Politics

Alaska politics roundup: Gattis gets GOP campaign cash, mayors plead with legislators

The 2018 election is still more than a year away, but there's already more government, politics and elections news than we have time for.

That's why we're testing out a weekend political news roundup — a space for news, ideas and events that don't fit into our coverage during the week. You can find it first online at ADN.com, but we'll also send out a digest Monday morning through our political newsletter, The Agenda. Sign up here and send suggestions and tips to nherz@alaskadispatch.com.

Here's what we've noticed this week.

Gattis' cash

A campaign finance report filed Tuesday by the Alaska Republican Party showed something strange: an $8,000 transfer to the lieutenant governor campaign of Lynn Gattis, the former GOP state representative from Wasilla who lost her bid for state Senate last year.

The transfer raised eyebrows among party insiders because the GOP doesn't typically endorse candidates before the Republican Party primary — and Gattis already has three announced Republican opponents who also presumably need cash for their campaigns.

It turned out the money came from the GOP subaccount controlled by District 7 Republicans. That's Gattis' former House district — to which, she said, she herself had previously donated thousands of dollars in leftover campaign cash.

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"They said, 'We know you better than anybody else. We want you to run,' " Gattis said in a phone interview Friday. "I never even came and asked for it."

Gattis said she subsequently heard "grumblings" from people who questioned the transfer. But Alaska GOP Chair Tuckerman Babcock said that a meeting of the party's rules committee determined that there was nothing to stop a local Republican district from donating to a statewide candidate.

That's now likely to change, however, with the adoption of a new rule at a December party meeting, Babcock added.

"We don't think it helps build the party to have 30 or 40 different sub-units spending their money and endorsing their candidates," he said. "We were all surprised that our rules did not specifically prohibit that."

Miners lawyer up

A major Alaska mining group is seeking to intervene in the ongoing lawsuit over the pending citizens initiative to boost salmon habitat protections.

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott in September denied the initiative application, saying it would have unconstitutionally appropriated state assets — which include natural resources — by effectively preserving fish habitat at the expense of resource development projects, including mines and dams.

[Mallott rejects ballot initiative to boost salmon habitat protections]

The conservation group pushing the initiative, Stand for Salmon, then sued to overturn Mallott's decision. This week, the Council of Alaska Producers — a group that represents big hard rock mines like the Red Dog project near Kotzebue and the Kensington mine near Juneau — filed a motion to intervene in support of Mallott.

A broad range of groups have voiced opposition to the initiative, from contractors to the Alaska Oil and Gas Association to the association representing Alaska Native regional corporation executives. "But it would have a particularly devastating effect on mining in Alaska," the Council of Alaska Producers' attorney, Eric Fjelstad, said in a legal brief dated Monday.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Mark Rindner, in an order dated Tuesday, said he was out of state and unable to read the mining group's briefs — but he said he'd decide whether to allow the group's participation before oral arguments, which are scheduled for Tuesday morning in Anchorage.

403 days until the 2018 election

Scott Hawkins, chief executive of resource development logistics company ASCI, filed paperwork with the Alaska Public Offices Commission last week that allows him to start raising money for a gubernatorial campaign.

Hawkins is a Republican who for years has run a business-backed political group, The Accountability Project, that supports GOP candidates in state elections.

He kicked off his campaign in Ketchikan this week, where, according to the city's public radio station, he said the state ferry system is vital to Southeast Alaska while arguing that it could be more efficient, and he also acknowledged problems with parts of an ad campaign his group used to try to influence last year's legislative election in Ketchikan.

Meanwhile, the Republican Governors Association, a Washington, D.C.-based political group, made its first attack on incumbent independent Gov. Bill Walker, criticizing him Wednesday for a rise in crime last year.

The RGA has said it plans to target the Alaska gubernatorial race, and the statement from the group shows that it's at least prepared to put energy and staff time into the campaign, if not yet cash.

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At the legislative level, Al Fogle, the conservative former South Anchorage Assembly candidate, filed paperwork to allow him to start raising money to run for the state House seat currently held by GOP Rep. Chris Birch, who's seeking to move up to the Senate.

Hugh Hestand, a small-business owner who said he works with three residential properties and a plowing company, has filed to run for the seat held by independent Rep. Jason Grenn, who represents Southwest Anchorage. Hestand says he's not registered with a party and would likely run as an independent.

Liz Vazquez, the incumbent Republican who narrowly lost to Grenn last year, has also filed paperwork that allows her to start raising money for a campaign for state office. But she hasn't specified which one and didn't respond to a message Friday.

Mayors vs. legislators

Municipal officials have periodically voiced their frustration with the Alaska Legislature's failure to raise money to address the state's massive deficit, since the budget cuts approved by lawmakers have sometimes forced cities and boroughs to raise taxes to make up gaps in services.

A new letter to lawmakers from the Alaska Conference of Mayors, in advance of a special legislative session on revenue scheduled for Oct. 23, is local officials' latest push for cash-generating measures — including a restructuring of the Alaska Permanent Fund and "one or more broad-based taxes that balance the diverse economic conditions throughout our vast state."

The letter is signed by the conference's vice president, Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Karl Kassel. It's part of a new agenda to hold the Legislature's "feet to the fire," according to Kathie Wasserman, the executive director of the Alaska Municipal League, which is affiliated with the mayors conference.

"In the last three years, we have had multiple special sessions with only piecemeal fixes being implemented and no concerted plan," Wasserman wrote in an email. "The mayors feel, in order for them to plan their municipal budgets more efficiently and effectively, the Legislature must fully address the state's deficit."

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Public safety hearings

The state House has scheduled a string of hearings on public safety Thursday in Anchorage, less than three weeks before lawmakers take up legislation in the upcoming special session that would roll back elements of Senate Bill 91, last year's criminal justice reform bill.

Amid public backlash against SB 91, some of the members of the House's largely Democratic majority have suggested that other factors are fueling recent rises in crime, like cuts to state prosecutors.

Presenters at Thursday's hearings include Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth, Public Defender Quinlan Steiner, officials from Alaska's corrections and public safety departments and experts from the University of Alaska Anchorage's Justice Center.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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