The Whole State Has Gone Mad – a Tour.
This week has been particularly mind-boggling everywhere from the Capitol in Juneau to the Anchorage Assembly chamber, to the Kenai Peninsula, Fairbanks, and the Mat-Su. All I can say is suit up, because we’re going to take a dive and look at it all. IN JUNEAU The Special Session took a crazy turn Wednesday night. The legislature was slated to vote on what was shaping up to be an $1100 PFD, to fund scholarships, and get it done, and the floor session was ready to start… But 18 of the 38 legislators who were in the Capitol decided not to show up. Taking into…
Social Media Wins & Fails of AK Politicos
ANCHORAGE, AK— There are two types of Facebook stati: those providing the reader with value of some sort—informational, cautionary, or even just escapist entertainment value—and those benefitting only the writer: appeals for sympathy or money, self-congratulatory piety, boastful one-upsmanship, you know all the flavors. The second type is never in short supply, but here are three examples of effective social media use by public officials which—while of benefit to constituents and the public, indeed for that very reason—will also pay dividends when the candidate makes an ask around campaign time. The Feedback Loop Fairbanks Rep. Scott Kawasaki’s approach highlights an…
Ms. Underestimated in Fairbanks
FAIRBANKS – Despite recent attempts by Republican Borough Assemblyman Lance Roberts to bully the Fairbanks Co-op Market into no longer carrying Ms. Magazine, this week a new shipment arrived and was stocked on the shelves. Roberts stated that he felt the magazine’s support of reproductive choice for women was tantamount to the Co-op Market condoning “genocide,” and announcing on his Facebook page that feminism was “heresy.” When Roberts learned of the Co-op’s decision to discontinue selling the publication, he beat his chest in his own newsletter, reveling in the outcome of his threats to boycott the market, and the fact…
GOP Official Ms. Fires
FAIRBANKS, AK — A far-right elected official on the borough assembly has demanded Ms. Magazine be pulled from the shelves of a local grocery store. Lance Roberts does not like the publication’s support for the reproductive rights of women, and demanded the Fairbanks Co-op Market pull the magazine from its shelves so that other shoppers couldn’t make up their own minds on the matter. The store has complied with the politician’s demand, and in his newsletter a gloating Roberts is doing a little end zone dance: The Co-op Market had some left-wing political magazines they were selling, and at that time they…