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…
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…
Democratic Frontier: Q&A with the State Party Chair
With the governorship, a US senate seat, our lone Congressional seat, and SB 21 repeal all on the statewide ballot, 2014 is a critical election year in Alaska. Given recent gerrymandering and the influx of outside political money, the state represents significant challenges for Democrats. The Mudflats spoke with Democratic Party Chair Mike Wenstrup about the state of the state, his party, and its future. Alaska doesn’t seem to be a very hospitable place for Democrats these days, so what compelled you to want to run the state party? Alaska values are Democratic values: Respect for personal privacy, government restraint, maximizing public benefits…
Walker/Wielechowski – Right for Alaska
We like Sen. Hollis French, and respect him. He’s been an outstanding legislator. We think he’d make a good governor, and have donated to and voted for him in the past. Our issue with the senator’s contemplation of another gubernatorial run is not the candidate, but the fact that the candidate cannot and will not be elected governor. The problem is math. Sen. French retained his own state senate seat in his newly drawn district by the skin of his teeth. The statewide political terrain is far less friendly to him than West Anchorage. The far right made French the…
Alaska Eyes 2014
The legislative session in Juneau has ended, and our elected officials have flown away from the carnage they either created, or endured. The stalwart among us, the political junkies who don’t need to take time off to lick wounds, yell at clouds, or throw chairs, will begin to think of… 2014. The courts have ruled that the redistricted map used for 2012 is not Constitutional. We literally go back to the drawing board to rework legislative boundaries. And the insanity will begin all over again. But wait, that’s not all! U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES We’ve also got our one…
The Conoco Coup
Pick. Click. Giveaway. We’ve all heard the ads, “ConocoPhillips: Alaska’s Oil And Gas Company.” They should change that to “Alaska: An Oil Colony of ConocoPhillips, BP and Exxon.” Fifty-five years ago Alaskans voted for statehood. We were tired of Outside corporations dominating our fisheries at the expense of Alaskans. It looks like we need to wage that fight once again as large Outside companies – this time oil companies – have taken over our government in a nonviolent, post Citizens United coup. Former ConocoPhillips lobbyist Sean Parnell runs our executive branch. He’s the guy who also worked for the law…
Greg Palast asks, ‘How Do You Steal a Dream?’
How Do You Steal a Dream? Supreme Court hears suit to kill Voting Rights Act For Care2.com By Greg Palast, author, “Billionaires and Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps” Video Produced by The Mudflats’ own, Zach D Roberts. Sign the petition to Defend Martin Luther King’s Dream Act – here. Read Shannyn Moore’s piece on how Alaska plays into all this – at the Anchorage Daily News Jim Crow is alive and well — and he has mounted a new attack on the law Martin Luther King dreamed of: the Voting Rights Act. February 27, the…
AK Must Redraw District Map
Remember the new district map for Alaska? Well, it has had a tumultuous, though brief life span. Some hated it, some disliked it, some said it was fair, and a lot of Democrats clutched their pearls and gasped, “Don’t make a stink, because it could be worse!” Um. Worse than losing the bipartisan coalition in the senate, and maintaining a solid minority in the house? Gee, I’m glad we didn’t go there. Well, the kerfuffle over the map went all the way to the Alaska Supreme Court, and the divided opinion said … (drumroll please) … Back to the drawing…
Corrective Action?
By Patrick Flynn Anchorage Assemblyman, Downtown District Everyone makes mistakes. Indeed, if humans were on some sort of mistake quota system I’d likely be cadging ducats from friends in order to keep myself within limits. And I’ll let someone else tell you about the “negative example” marketing plan once proffered on my behalf. But the important thing about making mistakes is learning from them and doing better the next time. Which, of course, leads us to the Assembly’s badly bungled reapportionment process toward which my antipathy knows few bounds (examples here and here). To summarize, three members met…