Primary Post Mortem
Alaska’s primary election night is over, but the election itself is not quite done. About 14,000 absentee ballots remain to be counted, and the final results will not be known for days. That said, it will be a tough hill to climb for the passage of Ballot Measure 1, which would reinstate the ACES oil tax system put in place by former Governor Sarah Palin and a bipartisan coalition in the Alaska legislature. Sean Parnell, former ConocoPhillips lawyer and lobbyist, and Palin’s former Lt. Governor dismantled ACES with Senate Bill 21 which would give billions from Alaska’s treasury to the…
Mudflats Chats: Sen Candidate Mark Fish (L)
Mark Fish is one of three Libertarian candidates running for the U.S Senate seat currently held by Democrat Mark Begich. We sat down and talked about libertarianism, the Republican field, the Republican field, abortion, mining, and corporate personhood among other things. Grab a cup of coffee, and sit in! Libertarian Philosophy JEANNE DEVON: I guess I’ll start off with a philosophical question because sometimes I think it’s difficult, especially in today’s world where everything and everyone is so interconnected, to make a case for libertarianism. MARK FISH: It is difficult. DEVON: Because we’re interconnected people, and the actions of an individual…
Alaska GOP Candidates Go to Extremes
We all know that guy. You know, the one who no matter what story is being told, he’s got one up on it. If you got a mosquito bite he punched a bear. I’m watching the Republican primary for U.S. Senate closely and they all seem like that guy. Who can out-crazy whom? Case in point this week was the questionnaire filled out by the candidates for an organization that raises money on hating gays and trying to control the reproductive choices of women. The group claims to work for Alaskan family values but doesn’t weigh in on minimum wage…
Krazy Kampaign Lit Alert!
Joe Miller is running for U.S. Senate again. And in Alaska, it’s a 3-way scramble to the right to woo the hard-core conservative primary voter. Miller, Mead Treadwell, and Dan Sullivan have all been trying to outdo each other in their attempt to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich. Above is Miller’s latest piece of campaign literature, mailed to voters. Xenophobic fear mongering and downright silliness aside, (and that’s a BIG aside) let’s follow the message, shall we? You may need a pith helmet, and a machete to get through the jungle of “logic.” Warning: there’s a cliff at…
Eric Cantor Got “Joe Millered” by Tea Party
Anyone in Alaska watching Tuesday’s primary shocker in Virginia unfold couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Senate race in 2010. That year, Tea Party candidate Joe Miller set the Republican establishment back on its heels with a victory shocker over incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski. Democrats scrambled while institutional Republicans, mouths agape, tried to comprehend what had just happened. On Tuesday in Virginia, Dave Brat, an underfunded Tea Party candidate cleaned the clock of the 7-term Republican incumbent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor by double digits. Brat had been predicted to lose by a wide margin. By many accounts Cantor…
Day of Resistance
(This is Part one of our Day of Resistance coverage. You can read Part Two here.) The date 2/23 was originally chosen for “Day of Resistance” rallies across the US because the .223 is the ammunition used in the popular AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Alaska organized events in both Fairbanks and Wasilla this year, protesting the federal government’s attempts to regulate firearms and showing support for the 2nd Amendment. The Fairbanks rally at Veterans Memorial Park was organized by The Oath Keepers, a pro-second amendment group made up mostly of veterans and headed up by David Luntz and Donny Meeks. Luntz maintained a Facebook page promoting the…
Joe Miller’s Alaska Militia
Joe Miller is fond of private security. In the Spring of 2008, Joe Miller showed up wearing Eric Estrada circa 1984 mirrored sunglasses, with security guards in a staged coup d’état of the leadership of the Alaska Republican Party. He lost. Randy Ruedrich still stands supreme as the party Chair, and now supports the man who once tried to oust him. Fast forward to July 4, 2010 – US Senate candidate Joe Miller’s supporters marched with assault rifles and campaign signs. The Alaska Dispatch has been doggedly pursuing a story on why Joe Miller lost his job several months after…