Alaska House Republicans are Off the Rails
TALL TALES from Juneau Eyes on the Dunleavy/Babcock Administration The House Minority goes off the rails *Quick refresher: The House Majority is made up of a coalition of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who came together because they shared the desire to get something accomplished, and together they represent the majority of legislators who couldn’t abide the thought of the far-right types running the show. The House Minority is made up of the leftovers (all Republicans) who think Dunleavy’s budget is super great (or doesn’t go far enough), that moderate Republicans are “traitors,” and Democrats are all socialists who are out…
Lit Drop! Ross for House
Want to help drop brochures for an awesome candidate? Here’s a note from Clare Ross, running for Alaska State House against Lindsey Holmes (who decided, once elected, to renounce the Dems who got her to Juneau by becoming a Republican and tipping the balance of power). If you don’t know much about Clare, do read The Mudflats Chats interview. You’ll like what you see. *********************************** Since I registered to run last spring, friends, colleagues and community members have rallied around the campaign, and with your help, we’ve come further than I imagined possible. To honor your investment in me and…
Alaska Politicians Uncovered!
If you are a person of symbology, a political mystic, or for any reason believe that anagrams have any kind of hidden meaning, then get out your crystal ball, light a bundle of sage, and wrap your head around these startling divinations. I took it upon myself to use a handy online anagram generator (or two) to share with you the deeper, sometimes darker, and often creepily accurate dimension of (echoey deep voice—->) THE POLITICAL ANAGRAM. Let’s begin with the executive branch: Governor Sean R Parnell = Plane Snarler. Hmmm… I thought that was Sen. Lesil McGuire! Lt….
Tongue Depresser in Juneau
Republican fart jokes on the House floor? No prob. But let a Democrat show a little tongue, and the capital screeches to a halt. A crucially important presser was held in the Capitol yesterday. Sure there are bills regarding transportation, energy, oil taxes, finance, education, uteruses… But the Interior Alaska Delegation of the House had some super serious stuff that needed to be dealt with. In the Speaker’s Chambers, belonging at the moment to Mike Chenault, members of the press were gathered – statewide newspapers, TV stations, journals, the Associated Press – all to hear that Rep. Scott Kawasaki stuck…
GOP’s Slash & Burn Values
“Family values.” It’s something we hear a lot around election season from the Republican Party. It’s code for “queers are bad and ladies are baby ovens.” It has nothing to do with healthy families. Case in point: This past week, the Republicans in the Alaska House of Representatives, on some sort of “look-how-fiscally-conservative-we-are” display, slashed and burned the state operating budget. The hypocrisy of their campaign stances comes into pure light when you see how they are spending our money. Pre-kindergarten education was slashed, as was funding for Best Beginnings early education and the Parents as Teachers program. A two-year…
Right Wing Political Theater
Last week, before being sworn into office, my representative to the state House, Lindsey Holmes, decided she’s really a Republican — this after running and winning multiple times as a Democrat. Why more Democratic women aren’t defecting to the party of trans-vaginal probes is beyond me. I suppose I’d be more upset if I thought the Democrats were losing a hard worker who did more than run up her Alaska Airlines mileage on legislative junkets. Lindsey “found herself” for a committee assignment – making Vic Kohring look like a bargaining savant. Her dishonesty with voters and misrepresentation to donors was…
Leg Office Space for Hate Group?
It’s not every day that an experienced legislative staffer gets ousted, and banned for life from rehire by the legislature. What could cause such a response from the Committee on Legislative Ethics in the Alaska State House? How about literally giving legislative office space and the keys to the Legislative Offices to some guy from an anti-muslim hate group? Oh, you Mat-Su Republicans can still surprise me after all these years. Before the start of the new legislative session, Rep. Shelley Hughes (R-Palmer) has announced the “resignation” of her Chief of Staff Karen Sawyer after the ruling came down. Hughes…
GOP Lineup Goes Byzantine
The shakeup in the Alaska GOP continues. Our three party system (Dems, Republicans, and Tea Partiers) is going “byzantine,” according to the Alaska Ear. Yes, it’s inside baseball, but that’s really the only baseball that counts. The powerful finance committee is where bills go to live or die, and it seems like a couple of entrenched GOPpers find themselves on the outside looking in – or potentially so. Bill Thomas (R) who was assumed to be a fixture in said committee, finds himself suddenly in a race for relevancy with the awesome, out-of-nowhere Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins. Their race, as you…
End of Session, Pre “Unspecial Session” Update – The Good, Bad and Ugly.
As the bulk of the blogging community continues our meditative practice of biting off pieces of the election debacle, chewing thoroughly, swallowing, digesting and then regurgitating, we thank Rep. Les Gara for pinch hitting with a great wrap-up of the legislative session. The “special” session marches ahead, but we must ask ourselves how many times you can have a special session before it just isn’t “special” any more. On a personal note, Rep. Gara is facing some health challenges (which you’ll read about below), and all of us here at the Mudflats wish him a quick and complete recovery. He…
Yes, House Majority, There is an Internet
By Michelle Scannell After giving their southwest Anchorage constituents less than a single day’s notice , some members of the House Majority abandoned their posts in Juneau for a weekend in Anchorage, calling a last-second town hall meeting Saturday afternoon with constituents as their excuse. I called around to some of my supporters, and about ten of us and my entire family went over to hear what Reps Johnson and Costello had to say for themselves. The answer? Not much. There were no presentations or slide shows for constituents. There were brief discussions about roads, the moose relocation project, and HB 110. And then…