Now we know that A Stronger Alaska doesn’t exist. It is simply part of the name of a checking account controlled by the Republican Governors Association. Since early 2021, the association has claimed to Alaska campaign regulators that A Stronger Alaska is a real organization.
Read MoreGov. Mike Dunleavy claimed during a rare statewide debate that he hasn’t shown up at 13 debates in recent months because of natural disasters, including the 2018 Anchorage earthquake, the COVID pandemic, fires, storms and other catastrophes.
Former Gov. Bill Walker and former Rep. Les Gara say the political disaster of the Dunleavy administration is the real catastrophe that has kept him far from the debate stage.
Read MoreIf A Stronger Alaska is not paying its bills and the Republican Governors Association is actually writing the checks, all of the documents filed by the Dunleavy support group with the Alaska Public Offices Commission since February 25, 2021 are as honest as Herschel Walker’s police badge.
Read MoreOutside money has long been the main source of campaign funds in Alaska congressional races. Both Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Tshibaka are getting most of their money from Outside. The News-Miner should correct its headline to say, “Out-of-state money boosts Murkowski, Tshibaka campaigns.”
Read MoreOn Monday, the Alaska Public Interest Research Group and the 907 Initiative filed a detailed complaint about the Dunleavy support group financed by the Republican Governors Association. The complaint says the evidence supporting the allegations that numerous violations have taken place is “incredibly strong,” based mainly on sworn filings with the IRS and APOC from the RGA and its Dunleavy support group.
Read MoreIt appears that “A Stronger Alaska” is an empty front group for the Republican Governors Association, which told the Alaska Public Offices Commission it gave “A Stronger Alaska” $3 million. But IRS filings by the RGA show that it did not give any money to the Alaska group, which was created three days before a rule went into effects saying donors had to be identified.
Read MoreThe problem for Suzanne “Hounds of Hell’ Downing and Kelly Tshibaka is that the Mitch McConnell Super PAC attack ads are based on a real investigation by independent federal officials who found that Tshibaka billed the government for 596 hours of work that she wasn’t entitled to get paid for.
Read MoreThe University of Alaska is allowing itself to be used for partisan political purposes by taking part in this latest campaign event. UAF and UA officials should know that this is inappropriate and that they should divorce themselves from overt political activity with the incumbent governor. What’s wrong here is not the subject matter of the research—oil—but the timing of a Dunleavy event promoting it just before the election.
Read MoreTshibaka claims the state was a victim of fraud and that she gave the information to the attorney general’s office, but the Dunleavy administration did nothing about it.
Read MoreWhen Dunleavy agreed to stop pleading the Fifth Amendment and have his state-funded campaign respond to written questions from Alaska news organizations, the end result was another exercise in evasion.
Read MoreAfter having his state-paid spokesman announce his refusal to answer written questions from news organizations in July, Gov. Mike Dunleavy or his spokesman, Andrew Jensen, reversed their decision and replied to a set of questions from four Alaska news organizations. There has been no news coverage of Dunleavy’s reversal or of the Jensen/Dunleavy claim that Dunleavy had answered all important questions in the past so there was no need to do so again.
Read MoreThe two good Fairbanks school board candidates—Brandy Harty and Kaneisha Radgosky—did not respond to Mahatma Jim Minnery’s culture war quiz. Les Nichols and Melissa Burnett, on the other hand, have shown they want to bring sideshow zealotry to the Fairbanks school board, where it doesn’t belong.
Read MoreThere will be a lot to say about this report, but I think the recommendation for independent audits to get a better handle on AIDEA’s situation is essential. AIDEA claims it already has audits, but those deal only with the math questions, not with the essential policy questions about value to Alaska that have never been addressed.
Read MoreSen. Dan Sullivan is begging the Washington Post and the New York Times to report on Alaska’s hypocrisy about federal disaster relief. He’s not putting it that way, of course, but that’s what he’s asking for
Read MoreThe Legislature, which has long ignored a state law that requires it to prepare an annual operating and performance evaluation of AIDEA, should be looking into the turnover rate and how much is related to the pandemic and how much to management issues.
Read MoreOn May 31 the public learned that Gov. Mike Dunleavy had quietly given a no-bid $50,000 state contract to his friend Brett Huber, who was working to reelect Dunleavy. Huber and Dunleavy defended the no-bid deal as legal and a bargain for the state. But Dunleavy’s lawyer now says the contract was cancelled the same day the administration was claiming it was necessary to promote “statehood defense.”
If so, why was Huber paid $8,000 nearly a month later for providing consulting services to the governor’s office?
Read MorePublic relations woman Mary Vought of Arlington, Virginia, who claims to be a fiscal conservative, has collected more than $100,000 in public money from Alaska with no justification and no competitive bidding.
Read MoreFormer Gov. Bill Walker opposes a constitutional convention, supports the ranked choice voting system, would consider taxes as a part of a complete fiscal plan, accepts the science that humans contribute to climate change and believes that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Read MoreI want to commend four of the state’s major news organizations for agreeing on written questions to ask the candidates for governor, but complain about their decision to wait until the end of the month to release them.
Read MoreTwo months ago, Gov. Mike Dunleavy refused to answer simple written questions from news organizations, claiming that he has answered every important question in the past and people can look up public statements of his online.
Read More
