AAACK! It’s Election Season in Alaska Again
Originally published on ADN.com When I was growing up my dad had a secretary. Her name was Cathy, and it was during the era of the “Cathy” comic strip. I was pretty sure it was written about her. I thought she was wonderful. She had awesome permed hair and those glasses that were pink on the bottom and blue on the top with a sparkly butterfly in the lower corner. Cathy had something to figure out. How to program her VCR to record shows. Because of the digital video recorder, there is an entire generation who doesn’t understand how many…
Last Second Candidate Filings Flood In
It’s not that Alaska politics isn’t always interesting but the drudgery of the last couple of months has been draining. The Republican run state capitol has been nothing but frustrating – not passing anything of meaning for an entire session. Including a budget. So today, the last day to file as a candidate suddenly it suddenly became VERY interesting. There’s awesome news, some bittersweet news and some &^%*$ what is going on sort of news. Let’s get to the awesome news first. Friend of TheMudflats and life of the Union party, Vince Beltrami is running for State Senate. Now, while that’s pretty…
Mayor Sullivan’s Christmas Carol
Dan Sullivan, especially during his tenure as Mayor of Anchorage, could arguably qualify as “Dickensian.” In the past, Sullivan has funneled funds to his “friend” the “Party Planner,” made sure he got paid before he started the job, and signed a Municipal check for his family trust through a fake “insurance policy.” And that was just the first year! Scrooge would be so proud! Since then, he’s helped gut the schools by slashing the budget, lowering the tax cap and charging exorbitant fees; and caused Municipal employees to abandon city service like passengers on the Titanic, through the anti-union and…
Good News out of Detroit
Good local news is hard to come by. Well produced local news is nearly impossible to find. We’re lucky here in Anchorage to have some great local journalists at the ADN, KTUU, The Alaska Dispatch, and AlaskaCommons.com. In Detroit they’ve got Pulitzer Prize winning Charlie LeDuff. He’s the classic local TV news investigative reporter – just funnier. I have to admit am completely addicted to Charlie LeDuff’s journalism. It’s sensationalist, it’s absurd – but in a real way it does what top notch local journalism does – speaks truth to power. Please check out this story on police wait times in…
Joe Miller Met Mayor Dan Once, It Went Awkwardly.
Joe Miller, age 46, US Senate Candidate came out of seemingly nowhere to beat incumbent and heir to the throne Senator Lisa Murkowski in the 2010 Republican primary. She then ran as an “Independent” – and won. Leaving Joe to fester in Fairbanks and become a lowly blogger. Now he’s running again – this time against Democrat (no, I’m sorry… “Independent”) Mark Begich who used to have…Mayor Dan Sullivan’s current gig. Mayor Dan Sullivan, age 61, son of Mayor George Sullivan now is running, um… for something. In 2010 he was spending a lot of time with a party planner…