Ineligible to Run – House Candidate Bachmeier
After a ruling by Alaska Division of Elections Director, Gail Fenumiai, House District 13 in Anchorage will have one fewer candidate on the August 28 primary ballot. If candidate Barbara Bachmeier wants her name on the ballot, she’s going to have to go through the courts.
You may remember Bachmeier from the recent Anchorage Tea Party forum.
She is also the one who signed up for the Democracy for America Democratic training academy last year. And she even applied for, and won a scholarship courtesy of the generosity of former Democratic Senate candidate Scott McAdams. And then she took the information and utilized it to launch her campaign, as a Republican.
Between the training, and now, Ms. Bachmeier has repeatedly called the employers of more than one outspoken progressive, attempting to get them disciplined, or fired from their jobs for statements made on the air.
She also popped up at the candidate forum sponsored by the Anchorage Tea Party, where she professed her Tea Party cred, right down the line. When it came to issues of choice, she said that despite being a “pro-life kind of gal” she did have a problem denying abortion only when an ectopic pregnancy assured the life of the mother and the child would both be lost. And if you think that was the most radical stance taken, you’d be wrong. Rep. Bob Lynn said that even in that case, no abortion, no how.
Bachmeier now owns a home in her district, but claims to have spent two months of the one year term of her residency requirement homeless, and evading police in Muldoon. The ADN reports:
“…she said she lived in a camper shell on the back of her truck with two cats and a third “service animal” of a species she wouldn’t identify.”
You can’t make this stuff up.
Well, I don’t know! You tell me.
“I knew I could run for the House and represent these people well because I have experienced homelessness as a product of the VA not helping me,” she said.
In case you need to be clubbed over the head by the obvious, Ms. Bachmeier, a Republican candidate touting her Tea Party credentials is blaming a government agency’s lack of assistance as the reason she is now ineligible to run.
“Fenumiai said public records showed Bachmeier was registered to vote in Juneau or living at one or two other homes in other House districts in Anchorage during that time.”
Records show that Bachmeier lived in the district starting August 4, 2011. To be eligible, she’d have needed to be there more than two months earlier, on June 1. There is no restriction against the homeless running for office, but they need to establish where they have been living, and be registered to vote in that area. Fenumiai told the Anchorage Daily News that during the critical two months, she was registered to vote in Juneau, and was living in other homes in other House districts.
Bachmeier says that she thinks she got ratted out by none other than her Republican opponent, Gabrielle LeDoux, whom you may also remember from the Tea Party forum.
Participants at the forum who dared to hesitate before answering questions, were greeted by a woman carrying a stack of Eggo waffles, one of which would ceremoniously be thrust onto a spike in front of the candidate’s seat, thus branding them “a waffler.” LeDoux had the distinction of being “waffled” more than any other candidate. If memory serves me right, she had three waffles by the end of the forum, and was openly accused by a member of the audience of answering every question “like a liberal.”
The actual complaint was not filed by LeDoux, but by Anchorage lawyer Scott Kendall, on behalf of Scott Smestad of Anchorage, and one John Nelson of Soldotna.
In an interview, Smestad said he had never met Nelson. He said he got the information on Bachmeier from… “somebody,” who he declined to identify.
When LeDoux was asked if she might be that “somebody,” she said, “I actually don’t think that’s a relevant question…”
So there you go.
LeDoux herself has been accused of being a carpetbagger, moving to a districts she felt would be easy to win three years ago. She lost to Democrat Pete Petersen. Now, redistricting has created District 13, a brand new district with no incumbent.
LeDoux accused Bachmeier of “trying to get away with something.”
Bachmeier, who stated that she thought she’d be given more time, had been given two weeks to respond by Fenumiai, and then had been given an additional week. Fenumiai never heard back, and removed her from eligibility on July 2.
No word about whether Bachmeier will seek a remedy from the courts, but she has posted six times on her Facebook page since the ruling, including a status about why she thinks the United Nations should be “evicted from New York City.” There is no mention of the ruling from the Division of Elections.
Her website, which is still soliciting donations, states:
“My opponent and I have agreed to a pleasant campaign rather than something resembling the disturbingly hateful campaigns that we’ve all seen of late in the national news. For this, I am appreciative.”
If Bachmeier’s decertification stands, LeDoux will be running against Democratic opponent Hal Gazaway, who was the spokesman for the group seeking a hand count in the recent Anchorage election debacle. He is an attorney, and has lived in the district since 1999.
Why did the ADN give her so much space for her goofy diatribe today? I’m guessing her 80% disability is related to a mental health issue.
I’m so glad the maintenance is done. I was going through withdrawal.
As was I..Zyx..as was I. Also too..has anyone figured out a way to get me accepted back..into the forum? Everytime I post anything there..it asks of me..my ‘history’…and since I do not recall what the heck I used for my codes before..I am..’out’..standing in the weed lots. Oh..wait..about 2 weeks ago I was admitted..back to this ..front part of the Mudflats..so I am charmed..by that. One member has said..maybe if I changed my ..’browser’. ComeON folks..that sounds like..Bowser..and NOpe..I have no idea how to do that. Ok..heading out to prune in the berry fields, wander with moi newfy..and hope to finally be ..recognised..as a genuine, if ..fluff-brained..former member. Thanks much.
Bowser? Wasn’t he in Sha Na Na?
Rumor now has it that she may be exploring a write-in campaign. I kid you not.
Holy moley.
Residency requirements are the same for a write-in candidate and the same office would be looking at her residency issue…!!!???
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Doesn’t the write-in candidate’s name have to be spelled correctly for it to ‘count’ in AK? Can you imagine folks staring at a ballot and trying to remember the “i’ before’ e’, except after ‘c'” rule … only to have the whole thing turned inside out with the “eie” combination in her name? Oy!
I have a feeling she won’t be winning the GOP nomination for the 13th district’s House seat….just a hunch. beth.
What is the rest of that little ditty? Has something to do with Y,I think.
…unless it sounds like a as in neighbor and weigh.
I before E, except after C
Unless it sounds like A as in neighbour and weigh
Either, neither, weird and seize
Are exceptions, if you please.
And that’s how I learned it.
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the second part of the ditty…leastwise, if I ever heard it, I slap paid it no nevermind because it was a lie (see: “their” — no letter “c” or “a” sound in the word, but the ‘e’ is before the ”i’.)
Back in the olden days of cursive, it really didn’t make any difference, anyway — I just made two nearly-identical “maybe it is; maybe it isn’t” marks side-by-side on the page, and floated a ‘dot’ in their near vicinity. Served me well. [And I thought I was the only one who did that — come to find out, many did. My 12th grade English teacher even announced to the whole class that he’d done it for years!] 😉
(Is a winky-face the same as a frowned-upon smiley-face?] beth.
The “‘Y’ rule”, if I recall correctly, had to do with every word needing to contain at least one vowel — the rule for determining ‘what’ a vowel was/is, therefore, was/is that: “Vowels are: A,E,I,O,U, and sometimes, the letter Y.”
“Y” as in “try” or “pry”, or “cry”.
And “Y” as in numerous eastern-European surnames (eg: Kyrysky — the Greeks took all the vowels for their surnames and won’t give them back!)
And “Y” as in place names (eg: [River] Styx).
Adding to the fun, if a word contained any of the ‘normal’ vowels (A,E,I,O,U) and the letter ‘y’, the letter ‘y’ wasn’t ever to be ‘counted’ as a vowel.
Gadzooks, but English am a booger language for learn to speak and spell good. beth.
Thanks for all the help gang. Didn’t mean to highjack the thread. The y exception I tried to remember was for words that end in y.to add an s you change the y to ie. That is what was in my head and wasn’t even part of the ditty. Many thanks once again.
Except on alternate Tuesdays in months containing the letter “r” in their names, if standing on one foot.
It’s “i before e, except after c, or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh.” 🙂
Only two cats? Sure. I’d say she looks more like a five catter, maybe six.
Snort! Good thing I was beverage-less when I read that.
From now it will be difficult to refrain from mentally applying The Cat Scale to certain persons I encounter.
Was hoping you would follow up on this one- thanks!
Also, too, the fact that the woman was given a couple weeks to respond to this decision and a further extension doesn’t speak well for her on a number of fronts.
Add my thanks to Alaska Pi’s for more of the story.
Why does the Republican party attract such a disproportionate number of odd people?
It would have been fun to see how she would have campaigned, given her lack of integrity and hypocricy.
She should give that scholarship money back!