Sept. 18: Homer mayor

Which Alaska politician resigned Tuesday? Nope, not Young, Parnell, Begich, Berkowitz or Stevens. And of course not Palin.

It was Homer's popular mayor, James Hornaday, according to reports in the Homer News and Homer Tribune.

In a move that shocked his colleagues at City Hall, Homer Mayor James Hornaday abruptly resigned his office Tuesday and withdrew from the Oct. 7 municipal election, filing a letter with the city clerk's office stating, "As the Scriptures tell us, there is a time for every season, and the time has come."

The only other candidate is Mike Heimbuch. Since his name is on the ballot already, if Hornaday gets elected, the city may have to run a special election and allow new candidates to step up.

So far, the mayor hasn't explained himself.

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Nicotine withdrawal and a chainsaw; can you picture it? The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports this morning that a Venetie man took a chainsaw to the village store and, after making a 3-foot hole in one side of the log building, walked away with thousands of dollars of tobacco and candy.

The cigarettes alone were valued at more than $2,400. Prices are typically higher in villages off the road system, and a pack of cigarettes goes for more than $8 in Venetie, a small community of about 200 people north of Fairbanks.

Nathan Jones Henry, 19, has been charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree theft, both felonies.

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With Stevens' trial to start Monday, Bill Allen comes under more scrutiny. Alaska Dispatch reports this morning that Anchorage police confirm that Allen is under investigation for the second time in a year for his alleged sexual involvement with teenage girls.

The sex allegations dogging Allen are unrelated to Stevens' legal troubles. Still, criminal defense experts say the senator's lawyers could use the investigations to raise questions about Allen's credibility and any testimony he provides against Stevens. Federal prosecutors would argue back that Allen's problems have nothing to do with Stevens and should be kept from coming up in the trial.

"Prisons in America are populated by people who have been convicted by some pretty unsavory characters," said Ben Brafman, a well-known criminal defense lawyer based in New York. If the judge were to allow questioning of Allen about the sex investigations while on the witness stand, Brafman said, his lawyer might suggest he evoke his fifth-amendment privileges.

"The irony is that even if the allegations aren't true, there is no way to disprove them," Brafman said. "Either way, this is a person who comes off the witness stand who looks like damaged goods."

The Associated Press this morning reports that a judge in the case has ruled Allen must submit his medical records.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan says government witness Bill Allen must turn over his medical records dealing with his 2001 motorcycle accident.

Allen suffered brain damage in the accident, but the government says it affects only his speech, not his memory. Stevens' lawyers want the records to determine if Allen's testimony against Stevens can be trusted.

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Now, TWO Alaska "Roads to Nowhere" get media attention. The New York Times, in its editorial this morning, calls for Harry Reid to stop the Izembek road, calling it "a boondoggle and a surefire environmental disaster." It would link King Cove, a fishing village of 800 on the Alaska Peninsula, with an airport 25 miles away.

American taxpayers should not spend a dime on this project, and Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, should make sure that they don't have to.

ProPublica spotlights the Gravina Island Highway near Ketchikan.

But a gravel road on an Alaskan island with 50 inhabitants doesn't serve the public interest, critics say. "This project isn't satisfying any specific transportation purpose or any public need," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

But it would be an excellent site for a footrace, Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, said. "It's a nice, flat road. It'll be perfect for a 10K race. You could be confident there wouldn't be any traffic." Construction is expected to be completed this week.

Now, onto Palin territory and Alaska reactions to her VP candidacy and Troopergate.

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What's an Alaska accent anyway? The Chicago Tribune politics blog, The Swamp, examined Sarah Palin's accent and talked to experts about it.

Fans and foes alike describe it with colorful phrases, such as "a little Minnesota, a little Valley Girl," "an interesting mix of Minnesota, and Mississippi" and "bush-like," as in Native American accents heard in Alaska's bush or remote areas. Many commentators wonder if Palin's voice reflects a true "Alaskan accent."

"She's a good example of the Northern speech with a Western influence," said William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor, pointing to several examples, such as Palin's dropping of "g's" from word endings and pronunciation of "terrorist" as two syllables instead of three.

***

Here are local bloggers and their reactions to Troopergate andn the Palin phenomena:

> Sen. Lyda Green speaks out on KUDO (Celtic Diva)

I'm paraphrasing here, but these are the main ideas I remember:

The McCain-Palin campaign's takeover, speaking for Alaska's government, is a states' rights issue.

The McCain-Palin campaign's stonewalling of a bipartisan legislative investigation is creating a constitutional crisis within our state.

Sen. Green is very, very grieved.

>

> Burning bridges in Alaska (Shannyn Moore)

They were visible and in full force at the McCain-Palin press conference yesterday. Alaskans don't roll that way. People get cranky, even nasty at times, over politics and what they think is best for the state. Alaska lawmakers are sitting in federal prison for selling their votes, and it wasn't this nasty. The McCain-Palin ticket has become a poster child for partisan politics on steroids. On No. 5, the day after this election, the shrapnel of this campaign will be strewn across Alaska. It's going to take Dr. Phil and a few Barry White albums to get the healing started.

> Palin running scared: Flip-flops on Troopergate (Kodiak Konfidential)

> Palin throws Alaskans under the bus (Mudflats)

This is not going over well in Alaska. I'll use my usual caveat that there are lots of Alaskans who happily subscribe to the "Sarah right or wrong" mentality and will continue to do so. However, the progressive take on this whole latest mess is only slightly short of taking torches and pitchforks and surrounding the attorney general's office, demanding an end to the stonewalling. I've watched Alaskan progressives that I personally know go from saying, "Wow! I can't believe I voted for a Republican!" to, "She's doing OK. I don't agree with everything, but I don't regret my vote" to being so furiously seething angry they just can't say anything.

This means that there's a shift, and shifts tend to bring along all people to a certain degree. If there's one way to tick off Alaskans it's by bringing in "outsiders" to try to control state affairs. Imagine if you will how a small independent nation would feel being invaded by the superpower next door. It's like that.

> Rep. Les Gara on Troopergate (Huffington Post)

Over the next few days McCain's folks will try to get local legislators to step in line, out of party loyalty, and reverse their vote to investigate Troopergate. But many local Republicans, like Senate president Lyda Green, have so far refused to play those politics. Stay for more from McCain's campaign for "Change." They've tried to change the truth. They've succeeded at changing Gov. Palin's promise to comply with this investigation. Let's see what they'll change next.

> Sarah, stop the slander (Alaska Real)

I honestly am just so frustrated with what Gov. Palin has been doing and saying, I cannot write what I was going to write. What she is attempting to do with Walt Monegan - shift the blame and public disgust to him rather than be "open" and "welcome the investigation" as she has repeatedly promised in the past - is just beyond disgust to me.

> Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Palin (Wall Street Journal Opinion)

"We were trying to make headlines for 50 years in Alaska, since we became a state," she joked. "What it took was Sarah Palin. . . . I've called her the Sarah phenomenon." Ms. Murkowski, however, does grant the governor her reputation as an agent of change: "She didn't care who she ticked off. I've told my colleagues, 'Don't underestimate this woman.' . . . She's not afraid to challenge. It may be bold. It may be crazy."

Ms. Murkowski says nonetheless a certain amount of hype has tinged press accounts of Mrs. Palin's rise. "There was a need to clean things up" in Alaska, she says. But Gov. Palin came into office when a federal criminal investigation of local lawmakers was already under way. "She rode that wave."

> Ivan Moore: Is what you see what you get? (Anchorage Press)

Was the prior reality the real reality? Or is this one? Or are they both? Is the act of observation - the very, very intense observation on the national stage-a fundamental reason for the changes we're seeing? Bottom line, has the level of observation that is par for the course now, the mainstream media, the tabloids, the Internet press, the blogs and the public all acting in concert, gotten us to the point where we can't observe reality in our presidential and vice presidential candidates? Are we eternally doomed to being unable to truly know who these people are?

> Wasilla residents speak out on Palin (Alaska Journal of Commerce)

As mayor of Wasilla from October 1996 to October 2002, Palin presided over a budget that rose from $7.6 million to $13.6 million. Wasilla City Council member Dianne Woodworth, an accountant in private practice, said Palin was not conservative with the city budget.

"The true test of a leader is when there is not a lot of money and you have to work across the aisle," Woodworth said. "Likewise, when she was mayor of Wasilla, we were in a time of prosperity. I've never seen her pushed when a lot of resources weren't there."

> Halcro on Talis Colberg (Halcro.com)

From conducting a pre-investigation investigation, to recusing himself due to a conflict to reinserting himself right back into the middle to getting on a plane for a vacation in the middle of one of the biggest legal controversies the attornery general's office has handled in recent history, Colberg more and more appears out of his league.

Plucked from the relative obscurity of drawing up wills in Palmer to managing one of the biggest legal staffs in the state, Colberg's latest actions show he is certainly not ready for prime time.