GOP Chair attempts to bar the door

The Alaska Republican Party State Executive Committee is to meet Monday evening at party headquarters in Midtown Anchorage to discuss dysfunctional party issues and what to do about the current chair, Debbie Brown. Brown’s been a continual thorn in the party’s side since she took over for ousted Russ Millette in February, who was the whole branch of thorns.

Recently, Brown has tried to fire nearly every unpaid party functionary, even the ones who were elected. Among those “fired,” are powerful party activist Paulette Simpson, Rev. Jerry Prevo’s right-hand-man Glenn Clary, and Tom Wright, chief of staff to House Speaker Mike Chenualt. (See Wright’s response below).

There is a little glitch, however. Brown supposedly is out of town. Before she left, she changed the locks on the door to the headquarters. Perhaps knowing that they could always channel G. Gordon Liddy to help with those locks, she sent out an email on Monday morning warning against those who might be tempted.

“No one is to enter the premises without permission from the State Chairman,” Brown wrote. “Any unauthorized attempt to enter the premises will be met by the authorities.”

Here’s Wright’s response to being fired by Brown:

Thank you for your email and attached letter in regards to my termination as the District V finance chair. Your letter and email are saving me the trouble from having to resign this position. I no longer wish to be associated with any duties related to the party under your leadership. I hope the termination is effective immediately.

There’s another chair waiting in the wings. Peter Goldberg is currently vice-chair and thought to be sane and sensible. We’ll see if that lasts.

Board of Fisheries confirmation expected to be whale of a fight

There are plenty of contentious issues to get through before the Legislature is expected to gavel out April 15. Oil taxes, for one. A bill that would facilitate building a bullet line to run gas from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska. A plan to begin the work to truck natural gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks. There’s Medicaid and abortion. There’s school choice and guns.

And then there’s the whale of politics: fish politics. On Monday beginning at 10:30 a.m., such politics will come to a head in a joint session, where both bodies will vote on Gov. Parnell’s choice to re-nominate Board of Fisheries members Vince Webster. The fight, which will pit the politically active sports fishermen against the big monied commercial guys, is expected to be brutal.

The powerful Kenai River Sportfishing Association (KRSA) put out an alert to urge members to contact their reps to vote against the nomination. Read the full letter here. In short, the association accuses Webster of favoring commercial interest at the expense of the sports fisheries.

Parnell’s prepping for a fight. His chief of staff, Mike Nizich, sent an email out to legislators (printed in full below) urging legislators to vote for Webster and questioning the veracity of KRSA’s claims.

It’s a risky move and Parnell is not one to take risks. We’ll see if it pays off.

Here’s the email Nizich sent to legislators:

I am aware of efforts to unfairly characterize Vince Webster’s actions as a Board of Fisheries member, including the following claims:

he is supposedly singlehandedly responsible for the new late-run Kenai River Chinook salmon escapement goal;
he allegedly reframed the Board’s late-run Kenai River Chinook salmon management plan agenda item to benefit setnetters at the expense of all other user groups and escapement;
he allegedly drives a personal agenda through unseemly means, including allegations related to specific fisheries.

These are misleading, incomplete, and in some cases, inaccurate statements about Vince Webster’s work on the Board. Indeed, the Governor never would have re-appointed him had if he believed such allegations were true. These claims are now being made by some in the eleventh hour to influence your vote.

Before voting “no” to Vince Webster’s reconfirmation, we ask you provide Vince the courtesy of a phone call to hear his response to recent allegations. Vince will make himself available to legislators to discuss his 6-year record on the Board. Although Vince is traveling out-of-state with his son, he is available to talk with you at (redacted).

Vince’s broad understanding of fisheries issues statewide, experience with Board process, and respect for public input are assets to the Board. Vince has been confirmed twice to serve two 3-year terms on the Board; this is a third appointment. Members are appointed with a view to providing diversity of interest and points of view in the membership (AS 16.05.221). His confirmation should not be blocked due to misinformation.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Hell hath no fury like a GOP chair scorned

If you thought that ousting her predecessor was going to put any fear in the pure Republican heart of Debbie Brown, think again. The new chair of the Alaska Republican Party is holding her ground, sticking with her principles, shining a light into the dark crony-capitalism infested corners of the GOP.

“Dear Fellow Republican,” the email she sent this week begins. “Today, I took a major step toward changing our course. The Regional Finance Chair positions for each region have been vacated to allow for applicants to be considered from all qualified Republicans, and elections are being arranged for many of the Regional Representative positions which serve on the Executive Committee.”

In other words, she fired all of the regional finance committee directors. On that list are such big names as Tom Wright, chief-of-staff to House Speaker Mike Chenault, and party faithful Paulette Simpson. In the Capitol building, Wright’s known as the 41st member of the Alaska House, and is thought to be more powerful than many of the 40 others. And everyone knows you don’t mess with Simpson.

This latest salvo came after she had already fired nearly everyone on other committees, even the ones who were elected.

As GOP watchers know, the party has been in nuclear meltdown mode since the Ron Paulers met the Joe Millers and knew that it was much more than a hunch, that this group should somehow form a fomenting family that reviled things like the Law of the Sea Treaty, the gold standard, the federal reserve, the media, abortion, ObamaCare, Lisa Murkowski, the World Bank, Agenda 21, etc, etc. But the real animus—one to which even the United Nations is second–is reserved for the “old” guard Alaska GOP, including in it nearly everyone who toiled on their own time to raise money for the party.

So, ~~they got rid of the old chair~~ when the former chair Randy Ruedrich retired, they mustered strength to put in Russ Millette, who was ousted after it became clear that he couldn’t raise the necessary funds that it takes to support candidates.

Brown, formerly vice chair, is now the head. Those who ousted Millette thought that it would be a matter of time before Brown decided that she couldn’t handle the pressure and leave her position in the charge of what they consider the old-guard vice chair ~~Paul~~ Peter Goldberg. (Though there’s some dispute about whether or not he is “old guard.” According to Ruedrich, he first met him at the meeting where Goldberg was elected. But from all accounts, he’s smart and sensible and that’s good enough in some circles to put him in that camp.)

But Brown doesn’t appear to be leaving her position anytime soon. Sources say that she did leave the state to avoid another, upcoming, Republican Party meeting, which was likely not going to be kind to her.

Or she might have just gone on a vacation, Or she might be holed up with her brethren in some bunker, aiming darts at cutouts of Randy Ruedrich, Glenn Clary, Frank McQueary, Susan Rice, et al.

In any case, and just in case people though she was less than serious, she changed the locks on the doors of the Republican Party headquarters in Midtown Anchorage before she left.

Contact Amanda Coyne at Amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

War on war on drugs finds unlikely ally in Sen. Fred Dyson

As anti-oil tax protesters protested outside of the Capitol building in Juneau; as they waved enlarged $5 billion checks from the state to ConocoPhillips, BP, and Exxon; as the chants “it’s our oil,” were chanted. As Democratic politicians took to the microphone proclaiming that they were here for the people, for the least of us, another bill, SB 56, was being debated in the Capitol building.

It’s a bill that takes a stab at undoing what many consider the egregious harm caused by the war on drugs. This is Democrat territory. But it wasn’t sponsored by the politicians who were chanting outside the Capitol building. It was sponsored by Republican Sen. Fred Dyson, a staunch, dyed-in-the-wool Republican if there ever was one.

It passed the Senate 17 to 2. Two of those most vocal Dems in Alaska, two who were shouting the loudest about taking care of the people, Sens. Bill Wielechowski and Hollis French, voted against it after French offered two failing amendments that would weaken the bill.

Here’s what the bill does: As of now, if you’re in possession of small quantities schedule I and II substances, like heroin, cocaine, and oxycodone, you can be slapped with a felony. There doesn’t need to be proof that you’ve ingested the drug. The drug might not even be yours. You still could be faced with a felony for your first offense. It’ll be on your record forever. You’ll not be able to join the military or vote. You won’t be able to carry a gun. You won’t be able to get a federal student loan. You won’t even be able to be a janitor in a public school.

If enacted, this bill would join 14 other states to make such simple possession a Class A misdemeanor, which still can carry with it up to a year in prison and a $10,000 fine. It’s supported by the ACLU, the Department of Corrections and a bevy of defense lawyers who have long been bemoaning the havoc our drug laws has wrought.

It’s also a bill that will save the state millions. The exact amount is unclear, but a preliminary fiscal note puts the savings at as much as $14 million a year.

Each prisoner costs the state $50,000 a year, and most of them are in for nonviolent offenses. The budget for the Alaska Department of Corrections is over $323 million a year, up from $167 million a year in 2005. Incarceration for both misdemeanor and felony drug offenses has increased by 63 percent since 2002. For felony drug offenses alone there’s been an 81 percent increase.

Dyson is trying to save the state money, but he’s also trying to undo some of the real damage done to people by those on his side of the aisle since 1982, when Alaska’s current drug laws were enacted.

“I suspect it was those on my end of the political spectrum who wanted to posture and beat our chests and say we’re going to be tough on crime at a time when lots of these drugs were getting a lot of publicity,” Dyson said on the Senate floor.

“We shouldn’t put you in jail as a felon if you’re doing something unwise,” Dyson said. “Almost all of you at some time in your life have made some mistakes,” he said.

The bill now goes to the House.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Budgets and sense in the capitol building?

The first draft of the capital budget emerged from the Senate Finance Committee today with no big surprises, as of yet. At $1.9 billion, the draft looks to be as austere as billed. If it holds to that, which is likely won’t, it will be the smallest capital budget in five years.

The operating budget is currently in conference committee, where the two bodies have appointed conferees to work out the differences between the two houses, line item by line item. And that’s a lot of lines and a lot of discrepancies to get through. It’s a public process. But you’d likely need to be down in Juneau to watch it as the committee can meet at a moment’s notice.

In any case, the operating budget is likely to be smaller than last year’s as well. Part of those savings are going to come from union contracts negotiated by the administration. In the next fiscal year, the 16,000 or so public employee unions will only get a 1 percent raise. That’s less than the unions were asking for, but more than Republican legislators wanted to give them.

The unions also agreed to change the way that leave is accrued by state workers. As it is now, workers can accrue an unlimited number of vacation and sick days, and cash out on those days whenever they want at their current pay level.

If all the accrued leave was cashed out tomorrow by union workers, the state would have to shell out more than $164 million.

The Department of Administration put together a list of the ten workers with the most accrued leave, totaling $1,668,031.

One worker has more 3,838 hours, giving the worker a balance of $240,903. Another worker has more than $239,000 coming to him or her. That’s in addition to their rather cushy retirement package.

Now, workers won’t be able to amass more than 1,000 hours: still many more than most of the private sector would allow, but not enough to provide a cushy second retirement.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Kawasaki has tongues wagging

The past 72 hours has not been the best of times in Rep Scott Kawasaki’s (D-Fairbanks) political career. First, there was the Annual Legislative Skits on Sunday, where lawmakers were roasted by legislative staff. A skit that made fun of Kawasaki was one of the evening’s most embarrassing, one person who was there said, and involved hip grinding and allusions to an alleged incident last year where Kawasaki was said to have groped the girlfriend of a legislative staffer.

Then on Tuesday morning, Kawasaki asked if he could be excused from the call of the House from the time the legislature is set to gavel out in mid-April until the time they are back in session next January. Basically, he asked for 9 months off of work. He did so, he said much later but not at the time, to protest the possibility of a special session. However, he said that if there were one, he’d be here for it. And that he plans to work this summer.

That didn’t stop fellow Fairbanks House member Rep. Steve Thompson from calling it “appalling.”

It gets worse. Now there’s “tongue gate,” the biggest breach of decorum in the 100 years of Alaska legislative history, Rep. Craig Johnson said, with a straight face.

This incident began at about 11 p.m. on Monday, when House Speaker Mike Chenault was giving the last speech of the evening on the House floor before the passage of HB 4, a hugely significant bill that facilitates the building of an instate pipeline.

If you weren’t watching Gavel to Gavel closely, you, like me, might have missed it. Kawasaki first sticking out his tongue as Chenault talked, then puffing up his cheeks with air, like, well, children often do. (See animated giff here.)

All in all, the episode lasted only a few seconds. An eagle-eye out there however, caught it and told someone else who told someone else.

By Tuesday morning it was all over the building and a group of Republican Interior legislators called for a press conference in the speaker’s office, dubbed by those wittier than me, “tongue presser.”

The group wanted to distance themselves from his behavior and was worried that such inappropriate actions threatened bills that are important to Fairbanks, like natural gas trucking, they said. (This is something that’s roundly denied, even by the speaker, but didn’t stop the somber group from looking really somber).

What followed was a series of questions by Anchorage Daily News reporter Richard Mauer about whether or not Rep. Mike Hawker’s phrase on Monday night imploring members to ”pass” gas, which drew its share of giggles, was more inappropriate than a simple showing of the tongue.

Why wasn’t Hawker being called out for telling a “fart joke?” asked Mauer.

Things devolved from there.

Finally, a chastened and surprised looking Kawasaki arose to his defense and apologized for his actions.

Who was he sticking his tongue at?

“The camera,” he said.

Why?

“You’ve all have been there in the house floor late night, when folks are having a humorous time,” he said, speaking to reporters.

“I wish I hadn’t been caught,” Kawasaki said later in a phone interview.

Contact Amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Alaska House passes gas

Late into the evening with a virtually empty gallery, the Alaska House passed HB 4, which would facilitate and partially fund a small gasline that would run through the center of the state bringing North Slope gas to Fairbanks and Southcentral Alaska. It’s one of the most significant bills that the legislature will deal with this session. Nonetheless, the public was absent, the lobbyists were absent, and only a few sleepy eyed reporters sat looking bored, while the bill was being debated awaiting a final vote.

It was a long day for the sponsors of HB 4. House Speaker MIke Chenault and Rep. Mike Hawker, along with their key staffers, were in the Capitol early in preparation for what they were hoping would be the final House Finance committee meeting on their bill scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. But, as these things go, it got delayed until 1:30 p.m.

Chenault, anxious to get the bill to the Senate, didn’t close out his legislative day as is the normal procedure and instead announced that the body would reconvene at 6:00 p.m.- – a luxury the presiding officer has to accommodate a bill he wants to expedite

At 7 p.m., the bells finally rung, legislators gathered, ~~seven~~ eight Democratic amendments were offered and killed, Hawker urged the body “to pass gas” and at about 11:15, the bill sailed through 30 to 9. As expected, votes went mostly along party lines. Rep. Feige, who represents Valdez and who has been a behind the scenes supporter of the bill, voted against it. So did Rep. Neil Foster. A handful of Dems voted for the bill.

Through the years, hundreds of thousands of hours, and millions of dollars have been spent both trying to pass and kill the bill. And it’s not over yet. Four other big bills– oil tax, trucking natural gas from the North Slope to Fairbanks and two budget bills—are still getting hammered out in committees.

No doubt during these last two weeks of session, egos will erupt, and at least one of the big bills will be held hostage for another. But with a Republican dominated legislature, it looks as if the gasline bill will pass this session.

The Democrats dub the bill a “Pipeline to Poverty,” due to what many in that party consider poor regulatory oversight and consumer protection. (Chair of House Finance Rep. Bill Stoltze added substantial oversight and accountability to the bill, but it wasn’t enough for the Dems.)

Republicans by and large say that more regulatory and consumer protection will only mire the project in politics and will delay the market from working its magic. (An irony that isn’t pointed out nearly enough is that while the Republicans continually invoke the magic of the markets, it’s asking the legislature to fund a state agency to a tune of $400 million to facilitate building the line. And few doubt that the agency won’t come back for more state money.)

Democrats say politics are part of the public process. Republicans say politics kills projects.

The arguments go on, but one thing is for sure: Alaskans, who are sitting on the largest energy fields in North America, are natural-gas starved. Some residents in Fairbanks have resorted to chopping down trees to heat their homes. Some in Rural Alaska are going hungry in order to pay their heating bills. Anchorage is facing blackouts.

For decades the state has been chasing the dream of a big gasline, one that was almost always on the cusp of being built. Then, right before it looked like it was going to happen, really happen this time, the markets changed, plans changed, and more than 40 years after it was first dreamt, the big line is no closer than it has ever been to becoming a reality.

The small line seems the only one the state has left—at least in our lifetimes.

The bill will now be read across the Senate floor tomorrow, where it is likely to receive only one committee of referral. That committee, Senate Finance, has already noticed the bill and has a hearing scheduled for Friday of this week.

Update: Oops. I did it again. The bill is getting two referrals. One to Finance and one to Resources.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Don Young: Alaska’s Archie Bunker

For years, there’s been no comparison. Few, particularly the East Coast punditocracy, had no idea what to make of it when U.S. Rep. Don Young brandished his 18-inch long walrus penis bone on the House floor and waved it at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chief, who happened to be a woman. Or when he called environmentalists a “self-centered bunch of waffle-stomping, Harvard-graduating, intellectual idiots.”

Or when he called anal sex an expletive that can’t be repeated here in front of a school assembly.

Or when he put his own wrist in a steel trap. Or when he endorsed and shot an ad for a Democratic Senatorial candidate over a fellow Republican. Or when he defended Rep. Joseph Cao, R-La., who came to this country as a child from Vietnam, for not toeing the party line on health care reform.

The love of his life, the late Lu, was Alaska Native, and he has two Alaska Native daughters from that marriage.

None of these things, nor the man himself, make for gluey moniker’s or easy catch phrases.

The Archie Bunker of the GOP, however, might have some staying power. This came from a Washington Post article entitled Don Young and the GOP’s Archie Bunker problem, after Young gave a speech where he referred to illegal aliens as “wetbacks,” in a Ketchikan radio interview.

“My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machines.”

It was a dunderheaded thing to say and shortly thereafter, Young issued an apology.

In 1954 the feds began a program called “Operation Wetback” to remove illegal Mexican immigrants from border states. The term lives on among a certain kind of person. And it’s that certain kind of person that the Republican Party these days want to keep their distance from, as evidenced by the statements made by those in his own party in the wake of the gaff.

The Democrats are foaming with glee. And the GOP is falling in line. One Republican operative went as far as to call Young “a dinosaur on the bridge of political insanity and irrelevance.”

Dinosaur he might be—he is, after all, 79 years old– but at least, unlike today’s young Turks, Young is willing to stand up to his party to protect someone in need of it, or cross the aisle and endorse a woman Democrat when he thinks it was the right thing to do.

For that, in this current partisan climate, one that he continually bemoans, he might indeed be insane.

The Archie Bunker of the GOP might stick. But is that really so bad? The show was one of the most popular shows in history and most remember it, and its leader character, fondly. It was so beloved that Archie and Edith’s chair sit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

We looked on benevolently when Archie referred to Germans as “Krauts”, or Irish as “Micks”, Italians as “Dagos”, Polish persons as “Polacks.”

We did so because he was our grandfather, our father, our uncle and we knew that he could say those things and still mean well.

Young sometimes says and does some outrageous things and nobody will ever accuse him over being overly sensitive. But after his first election in 1973, and he’ll likely have that seat, a version of the Smithsonian chair, for as long as he wants. Alaska has chosen to keep him there because, just like Archie, though he sometimes says stupid things, he’s more than his gaffs.

Contact Amanda Coyne amanadamcoyne@yahoo.com

Hello small gas pipeline. Bye bye big gas pipeline.

House Bill 4, the one that would facilitate the building of a small diameter natural gas pipeline running through the center of the state from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska, is increasingly looking likely to pass.

And that passage will likely take with it the decade’s long dream of a big export line, a line that’s been the center of so much talk, the line that was going to bring the next boom to Alaska, the mythical line that made and broke careers, the line that was going to save the state when the oil ran out.

Although most know that the small line puts the final nail on the big line’s coffin, Bill Walker, spokesperson for the Port Authority, the group that’s been pushing the big line, has been the only one in Juneau to put it so starkly. Testifying against the bill in House Finance on Thursday, Walker said that the small line would kill the big line for the foreseeable future. “There will not be two mega gas projects in Alaska,” he said

(The big line was probably dead for the foreseeable future anyway.)

Roughly 700 miles long and costing about $8 billion, the small, or bullet line, is indeed a mega project.

But because it’s not as mega as the big line—the price of which is as much as $65 billion–and because the legislature, instead of ConocoPhillips, BP and Exxon, have the power over the line, and because Alaska needs the gas, it’s the only one that’s likely to be built.

The agency in charge of facilitating the project, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, is asking the state for more than $320 million to complete planning and to take the project to “open season.” That’s in addition to the $70 million it’s already received.

But because the state which has the largest energy fields in North America has for so long hinged all its hopes on the big line, which would not only provide exports but provide Alaska gas too, it’s at the point that there’s little choice. Fairbanks residents are cutting wood to stay warm. Residents in Southcentral are facing blackouts. The rest of the state is going broke paying to heat their homes.

A committee substitute of the bill is now in House Finance, and although there was a brief dustup over it on Friday, it will probably head to Rules on Monday. From there, it’ll go to the Senate and from there, and if egos can remain in check and the House plays nice with the Fairbanks natural gas trucking bill, it’ll land on Gov. Sean Parnell’s desk.

With some changes being proposed, Parnell has signaled that he’ll probably sign the bill. But he hasn’t been touting it, standing by instead while others fight the battle. Nor has he had the political courage to honestly tell Alaskans what others already know: that a large diameter pipeline isn’t going to happen anytime in his lifetime, and that the bullet line is the only dream we have left.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Juneau gets gassy

Up until recently, almost every pundit and seasoned political observer in Juneau would tell you that Gov. Sean Parnell’s oil tax bill, SB 21, was the legislation that was driving the mechanisms of the legislature.

How things change.

Now, the 800 pound gorilla is two bills, both related to gas. Speaker of the House Mike Chenault and Rep. Mike Hawker’s HB 4 by which would facilitate the development of a small diameter in-state pipeline running from the North Slope to Southcentral Alaska, and SB 23, which would truck LNG from the North Slope to Fairbanks. (Read more about the details of both here and here).

Both bills are in House Finance and both sound like relatively simple, albeit expensive, solutions to both areas’ natural gas shortage. (But if things were simple, then the citizens of the state with the largest energy fields in North America wouldn’t be chopping wood to stay warm or buying generators in preparation for energy blackouts.)

That is to say, everything seems simple until politics comes into play. So, here’s some of the scuttlebutt: The Fairbanks delegation is ready to take a sword for its trucking plan, and Chenault and Hawker and other Southcentral legislators are ready to fall on their swords for theirs.

They both need the approval of one another. But not all of the Fairbanks folk are crazy about the small line. Some want to hold out for the dream of the big line. Some think the small line is too expensive and the agency that will be in charge will be too powerful. Some of the Southcentral legislators see trucking as a waste of money and believe that the small line would solve their natural gas shortage.

Then there’s Valdez, which has appropriated $500,000 of public money to oppose pay for ads opposing the instate line and promote the big one, not to mention the myriad wants and needs of legislators in other parts of the state.

Parnell, as is his wont, doesn’t appear to be providing anything like strong leadership on this issue, but he does seem to support trucking while leery of the small line, for whatever that’s worth.

In any case, the oil tax bill might be used as leverage by all in order to pass either or both of these bills.

HB 4, the small line, is in House Finance and a committee substitute of it is expected to move as early as tomorrow, with trucking close to follow. Both bills will move to Rules where HB 4 will likely be quickly calendared for floor action. And trucking, or SB 23, will be held pending Senate action on HB 4.

In other words, mine is better than yours and I’ll move yours when you move mine.

Updates to come.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Borderline abusive astrologer meets Alaskan pols

On the face of it, Seth Partnow (hi Seth!) and Rep. Ben Nageak would have little in common. But according to borderline abusive astrologer published at TLC,“An Aries born on March 26 will be a bright individual. Although they appear capable, they possess a deep insecurity that can create emotional distress. They are unlikely to reveal these vulnerabilities, preferring to solve their own problems.” It goes on: “March 26 individuals… may be blessed with only average good health, they are capable of developing a great deal of life-enhancing energy.”

Humph. Doesn’t sound like the either of them would be a blast at a party, say nothing of the gym. Another, less abusive astrologer is more generous towards those born on March 26. (You can really spend all afternoon on this stuff) ”Your friends and family have always marveled at your ability to dedicate yourself fully to any endeavor you take on,” it says, “Likewise, it is this same energy and passion that makes you a natural leader. You would be surprised to realize how many followers and admirers you have amassed!”

(Speaking of the beloved Ben Nageak: after a scare with his heart, he’s back at work attracting admirers and smiling as widely as ever.)

Then there’s Reps. Gabrielle LeDoux and Kurt Olson, who were both born on March 24 and who also, according to the abusive astrologer, have admirers. (Or so they think). As for them, they are described like this: “Creative and sympathetic, the Aries born on March 24 sees their life as an expression of their deep inner creativity. Their good nature extends to everyone around them, and they are unlikely to have enemies. They possess a credible simplicity that attracts enthusiastic admirers.” The abusive one tells them to stay away from coffee, but doesn’t mention wine at the Baranof, where admirers, also known as lobbyists, are known to extend their hospitality.

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of day stays these recallers

Many, me included, thought that the effort to recall Rep. Lindsay Holmes, the West Anchorage Democrat who turned into a Republican legislator shortly after she was elected, would dissipate in the way that these things do, particularly in Alaska, when protest movements often involve frozen fingers and toes, when well lighted rooms and dim bars beckon.

But the handful of committed activists are still at it, pounding recall signs in the frozen earth, standing on street corners waving signs on snowy afternoons, inching closer to the 800 or so signatures that the recall requires before it has to go through its next arduous phase. As of March 23, they’d gotten at least 332, counting the signature of the man who pulled up in the Northern Lights Carrs-Safeway parking lot, fuming about the switch. He had voted and given money to her campaign. He’s pissed. He trusted Holmes, he said. He gave her money and his vote. He doesn’t trust her anymore. He wants her gone.

The handful of people on that corner holding signs determined to make her pay for switching sides will all tell you a variation of the same thing. They talk about trust, about deceitfulness, about surprise.

You heard much the same talk among Republicans when, in 1988, the Dems were in charge of the House, and the late Republican Rep. Curt Menard switched his party affiliation. Just like with Holmes, it was the timing that seemed to rankle most, or so they said. (Is there ever a good time for such things?) Holmes switched shortly after she was elected, signaling to her voters that she had been planning to do so all along. Menard switched just in time to prevent the Republicans from putting up a challenger in his primary race.

This is how Menard put it then: “I had inklings toward the end of this session that maybe I was serving with the wrong group. The Democratic Party just fits me better. I’m more comfortable. Certainly, you’re going to make some people happy and you’re sure gonna make some enemies. I’m willing to live with that.”

This is how Holmes put it recently: “”I think in a lot of ways it has been something I’ve been moving toward for the entire six years I’ve been in the legislature. I’ve realized over time, working with members on a number of the issues, particularly economic development issues, I’ve found common vision with members of the majority.”

In other words, they both did it because they being in the minority sucks for them and their constituents, and they found enough that they liked about the other side that they could talk themselves into switching.

Back then, the Dems celebrated and the Republicans vowed revenge. Eventually, as these things go, most, and most importantly Menard’s constituents, forgot what they were so upset about. He served for eight more years. He then became mayor of Wasilla, where the sports complex bears his family name.

Things will likely go this way for Holmes, eventually. Unless the recallers help strengthen a Republican primary challenger, who will likely be a radical right winger. One of those fire-breathers. One of the intolerant, misogynistic, homophobic, oil-loving Republicans. One of those Republicans that the Dems love to loathe.

An ideologue, a scoundrel for whom patriotism and party is the last refuge. One who would never consider crossing over.The recallers are fired up. They believe they were wronged and they’ll brave snowy days to have their say, but is this what Alaska needs?

Poll shows Alaskans support oil tax break and school choice

A poll conducted for and released by the Alaska state House majority on Friday might provide a window into why Democrats in Alaska continue to lose legislative races and why the party is losing members in droves.

If the numbers are right, the Dems are simply out of step with mainstream Alaska public opinion, at least on oil taxes, school choice, and gun control. (To be fair, other issues like abortion, Pebble mine, and Medicaid expansion, questions that Dems might have some traction, were conspicuously absent.)

The poll, conducted by Dittman Research shows that by a 54-32 percent margin, Alaskans support lowering taxes on the oil industry. Fifty six percent support placing a constitutional amendment that would allow for school choice, an issue Dems seem to be opposed to. And a majority approve of Gov. Sean Parnell, as well as the Republican dominated legislature.

There’s strong public support for school choice (56-36%), with Alaskans supporting placing a constitutional amendment before voters that would open up the question. Also, by a 2-1 margin, Alaskans believe that school choice will create competition that will improve schools.

All might not be well for Parnell, however. Although he has a 51 percent approval rating, 11 percent didn’t have an opinion, which seems a high number for an incumbent this far into his term.

Surely bucking the national trend of approval ratings for political institutions, Alaskans seems to like their legislature. Fifty four percent approve of the House and the Senate. If it’s true that familiarity breeds contempt, it’s a number that might give legislators who have been pushing for a capitol move pause.

Alaskans also overwhelmingly support an instate gasline over a large diameter export line, numbers that will likely be continually touted by House Speaker Mike Chenault, and Rep. Mike Hawker, whose commitment to build an instate gasline has been unwavering and unrelenting.

Finally, a sad commentary on the Alaska PR firms that have oil company accounts: only 1 in 10 Alaskans know that oil taxes contribute 90 percent of state revenues.

Read the poll here.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

Who isn’t going to run against Begich?

Rumors have it that former senatorial candidate Joe Miller recently approached some high level political operatives about making another run for U.S. Senate, this time against Mark Begich, whose seat is up next year. The rumored operatives–Carl Forti and Michael Dubke– are founding members of the consulting firm, the Black Rock Group, so named after neither race nor rock, but a town in New York that could or should have been the state’s economic hub, or something. In any case, the group is housed in Alexandria, Va. and has big clients and deal in big money.

If Miller runs, he’ll likely face Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell in the Republican primary, and a host of others, including former Lt. Gov. Loren Leman—who told me recently that he’s “seriously considering” it, which means that he’s in. And then there’s Natural Resources Commissioner Dan Sullivan. He’s been mum about his intentions, but word is that groups have been gathering with the intent of recruiting him.

Some have speculated that even Sarah Palin might throw her shoe into the race. That seems unlikely—considering that she’s now serious about entering the pantheon of the literary–but she’s been known to surprise.

And the list will likely get longer. When asked once who he thought was going to run against him, Begich said, “Who isn’t?”

Current Republican governor Sean Parnell’s name has been bandied about as a possible candidate, and a recent poll shows him as the Republican primary front-runner. But Parnell hasn’t shown any interest, perhaps knowing how brutal the race will be and how little stomach he has for such things.

Indeed, a Democrat in this Republican dominated state, Begich relishes a fight. His approval ratings are high, and members of the national party will be here in droves to help him out.

It’s hard to say how much cred Miller still has in Alaska since his dramatic implosion after winning the Republican primary against current U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski. He does have a small, ardent, and sometimes oddly dressed following of people loosely affiliated with the Tea Party. And recently, that group got together with the small, ardent oddly dressed Ron Paul supporters to make dramatic hay at GOP meetings.

Miller, a West Point and a Yale law grad can be a good candidate. Until he isn’t. He can be articulate, and had he kept his good candidate face on and won the race, he’d likely be a leader in the nascent national Tea Party movement.

Perhaps during the break he’s gotten things together and can now fully explain why his family has benefited from some of those entitlement programs he so loathes. And perhaps he’ll be smart enough this time to keep his paranoia in check and resist hiring a security firm to protect him during those rough and rowdy party meetings where donuts are strewn after pots of coffee are slugged.

According to the latest FEC filings, Miller still has more than $425,000 in his political action committee account.

Contact Amanda Coyne at Amandamcoyne@yahoo.com

APOC on a ‘witch hunt?’

What began as a lawsuit in November brought by anti-Pebble mine crusader Bob Gillam against the Alaska Public Offices Commission has seeped past the confines of the suit and now involves allegations that APOC– the agency that’s in charge of regulating campaign finance laws–has acted improperly not only with Gillam, but with others as well.

The allegations, some of which come from former APOC employees as well as court filings, range from wrongful termination to arbitrary, improper and perhaps illegal assessments of fines against Rep. Bob Herron, D-Bethel, Sen. Lyman Hoffman D-Bethel, and Republican Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell.

One former employee said that the director of the agency, the assistant director, and the agency’s chairperson were on a “witch hunt,” against Gillam and Treadwell.

Gillam’s suit alleges among other things that APOC is biased against him and that the commission tolerates behavior that’s “pervasive and corrosive” to Gillam’s rights. It wants the agency to bow out of any further investigations against Gillam.

Gillam owns a money market firm as well as a private lodge in the Pebble area, and has devoted gallons of financial and sweat equity into fighting one of the largest proposed copper and gold mines in the world, slated to be in Gillam’s back yard. Because much of the fight has involved elections, Gillam has often appeared in front of the commission with an army of well paid lawyers who have been able to continually settle with APOC and keep his name out of court records.

Paul Dauphinais, the director of APOC, allegedly wanted to change that. According to court filings, he told Department of Administration Deputy Commissioner Curtis Thayer that the agency needed more state money to fight Gillam in order to “get” and “ruin” him.

Gillam’s firm is regulated by the U.S. Security and Exchanges Commission, which could pull Gillam’s license if he breaks state laws. Dauphinais allegedly told Thayer that he had a conversation with the SEC about Gillam and that Dauphinais wanted to prove that Gillam had broken the law.

APOC is autonomous but is housed under the Alaska State Department of Administration which reviews its budget prior to being submitted to the governor.

After the conversation with Dauphinais, Thayer went to a friend for advice about that situation. Unbeknownst to Thayer, the friend is also a lawyer for Gillam.

Gillam then filed his lawsuit and the story began to build. That story now involves former employees, and at least three state lawyers– one for Dauphinais, one for the chair of the commission Elizabeth Hickerson, and one for the Department of Administration. The Legislative Budget and Audit Committee has approved an audit of the agency as well.

Whatever comes out of the audit and the suit, one thing is for sure: turnover has been high at the agency since Dauphinais took the executive director job in February 2011. The five member commission hires the executive director, who then hires staff. Since Dauphinais took the reins, nine of 14 APOC staff have left the agency over the last 18 months. At least one of those staffers is considering suing for wrongful termination.

The Department of Administration has interviewed some of those former staff members and at least one of those exit interviews has been submitted by Gillam as evidence.

Martha Tansike, who was a staff lawyer for APOC from 2011 to 2012, said that she left the agency because Dauphinais and Assistant Director Jerry Anderson told her to file a case against Gillam. Because her husband works for a firm that represents Gillam, she told them that she had a conflict of interest and could lose her law license due to a conflict of interest. They ordered her to do so anyway.

Further, she said that Dauphinais, Jerry, and Hickerson were on a “witch hunt” against Gillam. “Paul/Jerry would go out of their way to dig up info against him,” Tansike told the interviewer.

She said Dauphinais and Anderson were also on a “witch hunt,” against Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who in January was fined $3,166 for reporting violations and $3,538 in staff costs for issues related to his 2010 campaign.

“There was no evidence to support what they were asserting, but Paul/Jerry would not back down off their position,” Tansike said. “He was accused of taking discounts but he had not. It had to do with standard billing practices and they would not back down.”

Tansike could lose her bar license if she were found to be lying about her time at the agency.

Vullnet Greva, who was with the agency from 2007 until September 2012, said in an affidavit that the agency was biased against Gillam and that complaints against him were subjected to greater scrutiny than complaints against others. He said that there is an assumption that Gillam and his lawyers are “trying to hide something or are up to no good.” He believes that the commission chair Elizabeth Hickerson, “is aware of the Dauphinais’ bias and condones or approves of it.”

Sources say that another employee, whose exit interview doesn’t appear to have been filed in court, said that he or she was ordered to withhold information that might have proved helpful to Herron and Hoffman, who in September 2012, were both fined more than $7000 for failure to file complete financial disclosures.

The DOA exit interviews were sent to the five member commission. They were not discussed at the last commission meeting early in March.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com