Bob Bell is Oh So Super Special
Senate Candidate Bob Bell indicating just how much more special he is than you.
You know those politicians whom nobody can stand – the ones that think the rules apply to absolutely everyone? No exceptions. Except for them.
I got one for you.
Remember that scandal that had Director of the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation, Corey Rossi, in the headlines for weeks? Rossi and his croneys from the Board of Game got busted flying into rural Alaska and pretending to subsistence hunt muskoxen for food. You see, there’s a really really expensive way of hunting muskoxen, and there’s a much less expensive way. One way, you have to enter a lottery for a permit that costs $500 for residents, and you have to fly out to a very remote island. This is for the headhunters who want to take home a cool trophy with horns in addition to the meat. 1700 people applied for only 100 permits available.
The second way is for people who really only want the meat, and they have to destroy the horns to prove it. That’s been pretty effective in keeping people from lying and saying they’re “subsistence hunting,” (wink wink) just to they can have a horned head to hang over the fireplace, and taking an animal someone else would have actually needed and used. These subsistence permits are free and only 200 were used that year.
So Corey Rossi, and his two pals the Board of Game, Cliff Judkins and Bob Bell (see first paragraph) got together and hatched a scheme to get around the rules. They’d just get the free, easy and guaranteed subsistence permit, and claim they were there just to fill the freezer with yummy muskox burger. Oh, and by the way, just look over there while we load the forbidden trophy horns in the back of the plane. If anyone gave them a hard time, they’d just bully them into submission. After all, these were three big powerful guys way up the food chain. What could go wrong?
And these three would have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for a humble Fish and Game biologist named Tony Gorn, who told the trio they weren’t allowed to keep the horns. Then Rossi and crew pulled the old “do you know who we are?” card, and the biologist said he did know who they were, but it didn’t mean they got to break the rules. And then they tried “can’t you just make an exception for US?” And Gorn said no, actually, he was not going to make an exception just because the three thought they were important and powerful, and deserved special privileges because that’s not how it’s supposed to work. Hooray for Fish & Game biologists with more ethics than those running the show.
At the time, Corey Rossi got most of the attention, but Board of Game member Bob Bell should not be forgotten.
“That name sounds familiar,” you say as you stroke your chin… “Bob Bell… Bob Bell… Hey, wait a minute. Is that the same Bob Bell who is now running for State Senate against Hollis French?”
“Why yes, gentle Mudflatter, it is that self same Bob Bell,” I say, impressed with your ability to connect the dots.
Well, Bob Bell’s sense of personal specialness and entitlement don’t stop at pretending to subsistence hunt muskoxen so he can nab the horns for trophies. He’s also trying to get away with some other rule-bendy skulduggery, as evidenced in a recent complaint filed against him with the Alaska Public Offices Commission (APOC), the organization that tells rule breakers, “Oh no you don’t.”
According to the complaint, Mr. Bell has chosen to report his earnings not the way the rules say he has to, but the way Bob Bell wants to, which is all that seems to matter to Bob Bell. Because surely, all that disclosure stuff is for everyone ELSE.
The complaint has three bones to pick (if you will) with Mr. Bell’s lack of transparency and unwillingness to follow laws he finds annoying.
1) In Mr. Bell’s 2008 personal financial disclosure statement he lists several non-retail clients of his own corporation F.R. Bell & Associates. He is obligated to disclose them as sources of income, state how much income came from them, and for what kind of work.
Did he do this? Oh, no he di-in’t.
2) Bob Bell might be receiving upwards of $1 million a year from clients of his engineering firm. Or not. We don’t know. Because Mr. Bell is special, and thinks that he shouldn’t have to disclose that information to voters like everyone else does.
3) Bob Bell disclosed money he made from tenants in 2010, and said who they were. He followed the rules then, and understood the law. But in 2012, he decided he wasn’t willing to abide by it. He’s decided voters don’t need to know that information, and he’d rather mask large sums of money from us. So there.
The complaint has been filed, and it’s not the first time Mr. Bell has run afoul of APOC. Here’s where you can imagine Bob Bell stomping into APOC all red-faced and asking them if they know who he is.
Sometimes an incident of asshattery is an anomaly. We all have bad days. Some of us have hung out with the wrong kids. But other times, there’s a pattern of being part of the problem. Those are the people who have no business being in office, and no business in positions of power. They’re part of the 90% of politicians that give the other 10% a bad name.
So, let’s not stack the deck in their favor any more than it already is. The new redistricting may make it a challenge, so please support Hollis French – one of the smartest, most thoughtful, humble and decent Senators out there.
And tell Bob Bell – yes, you do know who he is. You know exactly who he is. And that’s why you’re not voting for him.
He was awfully arrogant on ” Running” the other night when Liz Vasquez asked him about this. He still thinks he did absolutely nothing wrong.
Ancient(read 20th century) rwnj mythology purports powdered musk-ox horn to be an effective pheromone dispenser and aphrodisiac for ancient rwnj politicians who desperately want to land an evening with the once and former party planner of the Alaska Rethuglican Party. Rumor has it that musk-ox horn in its natural state and used as intended has the exact opposite effects on idiots who carelessly approach live musk-ox. As Kelly Bundy once so elegantly stated in “Married With Children”,”to be forewarned is to have four arms.”
Oh and do check out his answers to the Alaska Family Council survey. If memory serves, he doesn’t think there should be any exceptions for abortion. Women, who needs `em according to Bell.
Hi Renee,
I had to do a double take when I saw your name and zip code, that being my name and my forner zip code for about 25 or 30 years. The real coincidence being that I would have said exactly the same thing you did. I felt like you were following my lead. Keep up the good work.
In Chicagoland, for many years, BOZO the CLOWN on WGN TV was portrayed by …wait for it….BOB BELL……………………..
huh….somehow seems appropriate.
I was already not going to vote for Bell, but thanks for the reminder.
Bell is not only a dinosaur, he is an out-of-touch dinosaur.
I think Cliff Judkins was the chairman of the board when this happened. Can you imagine how Tony Gorn , the ADFG area managment biologist felt when they approached him with this proposal. Chairman of the board of game and his boss Corey rossi….I can’t believe Parnell didn’t run those three out on a rail.
Bell himself is a fossil. If he gets elected, we’ll all be sorry!
As a paleolithic mammal I guess I can ruminate about the fact that the word superficial was mis-spelled in the title. Us respect worthy mammals know these things. Thanks Zy and Slip. I’ve wondered for nearly 60 years what the hell I am.
Has he resigned from the Board of Game yet? Does he realize that if elected, he will not longer be able to serve on the Board of Game? I’m sure he’s figuring as a legislator, he won’t have to abide by hunting and fishing rules.
I blame Mitt’s refusal to release more tax documents for this bs. These skalawags think that if Mitt the nit can do it, then they can too. I say don’t vote for anyone that thinks he is above the law.
One of the things I adore about wearing my qiviut smoke ring is that the collected hair is so sustainable — the animal is not killed, but sheds, and the molt is collected. If someone is going to kill a qiviut, it had better be for food! The licenses for trophy hunters would be cheap at twice the price. There are so few paleolithic mammals left; this living fossil is worthy of respect. The same cannot be said for Bob Bell.
I am a paleolithic mammal, and worthy of respect. As is mike from iowa.
Now that you mention it, the name does ring a . . .
… chime?
gong?
ding-a-ling
This guy is straight-up scum.
On his homepage, Bell does a lot of talking about what Alaskans “expect” (citing ACES in particular). Whether people “expect” their legislators to fall in line with the Governor’s proposal is subjective, and very much depends on whom you’re talking to. But the notion that the law should apply equally to the humble and the powerful alike—why, that “expectation” is a bit more universally held. What a tool.
Yeah, before presuming to make laws for the rest of us, your track record should indicate at least a nominal willingness to follow them yourself.
APOC reports probably take a long time to fill out. But they are required by law. It’s the price you pay for the priviledge of being an elected official or a candidate. The first qualification for anyone who wants to become a lawmaker should be a willingness and ability to follow the laws that have already been made. The laws you will have to swear an oath to uphold if you are fortunate enough to be elected (or be a board of game member).