The call is coming from inside the House!
The End is Just the Beginning…
DAY 122 IS DAY 1
The regular legislative session is over. The constitution says that the 121st day shall be the last! Unless of course they extend it for 10 days. Or unless someone calls a special session to deal with particular legislation, which is exactly what happened last night. Before legislators gaveled out, or had the chance to call themselves back to special session, Gov. Mike Dunleavy summoned the press to tell them that he’d be calling a special session on the crime bill, the PFD, and the budget. No one was particularly surprised he did this, but the event was not without its weird drama. When asked where and when the special session was to be held, the governor wouldn’t answer reporters, saying they had “hours” to figure that out, but that people had expressed “a lot of interest” in having it in the Mat-Su Valley. **coffee spit** Blogger Jeff Landfield of the Alaska Landmine was roaming the halls of the Capitol talking to all kinds of people last night, and during a Facebook Live broadcast I asked him if he had noticed “lots of interest” in having a special session in the Valley as the governor had claimed. He laughed and said that other than perhaps Mat-Su legislators and the governor himself, he had heard just the opposite. And after all that, it turns out that the special session started today, and it’s in Juneau after all. But, still using the Mat-Su as a threat, the governor maintains that if the legislature can’t come to some speedy resolutions, he might have to move everybody there to get “a different result.”
FOUR ALARM PANTS ON FIRE!!!
That wasn’t the only truth-challenged statement from Republicans yesterday. The governor’s office once again reached into your pocket to spend public money on a new deceptive Facebook ad.
No, you didn’t miss anything. The House Majority did not “sadly” propose a $0 PFD. This pants-on-fire ad, designed to generate angry calls to legislators in the multi-partisan House Majority is literally the only place you’ll see that. The strategy of sending out hordes of minions who’ve been targeted on Facebook, whipped to a froth by dubious information, and enabled by a “handy tool” to call and harass legislators is unprecedented and ethically dubious to say the least.
Nevertheless, the House Minority composed of all the fringe right-wing Republicans who can’t play well with others, was happy to jump on the bandwagon too, after Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon released this message.
Yes, making sure we have a long-term, sustainable, viable PFD without spending down the places it comes from and killing it forever is a real thing. And the decisions being made during this session are important, and we need to get it right. But Rep. Lance Pruitt (R-Anchorage) willfully misunderstood what they were saying and threw gasoline on the fire the governor started with the Facebook ad by claiming Edgmon had an eleventh-hour “plan to gut the PFD.”
In politics, you’ll oftentimes hear the words “misleading,” “false,” “inaccurate,” and even “untrue.” But you don’t often hear the word “lie.” So, hat’s off to Austin Baird in the House Majority press office for calling out “Lyin’ Lance” (as a certain someone might call him) for exactly what he is.
But wait, there’s more.
That felt good.
Oh, and the “dumb and ugly” part? That’s a direct quote from Pruitt. To the press.
“They stay in this building, they talk to each other, they think they’re really smart and they look really good and then they go back into the public and the public will tell them they’re as ugly and dumb as they were before,” Pruitt said.
He also referred to a potential Mat-Su special session as a needed “dose of reality.” Not sure why Pruitt thinks that there’s no “public” in Juneau, or why the Mat-Su is the hub of “reality,” compared to other parts of the state. From what I can tell, there have been a LOT of “public” on the steps of the Capitol this session, and they’re generally not supportive of the governor, or Pruitt. Maybe he’s taking talking point advice from his wife Mary Ann Pruitt, who is being paid $15,000 a month by the governor to be his Communications Director. I’m sure that relationship has no influence on how the Executive branch is affecting the Legislative branch. Right?
SPEAKING OF UGLY
It’s not only the governor, and the House Republicans who are encouraging members of the public to send nasty-grams to the House Majority. It’s also Americans for Prosperity… remember them? That’s the Koch Brothers’ organization that paid for the governor’s budget road show. They’ve been doing it too. If Pruitt is so concerned about people being “ugly” he might want to start with his own base. You can read all about THAT brand of ugliness HERE. So, if your representative is one of those in the Majority who is working hard and trying to stay focused on reducing crime, a sustainable budget, supporting education, making sure sick people have health care, and we have a PFD program for our kids and grandkids, while the governor and his supporters try to bully and intimidate them into passing his ill-conceived policies – maybe send them a little thank you note.
CLEAN UP THIS MESS!
A final note on the ignominious end of the session, and the governor’s “disappointment” that the legislature couldn’t come to decisions in 121 days. First, it took the House a long time to organize because reasonable Republicans had to flee their colleagues who would have run things off the rails. Then the governor released the budget on the last possible day. And that budget, as we know, was the fiscal equivalent of opening a door, throwing a grenade into the room, slamming it shut and then complaining that it’s taking too long for other people to clean up the mess. Remember that although the process can be frustrating, the people who are working to come to compromise are working– despite the House Minority who has done nothing but complain and throw bombs, and … I’ll say it… lie.
Here’s a parting message from a Democratic staffer on the inside.
Dozens+ are here working hard to fight for AK
Julian Assange has been indicted on espionage charges by the USA for his Wiki leaks performances. There are moar witches in USA now than any period of time since Salem was the witch capitol and not a cigarrette.
Didn’t real problems with the budget appear shortly after wingnuts gave billions of tax royalties back to the “poor” penniless oil companies with no guarantees of any returns?
I am totally ashamed of the MatSu delegation. they have only the interest of what they feel is important, and not what a good bunch of the constituents think is important. It’s beyond “why can’t we all get along and work this out”. these people who call themselves leaders will lie, cheat, and do what ever it takes to gut Alaska to the bone. We can do better.