What YOU Need to Know about how the Alaska Legislature Works Updated from story First Published July 19, 2018 in ECHO Magazine A statute of US Secretary of State under President Abraham Lincoln, William Seward and another statue of a Russian Bear eating a salmon grace the plaza in front of the Alaska Capital.[1]. After …
Previously published in Echo Magazine January 25, 2018 Donn Liston confronts Senator Rodey Few Alaskans bother to visit our state capital city where elected officials pass laws and conduct state business. There is good reason for this. Being a product of Southcentral Alaska myself, as a young man I wondered about what Juneau was like, and …
Adventures in Juneau–You cannot know how Alaska’s Capital works without going there. Read More »
Hugh Malone’s Permanent Fund Legacy Hugh Malone was Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives when the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend was designed to protect Alaska resource wealth from being pissed away by politicians. The dividend gives all Alaskans a stake in the fund’s future by spending levels set by averaging 5-year earnings. As we …
In the November 8 midterm elections Alaskans will be asked in Ballot Measure 1 whether to hold a Constitutional Convention.1 My late friend John Havelock in 2012 wrote a book about why Alaskans needed to have a constitutional convention at the last time it was possible to do so. Today Big Money is Opposed to …
Longtime Kodiak Senator, Gary Stevens, is a good guy. He and his wife Rita are pillars of Alaska and among The Beautiful People. This writer met both Stevens’ when working as a legislative aide on the 4th floor of the Alaska Capitol during the 2018 Session of the Alaska Legislature. On one occasion, when getting …
Regular Guy and Haul Road Trucker for Legislative Senate District C Read More »
Politics is what decides who gets what. Rural Alaska has been electing Democrats to represent them in the Alaska Legislature since before statehood but Rural Alaska remains 3rd World Status in the richest state (per capita) in the United States. But along with Alaska summer activities and the whiff of salmon being smoked is the …
Western Alaska Deserves Better in Juneau: Willy Keppel Says He Can Make a Difference Read More »
Voters elect exactly who they deserve in our Representative Democracy.1 We must therefore understand WHY any particular candidate is running for public office. Some run to impose their ideological agendas on everybody else, but conservatives–who mostly want to be left alone–have traditionally allowed self-serving candidates to be just that. Conversely, conservatives usually run for elected …
A Proven Republican Steps Into the Fray: Joe Wright! Watch for a rugby style primary election scrum1 in the upcoming Eagle River-to-Eklutna Senate District L race! Voters here will have to make some calculated choices with the newly established Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in a crowded field if we expect to change the political calculus …
To Dream the Impossible Dream… Let’s imagine our elected State of Alaska officials–who like to blow smoke about Alaska Food Security–suddenly made land available for Commercial Agriculture… IMAGINE 10,000-acre parcels dedicated to serious farming endeavors instead of current 460-acre parcels where farmers do each other’s laundry. Such fantasy SOA Ag offerings would require successful bidders …
Can a Ready Veteran Workforce Assure Food Security? Read More »
How about that Alaska Department of Health and $ocial $ervices! Long known as the most dysfunctional department in state government, DH$$ takes the largest part of the state budget, is run by social workers who want to help you, but often cannot balance their own checking accounts. I saw how screwed up this department is …
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