Caller. ”Unless, Mead just signed on today, he has not. He is shown as a thumbs down on their site.”

While Treadwell’s embrace of Cruz’s “filibusterer” is designed to get him some traction with tea party activists in Alaska, it’s questionable if he will succeed. It also runs counter to the views of some in the Senate Republican leadership, who are increasingly vocal about Cruz “burning bridges” in that organization.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Palin likely won’t run for Senate, but won’t shy from endorsing candidate in primary

On Fox News Sunday, former Gov. Sarah Palin indicated that it was unlikely she would run for U.S. Senate, but said she wouldn’t shy from endorsing a candidate in the GOP primary. She said that although Sen. Ted Cruz and other “good guys” in the Senate need “reinforcements,” any reinforcement likely won’t include her.

“It takes someone who has the stomach and the patience that are necessary to live and dwell in the cesspool that is D.C., which is really quite corrupt,” she said. “I have young children. I want to keep them nice and pure.”

She did, however, suggest that she’s going to endorse another candidate in the GOP primary.

“I would endorse someone,” she said. “I’ve never been one to shy away from calling it like I see it, and putting my money on someone who is willing to serve for the right reasons, do the right thing, and not be a typical go-along-to-get-along politician. Certainly not a RINO,” Palin said.

It’s unclear who would get her endorsement. So far, former candidate Joe Miller and current Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell have officially announced that they are running. Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan is also expected to jump in.

Palin had been a Miller supporter in 2010, but that relationship might have irrevocably soured when Miller failed to say whether or not Palin was qualified to be president.

If she has a personal relationship with Treadwell, it’s gone under the radar. He wasn’t part of her administration and she and Treadwell’s mentor Wally Hickel had a strained relationship. Too, Treadwell told Politico that he would be “surprised” if Palin made an endorsement in the GOP primary. Palin doesn’t cotton well to politicians saying what she will and won’t do.

However, Treadwell is positioning himself as a family values candidate, and has made repealing ObamaCare one of his main campaign issues, as has Palin.

Palin recruited Sullivan to be Alaska’s attorney general, but it’s unclear if his ideology will align with hers.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

At the Republican Party picnic: the calm before the battles begin

The national Democrats are calling the upcoming Republican primary race for U.S. Senate in Alaska a “civil war” in the making. Indeed, it’s likely going to get brutal, at least between declared candidates Joe Miller and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, whom the Miller people seemingly want to destroy.

But if there is going to be a civil war, the Republican Party picnic held at Kincaid Park in Anchorage was the calm before the storm of battles begins.

Everyone seemed to get along just fine, inside the chalet, that is. Trouble was brewing outside, however, where right-wing activists were at work on their plan to oust Treadwell.

But inside, Reps. Mike Hawker and Craig Johnson stood in harmony as they dished out chow with Gabrielle LeDoux and Lance Pruitt. Sen. Lesil McGuire was even trying to be friendly to former challenger Jeff Landfield. Mayor Dan Sullivan’s eyes twinkled Irishly.

Those working the Joe Miller booth, absent Miller himself, smiled at the new Republican Party chair Peter Goldberg. One woman working the booth actually agreed when he said, “everybody here wants to protect liberty.”

Kids bounced in the inflatable bouncy houses. A band played on. Randy Ruedrich flippantly flipped burgers, all the recent Tea Party and Ron Paul travails behind him. Rep. Lora Reinbold appeared to have temporarily forgotten that Obamacare is going to be the ruination of the country. Rep. Lindsay Holmes seemed to fit right in with her new tribe.

Sen. Kevin Meyer had a certain glow about him. Who wouldn’t? He was recently in Rome where he was at a mass in St. Peter’s Square that was blessed by the Pope. Sen. Anna Fairclough, who spent most of the evening picking up plates and wiping tables, lived up to her reputation that she is at her most content when she’s working and appeared to forget that her name is nearly unpronounceable.

Sen. Charlie Huggins, who is NOT, by the way, running for lieutenant governor, opted to sit like normal people do with his burger rather than eating it while doing one-armed pushups.

As always, Sen. Cathy Giessel strode through the room with perfect posture.

Gov. Sean Parnell looked casual and calm for a change, pleased that he had sponsored the pony rides. And Mead Treadwell was in his element amongst his staffers of young, preppy college kids who wore his logo on their polo shirts.

Inside, Republicans were doing their right-wing version of Kumbaya, while outside, someone was busy plastering cars with flyers highlighting an article where Mead Treadwell was quoted as saying that he voted for Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 primary and the general against Joe Miller.

“I think Alaskans made the right decision,” he said in voting for Murkowski.

The flyer highlighted the fact that Murkowski supports gay rights and a women’s right to choose. Treadwell has been trying to position himself as a socially conservative candidate.

“When you voted for Lisa you are responsible for the policies she votes for,” the flyer said. “You can’t have it both ways Mead.”

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Republican operatives start to descend

Republican wonderkid Chris Turner, a Texas based political consultant, was spotted in Anchorage earlier this week. Although you wouldn’t know it from his firm’s lousy website, he is one of the industry’s rising stars supposedly having won 92 of the 100 races that his firm was involved in during the 2012 campaign cycle.

Most likely he was doing some recon for the 2014 Senate race, as any Republican political consultant worth his or her spit should be doing, giving the millions that will be spent on the race.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

The ‘quiet governor’ creates noise

Early evening Friday announcements are normally reserved for bad news and document dumps. So, that Gov. Sean Parnell would announce his future intentions on a Friday after 5 p.m. struck many, including this writer, as flatfooted. Then again, Parnell’s not known for his ability to generate excitement. In fact Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell once called him a “quiet governor” in front of a group of businessmen and officials from all across the globe visiting Alaska to discuss opportunities in the Arctic. The president of Iceland was there. Parnell was somewhere else being quiet.

But sometimes—well at least once anyway—he gets it right. In the weeks leading up to Parnell’s announcement, nearly all of Alaska’s political establishment had assumed that he would forgo a run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Mark Begich and instead stay the course. But in the hours leading up to Parnell’s 5:50 p.m. announcement in Fairbanks, the political trap lines were buzzing. Had everyone been wrong? In the past weeks, had Parnell been able to muster the political courage to take Begich on?

Why else would he choose to make an announcement at an event—the Alaska Republican Women’s Convention– where both Rep. Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski were in attendance?

Even those who should have known were second guessing their assumptions. The backbone of Alaska’s Republican Party was in Fairbanks waiting to hear his plans. Party stalwarts like don’t-mess-with-Paulette Simpson from Juneau was there. Rhonda Boyles from Fairbanks and newly elected Rep. Lynn Gattis from Wasilla, were there. (Everyone knows that you shouldn’t mess with them either.) Sen. President Charlie Huggins and House Speaker Mike Chenault showed. The room was packed. Everyone waited and whispered.

So, an announcement that might have been as exciting as waiting for water to boil-turned into an event. It might just be the most exciting one of the governor’s race.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

North Pole refining Koch brothers likely to be involved in upcoming Alaska Senate race

The New York Times reports that the thumping conservatives — particularly tea party conservatives — have taken in the past few years isn’t scaring off the mega donating Koch brothers. The pair, along with their long list of advocacy groups, foundations and tangled knots of libertarian whatnots plan to be out in full force come the next election cycle.

According to the NYTs:

“(T)he brothers want their network to play a bigger role in cultivating and promoting Republican candidates who hew to their vision of conservatism, emphasizing smaller government and deregulation more than immigration and social issues. They are also seeking closer control over groups within their network, purging or downgrading those that did not deliver last year and expanding financing for those that performed well.”

The NYTs said that the pair hasn’t decided whether or not it will be involved in primaries. But it’s hard to see them resisting, considering that the primaries are where the battles for the Republican soul are fought, battles that are the raison d’être for the brothers.

What does this mean for Alaska? For one, the upcoming race against U.S. Sen. Mark Begich is expected to be one of the hottest in the country. And the Republican primary will be especially smoking. Rabid conservative Joe Miller and newly invented conservative stalwart Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell have both said that they’re all but in. And then there’s DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan, who is looking increasingly like the dark horse candidate.

All of this is perfect Koch brother fodder, and all of this will happen on the heels of a contract for royalty oil that the state approved with Koch brother owned Flint Hill Resources, which has a refinery in North Pole, Alaska.

Under the terms of the contract, the state will deliver a maximum of 30,000 barrels a day of its royalty oil to Flint HIlls for five years, beginning next year. The contract is worth an estimated $3.5 billion to $5.9 in revenue for the state and billions for the Koch brothers.

In addition to being one of the state’s largest refineries, Flint Hills is one of the Alaska Railroad Corporation’s largest customers. They also own a tank farm in the Port of Anchorage area by Ship Creek. And they hope to own a majority of the U.S. Senate, including a new Republican senator from Alaska.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com