Alaska Politics Update

From time to time I will point to reporting from Alaska politics blogger Amanda Coyne, as I did first when the "Palin Brawl" was in the news.

So here we go

NRA not endorsing Senate candidates, but does endorse Governor Parnell for reelection

NRA decides not to endorse anyone in the Senate race between incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich and Republican Dan Sullivan (he was Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources but resigned to run for Senate, and was Attorney General from June 2009 until December 2010) the other Republican Dan Sullivan is currently Mayor of Anchorage.  US Senator Lisa Murkowski (D) is up for reelection in 2016.

The NRA has chosen to endorse Governor Sean Parnell who is running for reelection.  Parnell signed a version of the controversial "Stand Your Ground" law, made famous in the Trayvon Martin shooting.

I was gonna say with that information, vote for Bill Walker, but Walker is not an easy choice either.

The Walker campaign is now the (almost ruled illegal) unity ticket of Independent Bill Walker and Democrat turned Independent Byron Mallott.

Why a unity ticket

One of the driving forces behind the ticket merger was the Alaska AFL-CIO's decision to boycott the three-way governor's race, echoing the popular complaint among Parnell opponents that the overcrowded arrangement essentially rigged the election in favor of the incumbent.

His record is complicated, and both parties could like him, depending on the issue.  He is for Medicaid expansion, for raising the minimum wage, against the Pebble Mine due to impact on fisheries, but also supports oil and gas exploration and drilling including in ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and pro 2nd Amendment.

News Roundup 9/26

• Mineweb is reporting that on Thursday a federal court judge has validated an agreement that the EPA would stay its regulatory process against the Pebble Mine Project until no earlier than January 2, 2015.

The ruling stops (quote is edited by me)

EPA’s attempt to expand its authority under the Clean Water Act by stopping the Pebble Project before the Pebble Partnership even files for permitting.

continued

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to clarify EPA’s role in the Clean Water Act Section 404 permitting process to ensure that the agency doesn’t deny permits before applications for permits are filed.

Meanwhile

• Yesterday’s [9/25] 6.24 earthquake was the second largest earthquake in Alaska’s history and according to a seismologist in the Dispatch, “We got lucky.” The earthquake’s effects were still strong enough to momentarily interrupt the Chamber of Commerce’s press conference with U.S. Senate candidate, Dan Sullivan.

Finally, Senator Mark Begich is both right and wrong at the same time

U.S. Senate Mark Begich reaffirmed his support for airstrikes against the Islamic group ISIS

continued

Begich reiterated however that he doesn’t support arming Syrian rebels, which both the President and GOP Senate candidate Dan Sullivan support. In a telephonic town hall recently, Begich said that he worries that today’s U.S.-friendly “moderate rebels,” might be tomorrow’s enemies.

“Just like ISIS was a year and a half ago – they were part of these rebels, and now they’re the problem,”
Begich said.

Begich is correct to worry about today's allies becoming tomorrows enemies, but the problem is that airstrikes won't stop ISIS, even if not arming the Syrian rebels would prevent those weapons from being used against us when our allies become our enemies.

Employee Fired for Talking to the Press (at Palin Brawl)

There has been lots of attention around the "Palin Brawl" since Alaska political blogger Amanda Coyne broke the story (yay bloggers!) in a blog post that also mentioned some important political stories, including this update (I assume) about efforts to repeal the collective bargaining bill AO37.

Former Anchorage Police Department Chief and state Department of Public Safety commissioner Walt Monegan, and retired Anchorage Fire Department Chief Craig Goodrich have agreed to co-chair the repeal effort of Mayor Dan Sullivan’s controversial AO37.

Also mentioned in the blog post that mentioned mainstream media bait Palin is this update that Mayor Sullivan is running for Senate

The Alaska Support Industry Alliance has endorsed senate candidate Dan Sullivan. It is the first political endorsement that they’ve made in 20 years. The Alliance is an oil, gas and mining trade association with 500 member companies representing 30,000 employees in Alaska.

Then there's this bit of news from the Cook Political Report

The Cook Political Report moved the ratings of the Alaska governor’s race to “likely Republican” from “solid Republican.”

And finally an anniversary

Fifty years ago this week, a political TV ad aired, showing a little girl plucking flower petals, and helped elect Lyndon B. Johnson to the presidency of the United States. Watch the 60-second ad that revolutionized paid political advertising here.

So some news about collective bargaining, a senate race, oil industry endorsements, other news updates and

THE PALIN BRAWL

On September 11 Amanda posted an update to readers about the brawl, explaining (that she is trying to do more important work in my opinion).  She does do more important work, like covering Alaska oil and natural gas projects with Japan, and state political races and healthcare policy as she explains below.  I don't know how many people had heard of her before this week.  I am sorry to say that before this week I hadn't.

emphasis is mine

I wrote about the Saturday-night Palin family brawl  in my Loose Lips column—my version of a gossip column–hoping that some other news source, preferably a local news source, would pick it up, and run with it. I’m a one-woman show here. I’m the writer, the editor, and the business manager, and I’m trying to cover the state’s political races. 

As I write this, I’m at a health care conference in Girdwood, trying to learn as much as I can about why healthcare costs are so astronomically high in Alaska, when they have appeared to be declining elsewhere. (Expect a post on that later). All this is to say that I have little time to track down the details of the brawl. And even if I did, I’d probably pass. I spent many years covering Palin. It’s a rabbit hole every time.

But I thought I should update, because people seem to really want to know. Frankly, I would too if I were them, and weren’t at a health care conference, etc… 

Later on the 11th she did post the Alaska Police Department's statement on the brawl.

But here is why I am writing about the Palin's at all, as you can see in my headline for this story.  A witness to the brawl was (some report allegedly) fired from his job for talking to the press (ABC News Good Morning America)

emphasis mine

Eric Thompson was having fun with friends and his wife at a party in South Anchorage on Saturday night. Thompson, who is 56 years old, was the designated driver for the evening, so he wasn’t drinking. But that was okay with him. He was among friends. It was a birthday party for twins Matt and Marc McKenna, who own McKenna Bros Paving, for whom he works as a project supervisor.

A few other media outlets reported that the witness was fired, and give credit to Amanda for reporting the story.  CNN did give credit to Amanda for breaking the story but didn't mention that Eric was fired.

Washington Post steals the credit

Since we reported Thursday afternoon that the Palin brood was allegedly involved in a dramatic, bloody, straight-from-reality-TV rumble up in Alaska, the story went viral.

Sadly they got this right--but media is the problem here

Love her or hate her, people are still intrigued (entertained?) by Sarah Palin.

If the media wants to report on this story, fine. But please give credit to the person who broke the story, and media should always mention media related topics, like witnesses being fired for talking to the media.