Here’s an ad that began running state wide today featuring First Lady Sandy Parnell, coming to the defense of her husband on the National Guard scandal. I can’t say for sure that I’ve seen all the ads playing in the governor’s race, but this is the most effective one that I have seen. If anything will work to ensure Alaskans that the governor is taking this issue seriously, it’s more ads like this, talking directly to Alaskans, and more of Mrs. Parnell, who has kept herself out of the spotlight during her husband’s tenure. (I sat down recently with Mrs. Parnell. Expect a story on that soon.) Watch here:
The Walker Mallott campaign had nothing to do with the creation of the National Guard ad, does not approve of it and by law, has no authority over it.
http://www.walkermallottforalaska.com/walker-mallott-campaign-not-tied-to-recent-ad-featuring-former-alaska-national-guard-member/
Before anyone else wants to further politicize this sad episode, I suggest they read the comments from retired Chaplain Lt. Col. Rick Cavins who describes himself as: “one of those Chaplains” at the eye of the storm.
http://www.adn.com/article/20141021/how-can-alaska-guard-family-trust-solutions-those-who-ignored-pleas
Can’t be too surprised about Sarah’s endorsement. Who would want it these days? She and Bill Walker both quit their elected terms. They are both populist people with similar policies – and look where those got Alaska. Years spent undoing damage done with ACES, AGIA. Do we really want to go back to a Palin mentality? That’s where Bill Walker gets us.
Mae, Mae, Mae,
You claim to be a college teacher and a Bible teacher and you didn’t capitalize “God.” You used the wrong article for “election.” It’s “an” election, not “a” election and which tense of the verb is “might of not happened?” Aside from it being inarticulate and weird phrasing, it’s grammatically incorrect. Did you mean “might HAVE not happened?” Who knows what you really mean in your hateful, illogical mind?
If you’re teaching anyone, having not mastered second grade English, God help your “students.”
His kids’ school knew. The chaplains called the Governor from Grace Christian.
It’s the Great Unwashed in the public schools he kept in the dark to protect his phony Christian persona that enabled him to bamboozle his supermajority in the legislature into passing one really bad law after another.
All to impress Karl Rove with his “message control” skillz.
I think our dear governor has a personality disorder.
Two comments : 1. Joe Banard comments that those people stupid enough to fall for Palin’s hockey mom routine will believe Sandy Parnell. Obviously, Mr. Barnard doesn’t keep up with things. I wonder how he feels now that Sarah “the quitter” Palin and her thig husband Todd “the birthday brawler” Palin have endorsed Bill Walker? Yep, you ggot some thinlking to do buddy. 2. The commenter known as STOCKHOLDER should be banned from commenting. Not because he isn’t entitled to his opiniion but because he’s either too stupid to recognize reality or is from outer space. There are several others who I disagree with, but Stockholder ranks among the dumb pretty high. .
My theory for what it is worth on the firings: 2 of the three were fired last week by the acting General who forgot he was working for a politician. He gets a call from the Gov office saying WTH. We needed to fire those people next week for a planned news conference. Hire them back and take the hit. He does and now Gov Parnell takes credit for re-firing them and another person for maximum effect to show that he is leading. For an organization that he is simultaneously claiming to not have had the power to control all these years.
So Sandy, if your daughter would have been one of the victims, would you be so supportive of your husband waiting four years before he took any significant action?
I suspect you would be far less than satisfied with your husbands inaction and lack of timeliness with this matter if it were yourself or someone you loved.
The only effective leadership with a purpose that I have seen to date is the School District authorities keeping their students safe. The ADN article today states that additonal cases of sexual assault are now being discussed and that these are in addition to the other cases, according to Police Chief Mew.
Other crimes not withstanding, I doubt if anyone now has any idea of how many sexual assault cases have actually been reported and huge questions remain about the 29 cases reported by Commissioner Katkus in his October 29, 2013 Compass Article. The same haphazard methods are still being used for example; in these latest cases why are only the Anchorage Police and not the State Troopers being involved as Katkus claimed both agencies were involved previously. Again, if any of these previous or additional purported crimes occurred on a military reservation (where the Anchorage Armory is located) where are the federal law enforcement agencies?
We still hear the apologists claiming the Governor has inadequate authority yet he just demonstrated the authority to remove three Guard Officer from their current positions this week and he had the authority to bar certain officers and other from that meeting with Guard members. I wonder what else he could have done.
Parnell still refuses to set this crisis aside from politics by appointing a special prosecutor and only one legislator has expressed any interest in attempting to put some structure around this mess using formal legislative inquiry procedures.
I was provided information earlier that some previous civil and criminal complaints involving Guard personnel appeared to have beeb resolved in a Court of Law. Unless the proper legal procedures are invoked that solution isn’t going to happen in this scandal ever. You can have non-judicial inquires, “troop meetings” and produce videos until the “second coming” and nothing of consequence will result.
This tragic and sad situation has now degenerated into pure political theater at the local and State level. I see the only hope now for justice for all concerned is from the Feds or perhaps a new person in charge of the Guard..
Hey Sandy, aren’t you the least bit happy the schools banned our Alaska National Guard?
I mean, come on, think about it. Someone is finally taking some specific action and protecting some potential victims.
Oh, and thank god it IS a election year or who knows what might of NOT happened.
FREDERICK M. GAMBLE )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 08-207 (ESH)
)
DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, )
ALASKA DEPARTMENT OF MILITARY )
AND VETERANS AFFAIRS, ALASKA )
ARMY NATIONAL GUARD, and the )
ALASKA NATIONAL GUARD YOUTH )
CORPS, )
)
Defendants. )
_____________________________________
Mr. Gamble, formerly Major Gamble… convicted of sexually abusing subordinates. He got a couple of years confinement. Of note is that this was not prosecuted by Alaskan authorities. He was finally caught and prosecuted while on Federal duty.
this case also contains allegations that there had been similar incidents of sexual misconduct while gamble was working at Alaska Military Youth Academy. Apparently He seeks to overturn his conviction claiming that the record of the earlier activity should not have been released to the investigating officer.
Perhaps we can get a whistle blower at Alaska Military Youth Academy to leak this file?
BACKGROUND
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiff joined the Alaska Army National Guard as a part-time member in 1992. (Orig.
Compl. at 3.)1 In 1994, he was serving as a Team Leader in the Alaska National Guard Youth
Corps when he was fired after being accused of some unspecified improprieties. (Id.) However,
plaintiff filed an administrative complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(“EEOC”), and he was ultimately reinstated to his position. (Id.) According to plaintiff, the
Chief of Staff of the Alaska Army National Guard told him that a file containing information
about these allegations would be destroyed by the Alaska Army National Guard (and by
extension the Alaska National Guard Youth Corps) as long as plaintiff was not involved in any
further incidents for at least one year. (Id.) Plaintiff left the Alaska National Guard Youth Corps
later in 1994, but he maintained his ties to the Alaska Army National Guard and became a fulltime
participant in 1997. (Id.)
In 2006, plaintiff’s guard unit was stationed in Afghanistan. (Id. at 2.) During this tour
of duty plaintiff was accused of sexual misconduct, including allegations by his own
subordinates, and the Army investigated the charges under Regulation 15-6. (Id. at 1-2, 19-20.)
During the investigation, plaintiff claims that his commanding officer, Col. R. Stephen Williams,
told him that “he had heard the plaintiff did similar things like this in the past.” (Id. at 20.)
According to plaintiff, Col. Williams also said that the Alaska National Guard Youth Corps was
sending a file detailing the 1994 investigation to the Alaska Army National Guard, which would
then provide it to Col. Williams. (Id.) Upon receiving the file, Col. Williams allegedly turned it
over to Lt. Col. Thomas, the officer overseeing the Regulation 15-6 investigation.2 (Id.)
Plaintiff offered his resignation in lieu of a court-martial (Id., Attach. 13), but the Army refused
his offer. (Id. at 5.) During the court-martial proceedings, a military judge suppressed
information from the 1994 incident. (Id. at 4.) However, according to plaintiff, Col. Williams
disclosed information about the 1994 incident to those in his command at various “town hall
meetings.” (Id. at 59-60.) Additionally, several military officers testified about plaintiff’s
disciplinary history, with one witness allegedly saying that “he knew of a sexual harassment
investigation back in Alaska.” (Id. at 85-88.) Plaintiff was convicted3 and sentenced to
confinement for two years, forfeiture of pay, and dismissal from the service. (Id., Attach. 4.)
Plaintiff is currently serving his sentence at a military facility in Oklahoma. (Id. at 1.)
Any implication that Parnell knew about rape and did nothing has been proven to be a smear campaign by the Walker campaign. That is clear to all observers and those who are hiding behind the skirts of Bill Walker should be ashamed. This has Walker written all over it.
This Guard cleanup IS the Choose Respect campaign — the governor is cleaning up the mess in a state -federal, shared-responsibility agency. He is asking all Alaskans to do the same in their villages and communities. I applaud him for taking on this huge problem.
For those who said Choose Respect was just a march…well it’s pretty obvious this governor is not just marching, but kicking a** and taking names. Go Parnell!
Jon,
If you had serial sexual predators working for you, and you knew that they were around teenaged children from our schools, why would you not alert our schools?
The schools are now doing what Parnell should have ordered years ago.
We alert Alaskans about sexual predators through the sex offender database- this is so we can find out if there is a predator that might be living too close to our children, or our wives- or grandmothers.
Would it have killed Parnell to alert the schools about his sexual predators years, months, or even a week ago? Why the hell is he keeping this stuff secret? Why did the schools have to find out about this from someone who had no recourse but to leak to the media?
Stockholder – go read Jill burke’s story in the ADN re the police investigations and prosecutions that occurred during the last four years. I have no idea why this level of detail is just coming out now but it paints a very different picture that what we were previously led to believe.
So the Anchorage school district (and all the others) had to find out that high school children were being raped by Guard members from the media. So the schools did the right thing. They acted promptly to protect the children. They booted Parnell’s predators out of the schools.
Parnell was too busy to share this important information with the schools? But he did have more time to make an ad where he hides behind his wife?
Maybe a competent leader would have had the decency to alert the schools about the predators that Parnell was told about FOUR YEARS AGO.
No wonder Walker has a double digit lead in this race.
Sandy seems nice but I don’t think there’s anyone who can shift the tide on the National Guard scandal. It’s not been dealt with well and shoving it off on past governors after six years isn’t going to fly.
How do you know this?
That (insert potty-mouthed expletive here) Bill Walker. If he and his hate-filled pals hadn’t used this for political gain we’d still have this under wraps.
Actually almost formulaic. How is this “great”? Expected; obvious; competently-produced.. but great? Not so much. The only surprise would have been if she didn’t defend her husband.
You gotta love it. Parnell and Tom Wright have Sandy Parnell cut an ad about the National Guard scandal, for political purposes- an ad that criticizes Bill Walker for using the scandal for political purposes.
Perhaps Mrs. Parnell can convince her husband and staff to make sure the emails and other documents they are hiding hit the air waves, so that Alaskans can make up their own minds about what the governor, his chief of staff, DMVA officials, Guard officials and others knew or didn’t know. Suppressing information because there is an election is what is truly shameful.
The governor can try to use his wife to attack Bill Walker while also claiming that problems in the National Guard started with previous governors. But the facts clearly show that her husband and chief of staff knew of alleged sexual assaults and other potential crimes in 2010. These crimes occurred on his watch. He is the governor, and the commander-in-chief of the Guard, and the buck stops there. No matter what he or any family member says. And to date the Parnell’s administration’s response is what is shameful.
It’s also interesting that the governor released an official video release, and now that things have been getting progressively worse, a campaign video with his wife, more or less saying the same thing while also attempting to lay the public outcry over the scandal at Bill Walker’s feet.
Maybe the next one with talk about owning a “respectable Republican cloth coat” and feature a cocker spaniel named Checkers.
In any case, elections are all about leadership, or lack thereof, and it’s fair for Walker or any Alaskan to raise the National Guard scandal- replete with sexual assaults involving members of the Guard and attempts to “groom” high school students for illicit purposes- when questioning Parnell’s leadership abilities.
Like it. Lots.
Oh barf. The people that fell for ol’ hockey mom Palin will equally fall for Sandy Parnell. Just another sign of howv close the election is.
Walker has played politics with the National Guard issue from the day he heard about it. The chaplains were anxious to tell their story. They approached candidate Walker too. What did he do? He leaked it to the press and threw it to Begich to capitalize on. This isn’t leadership; rather, its a despicable display of political greed. I think the Gov is working hard to get the mess cleaned up. Walker has no shame. He is a low-level gutter living guy trying to become something. Biill Walker is one bacvkroom deal that’s going to fail.
This ad is incredible. The First Lady really seems to speak from her heart. I agree with CPG49. Governor has very little actual authority over the ANG. He gets credit in my book for his persistance in investigating even after the Murkowski and Begich investigations turned up nothing. And, for releasing the report in the middle of an election cycle. I can’t imagine many other politicians who would be that forthcoming with the public.
The Hate ticket must really dislike this ad. Good job to Sandy P.
This message is compelling. Mrs. Parnell is either a tremendous actress or is telling the truth. I suspect the later is the case. She’s right, this issue didn’t start in this administration; rather, it started in the Knowles administration, under the Democrats, if not before. The difference, simply stated, is that Gov. Knowles issued an Administrative Order, held a press conference and appointed a commission that never did anything. Today, Gov. Parnell is taking the issue head on. What many may fail to understand is that the Governor, as commander-in-chief, has ultimate responsibility but very little authority to take action. Unfortunately, the reporters looking to sensationalize their story has failed to point out this significant detail. So, rather than issuing lots of press statements, Gov. Parnell is quietly working for the betterment of our troops. Parnell is an honorable and good man. Some of the columnists and journalists in this state look ike ill-informed partisans in their writings on this subject matter. Their bias and unwillingness to search for the truth speaks to their lack of character and professionalism. The governor is making a real and lasting difference. I hope Alaskans will allow him to finish the mop up.
An honest, compelling ad.