No Time for Tuckerman
Time. It is precious, they say. It flies, they say. And former Republican Party Chair, former Dunleavy Chief of Staff, and now former University of Alaska Regent Tuckerman Babcock has none of it. Again. As Alaska Republican Party Chair, Babcock was the chief architect of the cannibalization of that Party. He loved the purity test, and if you were a Republican in the legislature and you weren’t far-right authoritarian enough, you were in his crosshairs and some extreme fringy candidate would be drummed up to run against you. And those monsters wasted no time destroying their makers. “RINO!” they cried….
Putting the goober in gubernatorial
POLITICAL THEATER Oh, fantasy! I love that genre! This week’s big dose of live entertainment fiction was Governor Dunleavy’s State of the State address, and thank goodness we didn’t have to pay for a ticket. The state of the state, (often referred to as the SoS) was an SOS indeed, and was met by those who’ve been in the thick of the Dunleavy disaster with slack jaws and utter disbelief. Dunleavy apparently believes that Alaskans have the long-term memory of a goldfish and have completely forgotten the first three years of his administration and the vital state services he fought…
McConnell/Trump Alaska Cage Match
Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has declared that she’ll be running for a fourth term. She has alternately been a thorn in the side of Donald Trump, a thorn in the side of Democrats, a thorn in the side of women, and a thorn in the side of almost every stripe of Alaskan there is, at one time or another. Her “concern” about divisive issues has become a running joke. Nobody feels as “troubled” as Lisa Murkowski before she votes the wrong way, and nobody is as proud as Lisa when she makes a “tough vote” that didn’t matter. She…
‘Full of madness!’
SEVEN LEGISLATORS ATTEND COVID DISINFORMATION PARTY The site of the latest COVID disinformation campaign was not the Anchorage Assembly chambers this time. The usual crew of maskless testifiers, along with their de facto leader, Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson, migrated to Change Point, a local conservative mega-church, to listen to speakers who disagree with the vast majority of medical providers and science. The event had been hyped as featuring a “Mystery Guest” who turned out to be the Mayor himself. Greeted with cheers by those who’d arrived to hear about how vaccines are bioweapons designed to alter your genes, Bronson made the…
Good Guys on Fire; Bad Guys Face Plant
PROXY BATTLE WON, NOW LET’S WIN THE WAR The press called the special election attempting to recall Anchorage Assembly member Meg Zaletel a “proxy battle” and it was – between those who support and respect good governance in the face of adversity, and the anti-science bullying mob that took over the Assembly chambers earlier this month. An emergency mask mandate put forward by Zaletel enraged the anti-mask, anti-vax crowd. They tried, with the assistance of Eagle River Assembly member Jamie Allard to draw out testimony day after day, but ultimately failed. They tried Nazi arts and crafts in the Assembly…
GOP “leadership” & Alaska’s COVID catastrophe
NOT THAT SPECIAL Welp. Another special session has come to a close, with the legislature settling on an $1100 PFD – pretty much the same as we’ve had for years and no thanks to the governor who could have had this outcome long ago, but in an interesting choice vetoed the PFD down to nothing, and started the process all over again. It was actually a nail-biter for a second and it looked like Alaskans might have no PFD at ALL. But we drove back from the edge of that cliff. There will be no veto this time, but before you think…
The Whole State Has Gone Mad – a Tour.
This week has been particularly mind-boggling everywhere from the Capitol in Juneau to the Anchorage Assembly chamber, to the Kenai Peninsula, Fairbanks, and the Mat-Su. All I can say is suit up, because we’re going to take a dive and look at it all. IN JUNEAU The Special Session took a crazy turn Wednesday night. The legislature was slated to vote on what was shaping up to be an $1100 PFD, to fund scholarships, and get it done, and the floor session was ready to start… But 18 of the 38 legislators who were in the Capitol decided not to show up. Taking into…
GOP Senator Says Firearm Might Help Pass Agenda
FINANCE FIREWORKS About the most exciting thing to happen so far in the current special session was the fireworks display in the Senate Finance Committee this week. Granted ‘fireworks’ by Senate Finance Committee standards sounds to most people like ‘stern words’ but for the Senate Finance Committee, that’s FIREWORKS. The purpose of the meeting was to hear from Alexei Painter, the Director of Legislative Finance, to summarize the fiscal situation of the state and to go over the governor’s heinous hacking of the budget. The governor got uniformly raked over the coals for his vetoes. Donny Olson (D-Golovin) was extremely…
AK lawmaker speaks at Pillow Symposium & the losingest losers lose again.
THE LOSING STREAK CONTINUES In the recent history of Alaska legislative elections, there’s never been someone so smug, so obnoxious, and so mansplainy that his loss deserved celebration like Lance Pruitt (R-East Anchorage). His Twitter trolling, and actual stalkerish drive-by’s of his opponent’s home taking pictures were the icing on the cake. Then there was this, on the day before the election. File that one under “This Aged Badly.” Dr. Liz Snyder pulled off a win IN HOUSE DISTRICT 27 and sent “Speaker Pruitt” (yes, he’d moved into the office in his mind) packing. He was even fined almost $20,000 for…
Secret Mormon fascist outed in the Department of Law?
WHY THE LATEST LAWSUIT AGAINST DUNLEAVY IS A BIG DEAL Power Cost Equalization. Don’t leave! I know it sounds dull and wonky, but the implications of this one are far-reaching. Back in the 80’s Alaskans were trying to figure out how to help reduce energy costs for all Alaskans. Some regions got giant infrastructure projects like concrete dams for hydropower. Other regions didn’t, and their energy costs showed it. So, in 2000 a fund was established so rural residents got something called “power cost equalization” which means what it says – the state put some money in an account that would help…