Chicken & Waffles, & John Boehner?
STRANGE OMEN #1 I should have know something was afoot in the universe when this happened just down the road from my house, begging the question, “Why?” Just to be clear, I have never actually seen a chicken cross the road, nevermind in this visually perfect allegorical fashion. I have never even seen a chicken in my neighborhood at all, though clearly there is now photographic evidence that they exist. About a quarter mile and a few hairpin mountain road turns away from the chicken sighting, is something relatively new to Alaska – a fancy gated community. It is called…
Joe Miller Met Mayor Dan Once, It Went Awkwardly.
Joe Miller, age 46, US Senate Candidate came out of seemingly nowhere to beat incumbent and heir to the throne Senator Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 Republican primary. She then ran as an “Independent” – and won. Leaving Joe to fester in Fairbanks and become a lowly blogger. Now he’s running again – this time against Democrat (no, I’m sorry… “Independent”) Mark Begich who used to have…Mayor Dan Sullivan’s current gig. Mayor Dan Sullivan, age 61, son of Mayor George Sullivan now is running, um… for something. In 2010 he was spending a lot of time with a party planner…
Mayor Dan Sullivan Seeks Higher Office
On Thursday, Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan filed a letter of intent to run for statewide office. He did not report the office for which he will be running on his APOC form, but the rumor mill has ben churning on this one, and all indications are he’ll be running for Lt. Governor, just as all indications are that current Lite Gov Mead Treadwell will be running for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Mark Begich. As in Hawaii and Utah, Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor runs a completely separate race from the gubernatorial candidates. So, who would get stuck with “Mayor…
Did You Miss Irony Week?
I have to admit, I missed it. Apparently it was Irony Week in the Municipality from May 5-11. Luckily we have Mayor Dan Sullivan on the job, raising Irony Week to new heights of… well, irony. This winter, hundreds of people – municipal workers of all stripes, and supporters from the community, filed into the Assembly chambers to protest the erosion of collective bargaining rights, and threats to the livelihood of public workers in the form of the Mayor’s Ordinance 37. They stood in line, they waited in seats, they filled the lobby. They went on their day off, their…
Election Good News!
Yes. Election. Good. News. Let’s just sit with that for a moment. As always, there are the last ballots to be counted, and write-in votes to be scrutinized, but here’s where we stand so far: Bettye Davis for School Board handed Don Smith his walking papers (and his rear end) with a decisive 54-45 victory for the seat Smith currently occupies. Bettye is amazing in her own right, but Don Smith’s latest shenanigans and nastiness didn’t help his cause. Davis recently lost her established State Senate seat after Republican redistricting sliced up her former district. It’s good to have her…
VOTE!…Election Odds & Ends
Today is the big day!!! Today is the first Municipal Election after the debacle that was last year. However, with Barbara Jones as Municipal Clerk and Amanda Moser in charge of Elections, things should run pretty smoothly overall this year. (If we could just get rid of those @#$% voting machines.) Here’s just a quick post answering questions I’ve been getting the last couple of days on Facebook, email and via phone: — Location, location, location — Don’t know where to vote? You can type in your address here at “My Neighborhood” and it will give you your precinct. As…
Assembly Passes Anti-Labor Ordinance
I should have known things would go awry when Dan Coffey held the door for me as I entered the Assembly Chambers. Tuesday night was the vote on Ordinance 37, which will gut the collective bargaining rights of municipal workers, and introduce “managed competition.” There was a bunch of business before they got to the bill, but this was my favorite. Adam Trombley, the head of the Ethics and Elections Committee stated that the reason the committee had met only once since last year’s debacle of a Municipal election was that he “didn’t want to crowd the schedule at the…
Hall Gets Flamed by Fire Department
A letter to Anchorage Assembly Chair Ernie Hall, from Tom Wescott, President of the Alaska Professional Firefighters about Ordinance 37, which is scheduled to be voted on by the Assembly on Tuesday, March 26. Mr. Hall is up for re-election on Tuesday, April 2. Hall is opposed by write-in candidate Nick Moe. Click HERE to learn what you can do to support Moe’s campaign, and to see if you are in the district. March 25, 2013 Chairman Hall, I am writing you to express my disgust in the role you have played in AO-37. As someone who assured our local…
AO37:The Bill Remains the Same
Friday was billed as the last Working Group on Ordinance 37: “An Ordinance Amending Anchorage Municipal Code Chapter 3.70, Employee Relations, With Comprehensive Updates Securing Long Term Viability and Financial Stability of Employee and Labor Relations.” In other words, an ordinance established to decrease union contracts and establish a process called “managed competition” — a program through which it is easier to outsource various job functions within the Municipality. (See: “ALEC” legislation across the nation). In spite of efforts by Assembly Members Gray-Jackson, Traini, Flynn and Honeman to potentially scrap this ordinance and start over with employee and community participation,…
The Many Faces of Ernie Hall
As Tuesday draws near, bringing with it the probable passage of Mayor Sullivan’s anti-labor “Employee Relations Act,” I still have a question for Assembly Chair Ernie Hall. Among the ardent supporters of Anchorage Ordinance 37, on which Chair Hall’s name is listed as the sponsor, are lawmakers who crusaded against unions during their campaigns. During his first run against Dick Traini, Andy Clary told a crowd that he felt limiting city contracts to the public sector was “wrong.” Back in 2010, he said: “I believe that excludes a whole crop of private contractors out there which, if we opened the…