Mark Begich seems to be unaware of the progress made over the last couple of years in advancing the public discussion of the state’s fiscal problem. A lot of the credit for that progress goes to Gov. Bill Walker, and the coalition of Democrats and Republicans who led the House.
Read MoreFormer Sen. Mark Begich is right that former Sen. Mike Dunleavy’s portrayal of Iceland as the model for Alaska leaves out the inconvenient truth of taxes.
Read MoreIt was almost as if the legislative witness from ConocoPhillips was there to help the campaign of fellow ConocoPhillips employee Kevin Meyer, a candidate for lieutenant governor in Alaska.
Read MoreIf the governor and Legislature follow the existing PFD formula in the law for dividends, the amount spent on them next year would almost double, from $1 billion to $1.9 billion. That would mean deficits of $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion a year though 2027, according to the current revenue forecast.
The $100 million Mike Dunleavy now describes as easy money just waiting to be cut from the budget by consolidating school district health coverage is another illusion.
Read MoreBefore he quit the Legislature to run for governor, Mike Dunleavy should have applied himself to examining the state budget. Had he done so, maybe he wouldn't be spreading a fable about one element of state spending that is obvious to anyone who has ever looked into the subject.
Listen closely to former Sen. Mike Dunleavy as he speaks with conviction about the state budget and oil prices. He rattles off numbers like a desperate timeshare salesman, which makes it hard to tell which statistics are real and which are imaginary.
Read MoreRepublican Mike Dunleavy can always get a laugh when he says the most important campaign question is about how tall he is, but it's no joke that he has failed to produce a coherent plan for state finances.
Sen. Dan Sullivan described McCain as his mentor and close friend. But Trump went on mocking the dying McCain at rallies and Sullivan stayed silent.
Read MoreMy wife and I drove north to Fairbanks on the Parks Highway Monday from Cantwell and while we never saw any signs of the Alaska State Troopers, we saw plenty of reckless drivers hitting 80 mph or 90 mph, expressing their conviction that no one would stop them for speeding.
Read MoreAt one point Sen. John McCain wondered aloud about how Alaskans felt about being put on welfare as the recipients of unwarranted federal earmarks.
Sen. Tom Begich, brother of gubernatorial candidate Mark Begich, responded to my post complaining about the failure of both Begich and Republican Mike Dunleavy to offer a sensible fiscal plan.
Former Sen. Mike Dunleavy and former Sen. Mark Begich have this much in common—both are pandering to the public about the Permanent Fund Dividend and paying for government services.
Read MoreThe ACLU and the Dunleavy shadow campaign are seeking to have a judge overturn the state law against billboards enacted by voters in 1998.
Read MoreAlaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is one of eight GOP senators questioned by Vox who isn’t interested in digging into the allegations against President Trump made by his former attorney, Michael Cohen. No surprise there.
Read MoreOn the day that his former campaign manager and his former lawyer became felons, the leader of the Republican Party ranted about exploding windmills and pipelines and a great deal of other nonsense.
Read MoreWith solid backing from the Fairbanks City Council Monday, former Sen. Gary Wilken has been confirmed as the newest member of the IGU board.
His attack on the life’s work of climate change scientists produced laughter and groans from the audience, but Sen. Pete Kelly continued to claim fraud. "There is hysteria about it, but the science is bad."
Read MoreContinuing the pattern that began at the start, the biggest donations in the Alaska governor's race over the past couple of weeks have come from Texas, home of former Sen. Mike Dunleavy's rich brother.
Read MoreChinese hackers tried to find weak points in Alaska networks in recent months, at about the same time as a mission promoting the Alaska gas pipeline, according to Recorded Future, a company that tracks security threats.
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