Alaskan Politics

It’s political season and even though this is a real estate blog I can’t help myself. We have a primary race coming up in August and we need to vote. I am pretty disgusted with our free people voting at a rate below 20%. I hope this year more people take it upon themselves to walk down to the voting booth. Full disclosure, I’m an active republican so this will primarily be about republicans.

I just attended a session with Don Young in Wasilla. Cheryl Campbell, a fellow Realtor with Prudential Jack White Vista, was kind enough to send me the photo taken today in the Meridian Center. Don Young was his usuall fiery self talking about shutting down the funding to all the new programs recently passed. I’m all for that idea except that I have never seen congress really do anything like that. He has been in the house as long as I have been voting in Alaska, and that’s a long time. This year he is running against Sheldon Fisher who is trying to outconservative Don Young. Honestly, my vote is still out on this race but it’s hard to ignore Don Young’s willingness to stand for Alaska. His main point today was that government doesn’t produce anything, they just regulate and tax people who do.

Then there is the primary race for governor. The current real contenders are Sean Parnell, Ralph Samuels, and Bill Wallker. I’ve given up on Sean Parnell because of the current budget…we can’t be spending money like water while we are heading toward an economic cliff. Unlike the federal government, the state is not allowed to just print more money when we run out. Samuels and Walker can see the future problem with a declining income but they come at it from different viewpoints. I wish I could merge the two of them together to get one good candidate. Both of them understand that we can forget about any pipeline heading through Canada…not gonna happen.

Walker wants to build a large in-state gas line to Valdez with spurs to go off in different places to bring gas to many parts of the state. Then he wants to ship it to Aisa in the form of Liquified Natural Gas and also has ideas to use the gas to build some manufacturing. Apparently he believes that this will produce enought income that we won’t worry about spending.

Samuels knows that we need to cut the budget SOON. If we don’t, we will make draconian cuts later. He wants to put a smaller gas line in to Anchorage and Kenai from the North Slope. This line will mainly be to bring less expensive energy to the bulk of the population but also will provide gas to the LNG plant in Nikiski so that it can once again export gas. He is ready and willing to cut spending but I don’t hear much about producing an income. So my vote is still out on this race too.

Then we have the race for US Senate between Lisa Murkowski and Joe Miller. On this one I am for Joe Miller all the way. In my mind, Lisa is barely on the Republican side of the political devide. She votes with the democrats more than the vast majority of her republican colleagues. Like I said, I’m a republican. I want a senator that votes like a republican. Joe Miller is way more conservative than is Lisa and he has an impressive bio to back him up.

I’m a republican. I’m a conservative republican. If you are a conservative too you might be interested in a meeting next week. It’s titled “WHAT IS A CONSERVATIVE ?”. It will be at Kendall Park behind the Regan Building at 3161 Palmer-Wasilla Highway. Speakers include: Joe Miller, candidate for US Senate; Cathy Giesell, candidate for State Senate; Jen Bettine, with the Conservative Patriots Group; Don Haase, candidate for US House; and David Eastman, West Point grad and Afganistan veteran. There will be additional speakers as well. A barbeque will be provided with no charge, donations will be accepted.

There are more races in this primary. If I get the urge again I’ll discuss them in another article.