Alaska-Japanese LNG partnership emerging

As members of the resource committees in the Alaska state Legislature are focusing on the mammoth, 40-year old dream of a large diameter natural gas pipeline, the relatively modest bullet line, or the Alaska Stand Alone Project, appeared to be moving along with a potential big investor.

The state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp., charged with making the bullet line a reality, announced today that the Japanese Resources Energy Inc., or REI, is interested in making a multibillion dollar investment in the line, and buying a large amount of LNG—as much as 150 MMscf per day—from the state.

According to AGDC, REI visited the Anchorage offices on Wednesday to give a presentation which expressed interest in “exploring opportunities to assist with the financing of the ASAP project.” The investments include an LNG facility, local storage, export terminal and ocean transportation assets.

REI, made up of large businesses and a bank in Japan, has been in Alaska for years, trying to establish relationships and work with Alaska’s government to enter into a joint agreement to sell the state’s North Slope gas to Japan.

In 2012, then DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan told the consortium that it should deal with AGDC. At the time, however, AGDC was, for various reasons, in no position to be dealt with. Now, however, the time appears ripe.

AGDC President Dan Fauske said that “REI would be an excellent anchor tenant” for the project as it heads to open season in 2015.

“Today’s presentation reaffirms our belief that we have a commercially viable project capable of delivering gas to Alaskans by 2020,” Fauske said.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Gubernatorial candidate Mallott’s $230,000 campaign haul surprises some

According to his campaign, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Byron Mallott raised $233,427 from October 2013 to February 1st, 2014, and received 1,100 individual contributions. Mallott will not file his official fundraising report until the deadline this weekend, but apparently wanted to get something out on the same day that Gov. Sean Parnell filed his report, showing that he had raised $407,253.

Mallott, who hasn’t been overly visible in Anchorage, did better than some pundits in Anchorage had been predicting. Anchorage based political consultant Marc Hellenthal, for one, was surprised and impressed, he said. He said that he didn’t believe that Mallott would raise more than $100,000, mostly because he’s run a relatively low-profile campaign.

Apparently, however, Mallott has been more active outside of Anchorage than many knew. According to his campaign, Mallott has been holding “Conversations with Alaskans” all across the state. His travels have been in keeping with his stump speeches, which have called on the state’s leaders to reach out beyond the power centers and to listen to all Alaskans.

“We’re going to run a spirited campaign that unites Alaskans around common values and common sense, and we’re off to a great start,” Mallott said in a press release.

Mallott is a young 70-year-old and has both business and political experience. If elected, he would be Alaska’s first governor of Alaska Native descent.

A few things to keep in mind:

It’s unclear how much money Mallott spent getting those donations. His campaign didn’t immediately answer that question. Parnell still has more than $330,000 cash on hand.
As Mallott pointed out in his release, he raised more money than did Parnell during the comparable period when Parnell ran in 2010.
Because Mallott got into the race in October, Parnell had a six-moth fundraising advantage on him.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Parnell raises more than $400,000 this election cycle

Gov. Sean Parnell filed his disclosure with the Alaska Public Offices Commission on Wednesday morning, showing that he has raised $407,253 this election cycle, which ran from April 15, 2013 to Feb. 1 of this year. He spent $76,220, leaving him with a hefty amount to spend on the race.

Parnell’s campaign said in a press release that about 93 percent of that money came from 1,100 Alaskan donors, who are limited to $500 donations per year.

“I am both grateful and humbled by the incredible amount of support shown by Alaskans,” Parnell said in the release. “Our message of proven leadership and opportunity for all Alaskans is resonating.”

The reports aren’t officially due until Saturday. The other candidates, independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott haven’t yet filed their reports. Neither was immediately available for comment.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Groups target Senate candidate Dan Sullivan

Groups supporting Sen. Mark Begich were busy on Tuesday attacking the GOP candidate Dan Sullivan, who is the GOP fundraising front-runner, and appears to be the candidate to target. On Tuesday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out a video of Sullivan walking down the street in D.C., talking to Republican strategist Mike Dubke. According to Sullivan’s campaign, he was simply in route to a breakfast meeting of the Ripon Society, a Republican group that promotes Republican principles.

Later on Tuesday, the Alaska based super-PAC Put Alaska First, which supports Begich, released its first attack ad against Sullivan. Jim Lottsfeldt, who is running the super-PAC, said it’s a $49,000 ad buy and is running throughout the state.

The ad targets Sullivan’s residency in Alaska, and makes much of his time away from the state. Sullivan’s campaign fired back, saying that the ad is proof that Democrats and Begich don’t value national service. “During the time in question, Dan left Alaska to serve our country in the War on Terror in the White House, in the U.S. Marine Corps, and as a U.S. Assistant Secretary of State under Condoleezza Rice,” Mike Anderson, Sullivan’s campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

Read the full statement here:

This new ad paid for by Michael Bloomberg and Begich-Obama’s special interest friends proves two things: One, the Democrats fear Dan Sullivan most of all, and Two, Mark Begich and his cronies do not value national service. During the time in question, Dan left Alaska to serve our country in the War on Terror in the White House, in the U.S. Marine Corps, and as a U.S. Assistant Secretary of State under Condoleezza Rice. Dan then returned to Alaska to faithfully serve Alaska as our Attorney General and as the Commissioner of Natural Resources. Now is the time to put a warrior for Alaska back in the Senate.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Legislature starts to question TransCanada’s role in building LNG line

Members of the Alaska state Senate are beginning to question whether or not TransCanada is the right company for the state to partner with to build a large diameter natural gas pipeline that all told could cost more than $60 billion. The pipeline, which would carry natural gas from the North Slope to tidewater that would be shipped as LNG, would be one of the largest construction projects in the world. Legislation being considered this session, introduced by Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration, would begin to bind the state with TransCanada for generations.

However, the state has not put the newly conceived LNG project up for bid. Nor has it appeared to consider other companies that might partner with the state to build the line.

“It’s not Exxon, BP and Conoco’s responsibility to see that the state is aligned and to protect our interests. We have to protect our interests with TransCanada,” said Sen. Bert Stedman during a Senate majority press conference. Other members of the majority, including Sen. Peter Micciche, said during the press conference that they will look hard at the partnership.

The administration has proposed legislation that would begin the process of building the natural gas pipeline, a project that’ s been in the works for over 40 years. The initial legislation is just a start, the administration has said. However, it’s a start with a start at binding agreements and a multimillion dollar price tag attached to it.

TransCanada and Alaska go back a long way, most recently when it was the company chosen by the legislature in 2008 to build a pipeline to go from Prudhoe Bay through Canada. It was the only company then that designed a project to fit specific “must haves” that were delineated by Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration.

In exchange, the company was entitled to receive $500 million of state money to allow it to get to crucial commercial agreements with the companies that own the lease rights to the gas—ExxonMobil, BP and Conoco– and companies willing to ship the gas. For various reasons, those commercial agreements all dissipated. Legal contracts that the state has with TransCanada, however, haven’t.

Some legislators are wondering if the state has stuck with TransCanada simply to delay potential legal issues.

Democratic Sen. Hollis French would like the Senate Judiciary Committee to explore the legal contracts the state has with TransCanada. So far, however, Senate President Charlie Huggins hasn’t assigned that bill to the committee.

“There’s discomfort in the Capitol about whether we’re getting shoehorned into this new gasline deal with a partner that didn’t deliver in the last deal,” French said. “What’s the cost of shopping around?” he asked.

Legislators have likened the relationship with TransCanada to a marriage. French continued with the metaphor. “It’s like we’re staying in the marriage for the sake of the children without knowing who the children are,” he said.

The state has hired various consultants to help it understand that contracts. However, the bulk of committee testimony so far has been used by TransCanada, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and BP, all of whose testimony appears to be coordinated.

Meanwhile, rumors persist that behind closed doors, some of the producing companies are also quietly questioning TransCanada’s role in the project.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Correction: The original version of the story said that Sen. Hollis French was on the “Judicial” Committee. There is no such thing as a “Judicial” Committee. It’s the Judiciary Committee and Sen. Bill Wielechowski is now the minority member.

Crossroads bashes Begich over missing unemployment vote. AFL-CIO comes to his defense.

Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS, is airing a radio ad in Alaska, bringing up a month’s-old story about U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s trip to Hawaii when the Senate was voting on an unemployment extension. Begich missed the procedural vote on Jan. 7 to deliver a speech to the American Aviation group, to meet Hawaii’s governor and to attend fund raisers. The missed vote was well covered when it happened. Begich said at the time that the Hawaii trip was planned well in advance of the procedural vote. (Listen to the ad here: Hawaii radio ad.)

In the ad, a narrator berates Begich for missing work to go to Hawaii. To the backdrop of Hawaiian music, the voice of a young man exclaims, “Surf’s up dude. Cowabunga!” And in a bit of irony, Crossroads, a group that supports Republicans, tells listeners to call Begich’s office to tell him we need a “fully funded unemployment extension,” an extension that Senate Republicans have been repeatedly blocking. Begich has voted repeatedly to extend unemployment benefits.

Alaska AFL-CIO issued a press release, defending Begich over the ad. “The hypocrisy of this ad is thick. Karl Rove attacking Mark Begich for not supporting working families is akin to me giving a lecture on hair styling and beauty products,” AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami said.

Beltrami, it should be noted, is bald.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Inside Edition gives taste of new Palin reality show

As many might have heard, the Sportsman Channel, which picked up the rights to the Iditarod, is also featuring a new Sarah Palin reality show, entitled, “Amazing America With Sarah Palin.” The show is debuting in April and is described like this: “Mrs. Palin will take us nationwide to find the people and places that share and reflect her passion for what makes our country amazing.” Nice work if you can get it. (From at least one of show’s promo pics, it also appears that Palin has a new hairdo!)

If two months is too long to wait, you can get your fix on Inside Edition, which will be doing a little inside the filming thing in Wasilla for Palin’s 50th birthday. You can catch it at 4:30 on Tuesday on channel 5. Watch the promo here.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Senate candidate Sullivan has more contributors than Dems say, but still not enough.

On Friday the Alaska Democratic Party put out a press release about the number of Alaskans who contributed to U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan’s campaign. The Dems, quoting the Alaska Dispatch, said that Sullivan’s fourth-quarter FEC report shows that he only had 130 Alaska contributors. This is evidence, they say, of Sullivan’s tepid support in this state. Sullivan’s from Ohio, and has been back and forth from Alaska to D.C. since 1997, and his challengers have been trying to paint him as a carpetbagger.

Raising nearly $1.3 million, Sullivan leads the money race among the GOP primary-race contenders, and although he doesn’t have as much money on hand, he outraised incumbent Sen. Mark Begich, who raised about $850,000 during the last quarter. Although the percentages of total funds raised inside and outside the state were about the same for both, the release pointed out that Begich had more than 1,100 Alaska contributions during the same period.

The truth, however, is more complicated. According to his campaign, Sullivan actually had 320 Alaska donors, but because unlike Begich, the campaign didn’t list donors who gave less than ~~$250~~ $200, those people don’t show on the FEC report.

Too, Sullivan doesn’t have nearly the same name recognition as does Begich and entered the race two weeks into the filing period.

Still 320 Alaskan donations is a small number, and the campaign needs to be more effective in reaching out to Alaskans if it wants to be competitive against Begich. From what I can tell so far, Sullivan’s campaign is still focusing its attention on attracting large, out-of-state donors. It’s only released one web-based ad and doesn’t appear to be as acitve soliciting Alaska donors as his competitors.

Begich, in the meantime, is aggressively sending out numerous fundraising appeals. Additionally, his campaign has aired several radio ads, and third-party groups, including the National Association of Realtors, the American Chemistry Council, and Bristol Bay Native Corp., are airing ads thanking Begich for his support.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

The week in Alaska politics: Lily Stevens speaks out, Parnell charms and oilies don’t.

From my column that was published in the Anchorage Daily News on Sunday:

Republicans in their finery gathered a week ago Saturday night at the Bridge Restaurant in Anchorage to celebrate Lincoln Day, courtesy of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club. All the usual suspects gathered: Gov. Sean Parnell, former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman, who — with a top hat and a fake beard — looks amazingly like Lincoln. Lt. Gov. and Senate candidate Mead Treadwell sat with the governor, while his primary opponent, Dan Sullivan, sat with Rev. Jerry Prevo and his lieutenant, Glenn Clary. Even Joe Miller, the third member of the primary faceoff, showed. A certain low-level buzz follows Miller wherever he goes. Blame it on magnetism. Star power. Black helicopters.

Whatever it is, this was the pleasant Joe Miller. And he was well-dressed, more than can be said for at least one other politician in the room. Apparently, someone told mayoral candidate Dan Coffey that because he co-owns the Alaska ACES and was in charge of the ACES auction item, he should dress in ACES super-fan regalia. The gold beads for the games of “heads and tails” rounded out the image.

“This is embarrassing,” he said as someone in a tux walked by.

Parnell introduced Lily Stevens, daughter of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, as the keynote speaker. Before that, if someone had told me Parnell could melt hearts, I’d have said the pot campaign must be going well. But there was a collective sigh when he quoted Lincoln: “(I)f all that has been said by orators and poets, since the creation of the world, in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice.”

Even Judy Eledge, one of the Alaska GOP’s grande dames, who’s likely heard all the praise and other things that a woman could hear, seemed to flutter.

Then it was Lily’s turn. The room erupted when she said, “I’m not going to mince words, my father should have never lost his seat.”

Another very different kind of fundraiser was held Thursday night at Cafe Del Mundo: This one for Anchorage Assembly candidate Pete Petersen, who used to be a Democratic state representative and doesn’t forget it. You can read all about what he did and what he would do if he were back in the House on his website.

Read the rest here.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amanamcoyne@yahoo.com

Parnell plays with blunt honesty. Will we let him?

Like all politicians, and indeed like all of us, Gov. Sean Parnell has made his share of unfortunate comments. Mostly he’s been given a pass for his slip ups. However, one of them caught up with him on Friday, when it came out that he gave Ketchikan reporters a little lecture on realpolitik and appeared to be warning of retribution for a lawsuit that the city is involved in regarding school funding.

“I do want to address this issue of how the lawsuit is viewed by legislators and by me because it does shade or color the reaction to Ketchikan requests,” he told reporters. “When Ketchikan asks for money, but yet the state may be on the hook in the lawsuit for more money, there’s kind of a reluctance, or reticence, to step forward for other projects.”

It wasn’t the wisest thing to say, and it didn’t help that it was a slow news day on Friday, and that it’s an election year. Bill Walker, an independent candidate, jumped.

“Parnell has chosen the wrong time, the wrong issue, and the wrong people to show himself as a bulldog,” Walker said. “We need a governor who knows when to go to battle and who he should be fighting for. The governor’s comments yesterday are a blatant, public attack on local government.”

On Saturday afternoon, Democratic challenger Byron Mallott, who doesn’t appear to have a rapid response team, also put out a release.

“The merits of the Ketchikan School funding lawsuit, education funding statewide and capital spending deserve careful and informed discussion and debate not threat or intimidation,” he said.

This likely wasn’t Parnell’s intent, but if nothing else comes out of it, it was a gift for Ketchikan. It’ll be awfully difficult now for Parnell to veto funds for the city.

Parnell might be uncurious and sheltered. He’s overly cautious and captive to his right flank. But despite Walker’s characterization, Parnell’s far from a “bulldog.” And he shouldn’t try to be one, if that’s what he was trying to do, which I doubt.

If he was truly trying to intimidate, he wouldn’t be doing so through the media. Those are the kinds of things that happen in back rooms, through a legislative liaison maybe, or a chief of staff. If he were trying to intimidate, he would be doing so at arm’s length. Think New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his bridge. Or, closer to home, Sarah Palin’s jejune hit squad, and the kind of fist thumping that characterized all of Frank Murkowski’s administration.

It seems to me that Parnell was trying to be honest, and for that, he’s paying a price, which is too bad. Rightly or wrongly, lawmakers will look askance at Ketchikan’s request for funds as the city sues for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s going to be a tough year, and everybody’s looking for excuses to withhold money. That’s just the way it is.

And given his historic abhorrence at budget cutting, this fact likely pains Parnell as much as anyone.

Not withstanding some of his policies—namely denying insurance to tens of thousands of poor Alaskans—Parnell, at his best, is a nice, Christian man who runs as squeaky clean of an administration as such a system allows. Sometimes, he’ll even forget the political ramifications and he’ll open up and be brutally honest. Sometimes we should let him.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Lies, damned lies, statistics and partisan polls

Two partisan polls from both sides of the aisle were released this week. Both of the polls included Alaska issues, and the U.S. Senate race. Both are more interesting than credible, but perhaps open a window of light into the race that has so far released few numbers.

The first poll was from the left wing firm, Public Policy Polling, commonly called PPP, and was conducted earlier this month. That firm is no stranger to Alaska polling. Following the gun control debate in Congress, the organization released an improbable poll that said that U.S. Sen. Mark Begich’s vote against gun control resulted in a decline of support among Alaskans.

In this poll, PPP polled 850 registered voters including 442 Republican primary voters. The firm’s methodology has changed some. Included in the robo calls are opt-in internet surveys. But it still can’t manage to get its demographics right. This one, like the one on guns, over sampled both women and Democrats.

The second is from Harper Polling, a right-wing firm, which surveyed 677 likely voters Jan. 20-22. Harper also uses robo calling and also appears to oversample women and Democrats, and although it has a similar margin of error as the PPP poll, it comes up with very different numbers. The left leaning group has Begich on top and the right leaning polling group has two of the GOP contenders beating Begich. Surprised?

Here’s PPP’s numbers:

Begich beats former DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan 41 to 37 percent.
Begich beats Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell 43 percent to 37 percent
Begich beats Joe Miller 45 to 25 percent.
In a GOP primary, Sullivan leads with 30 percent to Treadwell’s 25 percent and Joe Miller’s 20 percent.

Harper Polling comes up with the following:

Treadwell beats Begich 47 to 41 percent.
Sullivan beats Begich 47 to 41 percent.
Begich beats Miller 51 to 32 percent.

All of which perhaps proves the adage that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

It’s also worth noting that nobody who’s watching this race believes that the majority of the public at this point can distinguish between Dan Sullivan the Senate candidate and Dan Sullivan, the well-known Anchorage mayor.

Also, local pollster Marc Hellenthal, who knows how to poll this state, has Begich doing pretty well in Alaska, particularly in Anchorage, which had been a problem for him.

Hellenthal wouldn’t release the numbers, but he said that Begich seems to “have solved his Anchorage problem.”

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

In time for the Olympics, war over between GCI’s KTVA and KTUU

I didn’t follow the back and forth much, (read about the confusing mess here) but I do know that recently KTUU has been putting out statements about GCI not allowing rural and Southeast stations to air the Olympics. Maybe that’s the reason behind the detente. Maybe not. Anyway, here’s the memo sent to KTUU staff by general manager Andy MacLeod:

Today KTUU-TV’s signal will return to rural Alaska GCI systems. Also within several days our newscasts will return to GCI owned television stations and cable systems in southeast.

We and GCI have struck a long-term agreement on carriage that is a good deal for both companies and allows each to grow into the future. Most importantly it returns NBC and the Olympics and our Sochi coverage to rural GCI subscribers, and our news and Sochi coverage to southeast viewers.

I signed the multi year contract this morning. It is a full carriage agreement based on current industry practices and market based.

It is good for us, GCI and the viewers who rely on us.

I want to thank all of you who have answered viewer questions on the blackout, and kept the lines of communication open with the affected communities. Brad’s press release is attached.

When the signal is turned on is up to GCI, but undoubtedly they will work to air the opening ceremonies of the Olympics tonight, while Southeast news distribution is expected by Monday or so.

Fact checking Senate candidate Sullivan’s ObamaCare job-killing claim

U.S. GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan sent out a press release on Wednesday, regurgitating GOP talking points over a Congressional Budget Office report which, according to Sullivan, “spells trouble for Senator Mark Begich.” According to Sullivan, the report says that up to 2.3 million Americans could “lose their jobs as a result of Begich’s vote” on ObamaCare.

Apparently, Sullivan didn’t read the full report. While it’s true that the report estimates that people will be putting in fewer traditional work hours, they will be doing so in order to “take early retirement, work fewer hours or otherwise rearrange their work-home balance to take advantage of new subsidies for health insurance and new markets for individual policies that don’t depend on having a job.”

They won’t be stuck in jobs just to keep the insurance. They might even choose to start their own businesses without worrying aobut the crippling costs of buying insurance on the private market.

As the AP put it, “workers aren’t being laid off. They are taking themselves out of the workforce, in many cases opening job opportunities for others.” They are doing so because for the first time in their lives, many aren’t subject to an exploitative insurance industry and, like me, can buy affordable health insurance on the private market.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Tweet of the week: Treadwell spokesperson ribs Sullivan

.@DanSullivan2014: Check it out, I wrote like three letters…”Doer” #AKSEN http://t.co/75Ps4x1yHB

— Fred Brown (@FredBThird) January 31, 2014

Loose Lips: Begich takes it to the Koch brothers, an Arctic something or another, and an expensive war on judges.

Since I started my column in the Anchorage Daily News, I haven’t been keeping up as much with the daily prattle which people really seem to like. Instead, in the true tradition of “real” journalists everywhere, I’ve been spending my days deciding not to give people what they really want, but instead what they need.

Right now at least, I’m so over all of that. So here are a few items that nobody really needs to know but seem to like knowing:

Alaska state Sen. Lesil McGuire and Rep. Bob Herron, who serve as co-chairs of the Arctic something or another committee, are going to Seattle for some sort of Arctic dealeo and are having dinner with White House staff Thursday. Sorry to sound less than excited about this. I only get about 8 million emails a day about all the impending Arctic development, while all I see is lots of ice and companies trying to hightail it out of there.

Pete Peterson announced he’s running for Anchorage Assembly. There’ s a party for him Thursday at Café Del Mundo. I’ll be there, if for no other reason than because boxing champion Regina Manteufel will be there also. A towering woman, Manteufe has spent the last few years trying to get clothes for women who are out of prison and need to go to job interviews. But she hasn’t given up on competitions. Last year, she won second place in the women’s water-hauling contest at the state fair.

From Sen. Mark Begich’s Facebook page about the Koch Brothers’ owned North Pole Flint Hills refinery, which announced on Tuesday that it is closing:

The Koch Brothers will close the Flint Hills Refinery and lay off an estimated 90 Alaska workers. They’re doing this while pushing an agenda that’s out-of-touch with Alaska and spending tens of millions on political attacks. I’m born-and-raised in Alaska and I’d never bet against Alaskans.

Yeah, tell that to those 90 workers who will be losing their jobs and the Alaska Railroad, which is losing its biggest costumer.

One of my favorite reporters in this state was recently pumping out stories for the Juneau Empire. Now she’s not. More to come.

I haven’t yet been to the state capital this session, but word is that a fight is brewing behind closed doors, whereby BP and ConocoPhillips are quietly aligning themselves against Exxon and TransCanada over the large diameter pipe dream of a gasline that everyone knows will likely never get built.

This one was predictable: From an email send out by Jim MInnery from Alaska Family Action regarding an Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock’s ruling to stay new Medicaid abortion regulations as requested by Planned Parenthood:

Many of you have asked what you can do to protest Judge Suddock’s involvement in this case, since his former law partner once helped represent Planned Parenthood in an earlier lawsuit over Medicaid funding of abortion. It’s outrageous that Judge Suddock is still even on this case. We recommend that you file a complaint with the Alaska Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Expect the fight to continue and to get nasty and costly. The last big fight over Medicaid and abortion was in 2001. Abortion rights were upheld by the Alaska Supreme Court and the state ended up paying up $618,000 in 2001 dollars. As Sen. Berta Gardner recently wrote, court challenges are likely going to cost the state a million or more this year, a year that is supposed to be the beginning of some sort of state austerity program.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Correction: In an earlier version I called Sen. Berta Gardner Rep. Berta Gardner. That’s bad, but not as bad as misspelling Beth Kerttula’s name in a headline recently. Also, I once called Mead Treadwell Mean Treadwell, which is all wrong in all sorts of ways. The lesson? I need an editor who’s willing to work long hours, for free, with no particular goal in mind and who’s willing to be universally disliked for it all.