Rural Alaska thanks Begich
Thank you for continuing to print your newspaper. It is so important to keep current with happenings in our communities.
Our rural communities depend on the mail service for just about everything … eggs, milk, tea, coffee, motor parts, fishing gear, medicine, and much more. Not many in bigger towns and cities can imagine depending on the mail system as much as we do. So, while it might not seem like a very big deal to them to cut the bypass mail system, it would completely devastate us here. Luckily, when that almost happened a couple of years ago, Sen. Mark Begich, along with the rest of our delegation, stood up for us. He told the Postmaster General what I just explained and told him point blank we deserve the right to affordable mail just like everyone else, no matter how far off the road system we might be. For that we owe him a huge "thank you."
Shortly after Begich advocated for postal rates for rural communities, a friend of mine told me of an experience at a post office in a major service center. The postal worker quoted a price that was very high. The friend reminded the postal worker of Sen. Begich's advocacy for small rural communities' mail rates. A more reasonable price was charged and paid.
Sen. Begich not only supports small communities but also supports all of our supply service centers through advocating for improvements such as new hospitals, new schools, and, yes, the bypass mail system, which helps all Alaskans. Whether its protecting our wild salmon supply by stopping Frankenfish any way he can or fighting to maintain our essential air service, we need him to keep representing us in the Senate.
Sen. Begich has supported rural communities. Let us support Sen. Begich by voting for him.
— Chuck Degnan, fisherman
Unalakleet
Dont settle for old politics
Take a stand for honesty and integrity. Vote for the candidate that does not misrepresent the record of his opponent or his position on the issues. Don't settle for more of the same old politics, vote for change. Nobody ever said that being a good citizen was easy. The honest candidates are out there, they may not have big money super PACs promoting lies and half-truths, but the good ones are out there and it is our duty to find them out and support their integrity with our votes next Tuesday.
— Bernie Gareau
Homer
Sullivan is buying election
Arlene Carle is mistaken. It is Dan Sullivan, not Mark Begich, that is buying the election. The Koch brothers, both billionaires, plus Sullivan's millionaire Ohio family that fund his campaign. Dogs always lick the hand that feeds them. A vote for Sullivan is giving away Alaska's Senate seat.
— Shirley Fraser
Anchorage
Outsiders want control
Thank you, Alaska Dispatch News, for highlighting the huge amount of spending for political advertising to defeat the Walker-Mallott and Begich campaigns. The latest is news that the Republican Governors Association, chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, is spending heavily to swamp Alaska voters with ads to defeat Walker-Mallott in the remaining days before the Nov. 4 election.
I heard someone refer to this sort of thing as the "second Alaska purchase." This time it is Outsiders buying Alaska so they can control it, rather than the nation buying Alaska from the Russians.
— David McCabe
Anchorage
The views expressed here are the writers' own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a letter for consideration, email letters@adn.com, or click here to submit via any web browser. Submitting a letter to the editor constitutes granting permission for it to be edited for clarity, accuracy and brevity. Send longer works of opinion to commentary@alaskadispatch.com.