Anchorage Daily News

After last week's tizzy by gubernatorial hopeful Sarah Palin when asked a few obvious and long-overdue questions about her use of a Wasilla city computer for campaign purposes a few years back, one question remained unanswered.

We set it off when we wondered how her using a city computer to run for lieutenant governor in 2002 was different than Republic Party chief Randy Ruedrich using Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission computers for party business, for which he was fined and resigned under pressure. She said it was different.

In a release she fired off to everyone she could think of after the questions, she huffed about a "smear" campaign organized by her "enemies — powerful enemies." Later, there were references on various radio talk shows to whispering campaigns and other craziness, but we wrote that off as the vapors and a touch of paranoia.

She characterized as "innocuous" her political e-mails sent on a city computer to the Alaska Outdoor Council and another complaining about the Right to Life folks not choosing her as their candidate in the 2002 race. That was bad enough, indicating she just does not get it, but then she had this to say:

"We've had lots of people come forward with dirt on (gubernatorial candidate John) Binkley . . . as well as dirt of (Gov. Frank) Murkowski. We've told them to bury it. I'm not running that type of campaign."

Apparently, that is exactly the kind of vicious campaign the former two-term Wasilla mayor is running. In our view, that kind of backdoor character assassination is the most scurrilous type of attack. It is akin to running against Teddy Kennedy and promising not to discuss bridges, cars, swimming or Chappaquidic. Oh, I have dirt, Palin says smugly, yes, indeedy; but I'll not give the details because that would be wrong.

She is right. It is very wrong. It is very much the hallmark of lightweight politicians in over their heads.

Our question to Ms. Palin is this: Now that you have decided to dabble in dirty politics, perhaps you could provide voters with the "dirt" you so coyly say you will not talk about. After all, you want their vote and they have a right to know.

Innuendo, slurs and accusations may be the kind of thing acceptable in running a small-time campaign for the mayor's job in Wasilla, a community of 5,000 or so in her day. Whining about nonexistent smear and whispering campaigns and imaginary enemies may be the coin of the realm in small-town politics, but running for governor — a job that requires at a minimum a cool head, knowledge and, more than anything else, integrity — requires much, much more.

So what about it, Ms. Palin? You brought it up. What's the dirt?

Knowles' proposed labor agreement means Alaskans locked out of construction jobs

By SEN. JOHN COWDERY

For 30 years oil revenues have enriched the lives of all Alaskans. Today we are closer than ever to a new era of financial stability by commercializing our vast reserves of natural gas.

The Murkowski administration has negotiated a contract with the three Prudhoe Bay leaseholders to build a pipeline along the Alaska Highway delivering the gas to the Midwest, where there's enough demand to make the pipeline profitable under several gas price scenarios.

Election year politics also make the gas line contract a political piñata. The Alaska Gasline Port Authority and several political candidates are taking cheap shots at the contract and everyone who disagrees with them. I want to clear up some of the misinformation that's out there.

Yes, the contract allows for in-state use of the gas. Four take-off points at Fairbanks, the Yukon River, Delta Junction and Glennallen are possible. A spur line to Valdez can even be built.

Just because the pipeline will terminate in Alberta or Chicago doesn't mean Alaskan communities, wanting access to the gas have to pay rates that reflect the cost of shipping to those far away locations.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will regulate the pipeline and create mileage sensitive rates. In other words, the monthly gas bill for a homeowner in Fairbanks will be based, in part, on the cost of shipping the gas to Fairbanks, not Canada or Chicago.

FERC rules mandate in-state use of natural gas and a study on in-state usage will be performed before gas starts flowing. The producers are also required to cooperate with Enstar and other companies that provide natural gas service in Alaska.

A recent opinion column by gubernatorial candidate Tony Knowles called for a project labor agreement with construction unions to be part of the contract. This is the same candidate who was governor for eight years and couldn't even get the producers to sit down at the bargaining table to talk about a gas pipeline.

Knowles claims a project labor agreement puts Alaskans at the front of the line for pipeline construction jobs. That statement just floors me. Project labor agreements actually lock thousands of Alaskans out of pipeline construction jobs and here's why:

The Alaska Department of Labor says our state has about 20,000 construction workers. Only 6,000 of them are unionized. In fact, I used to be a union member myself. I held a union card with the Carpenters Local 1281 and Operating Engineers Local 302. A project labor agreement means only unionized construction workers get pipeline construction jobs. There simply aren't enough of them to build the pipeline and other projects around the state at the same time.

A project labor agreement will lockout thousands of rural residents from pipeline jobs because virtually none of them are unionized. The gas pipeline is the golden opportunity for villagers to provide for their families and we need to make sure they get that opportunity.

So who will get those remaining construction jobs? Not Alaskans. Thousands of union members from the Lower 48 will be brought up to work on the pipeline while their paychecks go back to Oklahoma and Texas.

The contract also gives the state a seat at the decision-making table by having a 20 percent ownership in the pipeline so we have a strong voice on how the gas line is managed and operated, something we don't have now with the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.

Critics claim the state will be a minor player in operating the pipeline because the producers will dominate the management process. That conspiracy theory assumes all three producers will agree on every issue and ignores the fact those companies are intense competitors both here in Alaska and around the world.

Time is running out. Federal regulators are warning us that foreign countries will meet America's growing demand for natural gas if Alaska doesn't ink a deal with the producers very soon. Even though a small area in Anchorage elected me, I try to look out for the whole state. Tony Knowles should be doing the same thing.

John Cowdery represents District O in the Alaska Senate.

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