Making History: Murkowski Candidacy Unites the AK Democratic Party & the GOP
Monday morning, I received an email press release that the Alaska Democratic Party was announcing that they would be joining the AK GOP in a lawsuit against the State of Alaska Division of Elections. The suit alleges that the Division of Elections is violating its own regulations (specifically 6 AAC 25.070(b)) by allowing voters to look at a list of write-in candidates with their names and political party affiliations: The DOE’s unprecedented listing and posting of Murkowski’s name violates Alaska law. The ADP filed the lawsuit seeking to prevent the State from illegally providing information about write-in candidates, to ensure that…
Election 2010: There’s Only One Road to Transparency in Alaska…
In June of 2009 I embarked on an idealistic journey. Thanks to many Alaskans and folks across the country, I was able to raise enough money so that the State of Alaska would release the Records Request they had been sitting on for months. When the emails arrived and the only “good stuff” was redacted or witheld due to bogus-sounding claims of “privilege,” I was not worried. I was sure that as soon as the email lawsuits brought by Andree McLeod and Don Mitchell against Palin were resolved (in McLeod/Mitchell’s favor…no one thought otherwise), I would then be able…
Voices from the Flats – Donald Craig Mitchell
The following is an op-ed by Donald Craig Mitchell, an attorney and historian who lives in Anchorage. He is the author of Sold American: The Story of Alaska Natives and Their Land and Take My Land Take My Life: The Story of Congress’s Historic Settlement of Alaska Native Land Claims, which in 2006 the Alaska Historical Society named as two of the most important books that have been written about Alaska. *********************************** CAPTAIN ZERO VERSUS COMMISSIONER OF ADMINISTRATION Donald Craig Mitchell With the world watching, two months ago in Fairbanks in front of a crowd of cheering fans and jeering…
Alaska Civics 101 With Rep. Berta Gardner.
I made it a point to roust myself this morning to go hear Representative Berta Gardner give a talk at the Unitarian Universalist Forum. She was there to talk about the legislature, and her talk was fascinating and very well received. The thing I liked about it was that she was able to explain, in layman’s terms, what actually goes on in the “legislative bubble” that is Juneau, from a Democratic perspective. She is charming, and intelligent, and speaks from the heart. She talked from a place of both idealism and pragmatism, the two “isms” that often enter into an uneasy…
Two Candidates and the Bridge to Debt.
I popped in to see the mayoral candidates forum hosted by the AARP at Central Middle School last night. Each candidate has made his views known, and has honed their answers to most of the questions by now. These two have been seeing a lot of each other lately. So, I’ll just note a few things that popped out at me. Both candidates look a bit tired. Eric Croft, who is usually 1000 watts of raw enthusiasm was only about 993 watts of raw enthusiasm, and Dan Sullivan looked even mopier than usual. He’s OK when he speaks, but then…