GOP Incumbent in Alaska’s Most Conservative District Responds to Challenger

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Primary Elections are important! But, don’t be tempted to vote for a candidate based on partial truths, errors, or false implications. I am honored to be the sitting legislator of District 10 and am seeking re-election. The pursuit of and desire to become a public servant is an honorable part of our Constitutional Republic. However, I challenge my opponent to do so with extreme care, to not compromise accuracy for a short-term gain, to speak honorably.

I believe it is my responsibility to refute some of what is being stated in this campaign season. I invite you to visit the legislative archives and State law to verify these clarifications.

* I, Wes Keller, have in fact served as an Alaska State Legislator for NINE years. My first budget vote was in March, 2008. This was a memorable event for me with 29 Republican Majority “Yeas”, and 10 Democrat “Nays”; this was before the huge oil revenue drop.

* I am running for my FIFTH term. 2008 was my first election cycle.

* I am NOT in favor of term-limits for State level legislators. Each year there is more to learn and progressive learning provides more insight, experience, and makes us better communicating legislators as we work together. A State representative has a built-in, robust term limit every two years (re-election). US Congress term limits, on the other hand, are a completely different animal. I fully support Congressional term limits and welcome any opportunity to explain this further.

* My voting decisions are based on who I am in terms of values. It has been liberating and freeing to be true to myself, and thereby represent a majority of my constituents. It is my job to be transparent on voting decisions so constituents can decide if I do in fact represent them. I DO NOT vote based on party line, but my values align very well with the traditional Republican Party platform. I am pro-life, pro-family, pro-small business, and pro-limited government – and, I work grounded in the foundational values of American Constitutionalism. It has been an honor to be part of the Majority Caucus, whose consensus plan is determined each election cycle by the majority caucus of each house. This “consensus plan” is a compromise team to enable budget passage. This is why it is so important to make sure your legislator’s values represent your own. It is naïve, at best, to vow to not vote for a budget, or to promise to not join either the minority or majority ‘team’ (caucus). The bi-annual hope for us conservatives is that Alaskans will send enough strong conservatives to shape the consensus plan, to make the spending cuts we need. We are at a critical time in Alaskan history, and we need effective, experienced conservative legislators representing all Alaskans.

* The Governor made the decision on the PFD veto without the Legislature’s approval – It seems to be, in a “knee-jerk” reaction to the Legislature’s attempt to block revenue measures. Special Session agendas, in this case, were set by the Governor. The bills “handled” were approved/requested/negotiated with the Governor. An individual legislator CANNOT dictate what the Governor does and the Governor CANNOT dictate what the legislature decides. Each legislator MUST WORK with the other 59 legislators to come to a collective agreement.

Some general clarifications:

Alaskans are increasingly aware we do indeed have a fiscal crisis and are asking why? How did we get to spending more per capita than any other state? Are we going to have to liquidate or downsize some of our ‘crown jewels assets’? If so, which ones: Education (K-12 and UA)? Social Services (Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc.)? The Ferry system? Obviously, none of these would be beneficial to get rid of completely, so there is give and take in how to encompass the best major reform for the majority of Alaskans. I will fight to keep government limited, cut extra spending, and keep what most benefits Alaskans.

Constitutionally, it is the Alaska Legislature (NOT the Governor) who carries the responsibility for spending decisions. Spending decisions are a product of legislative consensus in the budget process. The budget process is a product of years and years of legislative rules and laws, and it is a slow process to change. Spending level reductions are directly tied to:

1. available revenue (we cannot spend what we do not have), and

2. the willingness of Alaskans to re-elect a majority of conservative spenders.

Nothing happens quickly or efficiently in a republic (by design). We must balance the budget BEFORE any new taxes – for sure BEFORE spending PF earnings.

The source of “All political power is inherent in the PEOPLE” (Art 1, Section 2). It is the voter’s decision whether they want an experienced legislator or ‘new blood’. I respect this power, and believe it is very, very wrong to intentionally mislead voters to either end. I will respect voter choice even if I believe they have been misled, but am obligated to try to eliminate confusions. Alaska is small, so every constituent has the ability to contact their legislator directly. Your voice, or lack of, DOES define Alaska.

The truth is I believe I am the best option for my constituents to best protect the interests of Alaskans. The Alaska Family Council | Alaska Family Action also believes this. The following is a recommendation from them:

“This one is a no-brainer. There are 40 members of the State House of Representatives – and not one has worked harder and more effectively to advance conservative principles than Wes Keller. Wes is a soft-spoken and self-deprecating man – but when it comes to supporting pro-life and pro-family policies, he is a rock star. His experience includes nearly 10 years in the state House, and also eight years serving as Chief of Staff for former Senator Fred Dyson, another champion of conservative and Christian values.”

* “Do you support school choice? Wes Keller sponsored the constitutional amendment (HJR 1) to make school choice possible.

* Do you support protecting religious liberty? Rep. Keller sponsored the most serious bill to prevent government discrimination against people of faith (HB 325).

* Do you support stopping Planned Parenthood from indoctrinating public school students? Rep. Keller sponsored a bill (HB 192) to keep them out of our schools.

* Do you support legislation to rein in liberal, activist judges? Rep. Keller is the ONLY House member who has made serious efforts (HJR 33, HB 200) to reform our out-of-control judiciary.

* Are you opposed to abortion? Rep. Keller has sponsored and co-sponsored numerous bills to increase protections for unborn children.

* Support family values? Rep. Keller sponsored legislation to try and keep pornography out of our public libraries.”

“Alaska is full of candidates who thump their chest about being “pro-life” and “pro-family” – especially during election years – and then go down to Juneau and do absolutely nothing to move the ball down the field on those issues. Wes Keller is that refreshing exception – a man with a strong moral compass and the courage to act on what he believes. Perhaps it goes without saying, but Rep. Keller has returned our candidate survey, and is solidly in alignment with AFA on every single one of our public policy goals.”

“Rep. Keller faces off against three other Republican opponents in the August 16 primary: Steve Menard, Andrew Wright, and David Eastman. Menard and Wright have not responded to the AFA candidate survey. To his credit, Eastman has responded to our survey, and indicates strong agreement with most AFA priorities. Regardless, this primary is not a close call: exchanging Wes Keller’s 18 years of battlefield wisdom for an earnest but untested candidate is not a smart trade. We need to send Wes Keller back to Juneau, so we can keep this savvy and courageous leader working on the issues that matter most.”

“Share this information with friends who live in District 10: Mat-Su Borough (Meadow Lakes & other Wasilla-area precincts, Houston, Willow, Susitna, Trapper Creek, Talkeetna).”

All State documentation can be found at https://akleg.gov/index.php.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Whoppers, and Whopper Tellers.

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I had to laugh. Really, I had to.

I was listening to a Lisa Murkowski campaign ad and I heard this: “Her word is her bond.” I suspected this wasn’t true so I did some digging. I found that she can really tell some whoppers.

Like the one in 2010 she told to the Penninsula Clarion: When asked if she would support the winner of the Republican primary (she was running against Joe Miller for the senate seat her dad, Frank, gave her.) “Murkowski said she respects the electorate and would support whoever wins.” Well, we soon found out that wasn’t really going to happen. In fact, after losing that primary to Miller she decided to run a write-in campaign and eventually defeated him in the general election with the help of…well… a lot of Liberals. No surprise there of course since she is quite the Liberal herself. But that whopper is kinda right in your face, isn’t it?

And then there’s the whole issue about how her thoughts on things… really important things… evolve. I’m not talking about someone who in mid-life decides that Jiff is better than Skippy. I’m not even talking about someone who as a lifelong Green Bay Packer fan “evolves” into a Minnesota Vikings fan. (This is not possible of course, but I think you get the point.) No, I’m talking about marriage. You know, that institution that is the very foundation of civilized society. Well, in October of 2010, she told a newspaper from the Anchorage Archdiocese, The Catholic Anchor:

“I believe marriages should be legally defined as between one man and one woman. I have voted in support of efforts in the Senate to enact a Constitutional amendment that would have limited marriage to one man and one woman only.”

But just three years later she wrote this in an op-ed:

Like the majority of Alaskans, I supported a constitutional amendment in 1998 defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, but my thinking has evolved as America has witnessed a clear cultural shift. Fifteen years after that vote, I find that when one looks closer at the issue, you quickly realize that same sex unions or civil marriages are consistent with the independent mindset of our state – and they deserve a hands-off approach from our federal policies.

Are you starting to get the picture that when Lisa Murkowski tells us something we probably should wait at least a couple of years to see if she really means it. I mean, what is she going to “evolve” on next. Is she going to support some tax scheme on the energy sector that suggests that global climate change is caused by your SUV? Or, say the federal government under President Hillary decides that your AR-15 in the closet is a threat to national security so you had just better turn it over to your local Federales… will Senator Lisa “evolve” on the Second Amendment? We really don’t know, do we? In fact we don’t know where she will stand on anything because she is prone to telling whoppers as she “evolves.” And we all know what the Good Book says about that, and I quote; “Never trust a Whopper Teller.”

Finally, in another ad Senator Murkowski makes the claim she is the “Conservative Voice for Alaska.” The reality is that by any standard the good senator is the second most liberal Republican in the Senate. We have a name for these kind of Republicans, RINO (Republican In Name Only). She’s so liberal Mark Begich wanted to use her in his campaign ads the last time he ran in 2014. She didn’t like that one bit because she knew she had to run…in Alaska…in 2016…right now.

You see, the Republican Party has always stood for those principles which have made America what it is. It was created to fight slavery. It stood against the Progressivism early in the last century that Woodrow Wilson sought to impose on America. And it supported the Civil Rights Movement when nearly all Democrats held fast to Jim Crow.

Senator Murkowski doesn’t agree with most of those principles articulated in the GOP platform. Indeed, she scorns them. She fights for taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood even after we learned it was selling the body parts of aborted children. What kind of seared conscience can make that argument?

I guess she believes she is a Republican and a Conservative because she fights to have more ice-breakers built, or strives to have our natural resources developed, or advocates for a strong national defense or even because she wants the pipeline filled. Well just remember, Senator Mark Begich, the flaming Liberal that he is, fought for those very same things. At least he was always honest with us when he claimed to be a Liberal.

The problem I have here is that far too many politicians have the nasty little habit of telling us one thing when they want our vote, but then doing something completely different after we elect them. But the even greater problem is that we don’t do our job as citizens. That is, we don’t hold the Whopper Tellers to their word. We just let them tell us whoppers and then we put them back right back in office, over and over. We let them tell us they are with us…that they are somehow conservative…when they are not. We let them “evolve” when really they are just telling whoppers.

We do have a choice of course. On August 16th there is a Republican primary where we can vote for someone else who might actually be a Conservative, and who just might tell us a few less whoppers.

If that doesn’t work for you try voting for a Libertarian. Either way, it’s time to end the whoppers, and the Whopper Tellers who tell them.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

The Most Conservative District in Alaska Has Failed to Lead

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Alaska’s House District 10 borders the Wasilla City Limits on one side and Denali National Park on the other. In between those two borders lies the greatest concentration of conservative voters in Alaska. This is the more conservative of the two house districts currently represented by Sen. Mike Dunleavy. This is where conservative US Senate candidate Joe Miller beat Dan Sullivan by more than 10%, and Mitt Romney received roughly 70% of the vote in the general election. In a word, this is the heartland of conservative Alaska.

Knowing this, members of the Alaska Legislature quite naturally look to the representative from District 10 to lead on conservative issues. The thinking goes, “If the representative from the most conservative district in the state isn’t sticking their neck out on a particular conservative issue, why should I?” So if you want to know why a number of conservative issues, such as halting state employee salary increases, have failed to gain traction in the Alaska Legislature, look no further than the representative who has been the voice of House District 10 in the legislature for the last decade.

That individual is my legislator, Rep. Keller; employed in the legislature since the nineties, and currently running for his 6th term in office. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am running against him. Let me tell you why.

Alaska State Government is overspending today. In fact, we have watched the legislature pass unsustainable state budgets now for the last nine years in a row. In the end, you cannot consume our financial resources at the speed we are consuming them today, without tangibly reducing the quality of life that will be available to future generations of Alaskans. You just can’t. No matter how you slice it, excessive state spending today is—for all practical purposes—a tax on our kids.

As a member of the house and now house leadership, Rep. Keller voted for every single one of the last nine unsustainable state budgets, more than doubling the state budget since 2005. Even after declaring his commitment to sustainable spending, he continued to vote for budgets that were unsustainable, ensuring that the state would one day come looking to take the PFD, on the road to taking control of the Permanent Fund itself.

Remember that 2.5% salary increase for state employees last year? Keller crossed over and voted with the Democrats, and against his Republican colleagues, to increase state employee salaries in the midst of the current budget crisis. Jim Colver voted with the Republicans. Paul Seaton voted with the Republicans. Bob Lynn voted with the Republicans. Even a number of Democrat legislators voted with the Republicans. Wes Keller voted with the Democrats.

Senator Dan Sullivan has received a grade of “F” from Conservative Review for his performance in the US Senate over the past two years. Wes Keller supported Dan Sullivan when he ran against US Senate candidates Joe Miller and Mead Treadwell, further confirming that Wes Keller does not reflect the conservative values of a district where Miller beat Dan Sullivan by more than 10% in the primary, and Sullivan received support from only 33% of voters. Instead of leading his district in the direction of conservative values, Wes Keller is actually leading his district away from them.

Wes Keller was the deciding vote in the house to increase the state minimum wage (HB384). If the senate had not intervened to kill HB384, Alaska would now be tied with California and Massachusetts for having the highest minimum wage in all fifty states.

On the first day of the special session in July, Rep. Keller declared he would ensure that a roll call vote was taken to override the governor’s attack on the PFD. Unfortunately, that never happened. There was no vote during the special session because Keller did not call for one. The consequence of that failure is not only the wasted time and expense of a special session, but even more importantly, the legislators who have been supporting the governor’s attacks on the PFD behind the scenes now won’t have to defend their actions to the voters at election time. They will be back next year, and they will be going after the PFD again with a vengeance.

Rep. Keller has publicly gone on record to declare his opposition to the 90-day legislative session that was passed by Alaskan voters, saying that he needs the extra time to network with his house colleagues and work with agencies. Last year, the legislature was in session for 157 days, and this year the legislature has already been in session for 157 days. For individuals like Rep. Keller, who do not have another form of employment outside of the legislature, this may not be an immediate problem. However, 157 days in session puts a tremendous strain on part-time citizen-legislators, staffers, and their families, and results in some of the very best candidates being unable to run for public office simply due to the amount of time they would have to spend away from work, and away from their homes and families, while serving as a legislator. The legislature needs to stop making excuses, and honor the law passed by Alaskan voters.

We are currently watching the Alaska Legislature shift from a part-time body of citizen-legislators to its acting more and more like the role of legislator should be a full-time career. Unfortunately, longevity in office breeds complacency, and longer sessions in Juneau serve to insulate legislators from their constituents back home, resulting in a legislature that is less accountable to the people. If the last two years are any indication, we are already well on our way down that road.

As a member of the house, Keller publicly advocated for implementation of the federal P-20 database and the federal data mining of Alaskan students’ personal information. He led the charge in pushing SB91 through the house, which severely undercuts personal responsibility for the commission of crimes, and was passed over the strenuous objections of virtually every law enforcement and victims’ rights group in the state. Rep. Keller lost the endorsement of Alaska Right to Life after 2012, and was refused their endorsement in 2014 and again in 2016. This is not the record one would hope for from someone representing the most conservative district in our state.

I am running to fight for genuine conservative reform, fiscally and socially, and to retire a failed incumbent politician who got us into this mess. The Alaska Legislature needs a strong conservative voice to represent District 10, one who will lead the district toward conservative values and not away from them.

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David Eastman is a firefighter in Wasilla, a former military police officer on JBER, and a candidate for the Alaska State House in District 10. He is endorsed by fiscal conservatives such as Brad Keithley, founder of Alaskans for Sustainable Budgets, and social conservatives such as Eagle Forum Alaska and Jack Phelps, founder of the Alaska Private and Home Educators Association (APHEA).

Sources of documentation for Rep. Wes Keller’s votes and positions available here

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Alaska’s New Sex Ed. Law Has Planned Parenthood Furious

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Alaska implemented a broad new education law that has Planned Parenthood hopping mad while making Common Core foes happy.

HB 156 was passed back in May, but has since sat on the desk of independent Gov. Bill Walker while he considered whether to veto it. Finally, on Thursday, Walker allowed the bill to become law without signing it, saying the bill was a “very close call” for him.

The law influences several different aspects of schooling in Alaska, but of particular note is its provisions on sex education and standardized tests. The law states that sex education may only be taught by a certified teacher, or by an outside instructor approved by the local school board. One major goal of the provision is to keep teachers from bringing in representatives of Planned Parenthood to provide sex education lessons.

The provision was backed by Alaska Sen. Mike Dunleavy, who previously pushed a bill that would have explicitly banned any abortion provider from providing sex education in public schools. That bill failed to pass, but Dunleavy managed to insert the provision into HB 156 as an amendment, where it was then modified into the form that became law this week.

Dunleavy says the law empowers parents by giving elected school boards greater influence on sex ed. (Read more from “Alaska’s New Sex Ed. Law Has Planned Parenthood Furious” HERE)

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Alaska Supreme Court Strikes Down Parental Notice on Abortions

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In split decision, the Alaska Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved law that required at least one parent to be notified before an abortion practitioner could perform an abortion on a minor girl. The law provided an option for a judge to bypass the notification requirement in special circumstances.

Initially approved in 2010 when Alaska became the first state to pass a parental notification law through a citizen-led initiative, the measure was challenged in the Alaska Supreme Court by Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortions in the nation.

The law passed comfortably in 2010 by a 56 to 43 percent margin.

The achievement was a long sought and welcome victory, particularly for parents and many Catholics who collected petition signatures, waved signs on street corners and prayed to ensure the protection of parental rights. The Catholic Church recognizes the relationship between parent and child as sacred — and not one to be broken by others, including abortion practitioners.

In 2012 Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock upheld major portions of the law, concluding that “minors may be pleasantly surprised when underestimated parents support, comfort and affirm them. Or a teen might overlook available resources. Her parents might help raise the child, and so make college or military service feasible. Parental notification undoubtedly can open doors to unconsidered options for an otherwise isolated young woman.”

Since the law took effect, the number of abortions to girls age 17 and younger had seen a dramatic drop. In 2010, before the law took effect, there were 113 abortions to girls under 17. After the law took effect there were only 87 abortions to girls under 17 in 2011 and the state saw a record low number of reported abortions last year. According to the state’s Bureau of Vital Statistics 1,334 abortions were performed in 2015, the fewest since 2003 when Alaska began recording data.

In striking down the parental consent law, then Chief Justice Dana Fabe was joined by justices Daniel Winfree, Peter Maasen and Joel Bolger. Justice Craig Stowers dissented.

Stowers noted that the parental consent law had “One obvious purpose” and that was “to provide the minor’s parents the opportunity to discuss with their daughter the potential effects of and alternatives to abortion. This is beyond doubt a legitimate interest and right that the State and the parents possess.”

Stowers criticized his colleagues for failing to uphold basic parental rights saying the ruling “trivializes and makes this right of no effect.”

In writing the majority opinion, Winfree claimed that the law unjustifiably treated minors differently when they sought an abortion as opposed to when they decided to keep their babies. By requiring abortion doctors to notify parents that their daughter was to undergo an abortion but not requiring parents to be notified when their daughter chose to keep the baby was seen as a violation of equal protection under the law, Winfree argued.

“Our response — again — is that the Notification Law’s problem is not with wording, but rather with the lack of an acceptable justification for discriminating between pregnant minors based on how they exercise their fundamental privacy right to reproductive choice,” Winfree claimed. “The equal protection clause guarantees that the State may not discriminate between individuals with respect to a fundamental right unless a compelling governmental interest justifies the discrimination.”

But Stowers had strong words for the court’s rational, saying that the same court had previously stated in a 2007 striking down parental consent that a parental notification law could pass constitutional muster because it would be a less restrictive way to further the state’s interests.

By striking down the parental notification law Stowers said the court has indicated that “no parental notification law recognizing parents’ fundamental legal rights to notification of, much less meaningful involvement in, their minor daughters’ decisions to have abortions will be upheld by this court under its strained jurisprudence defining minors’ rights to equal protection.” (For more from the author of “Alaska Supreme Court Strikes Down Parental Notice on Abortions” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Alaska’s Governor Bill Walker: A Charlatan, Loyal to the Same Corrupt Forces Behind Most Politicians

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Since announcing his theft of $666 million of the People’s Permanent Dividend Fund several weeks ago, Governor Bill Walker has been doing a victory lap around the State of Alaska, presumably on the People’s dime. His message is self-congratulatory and goes something like this: “The legislature wouldn’t act to resolve the State’s budget crisis, so I did.”

Just like Governor Walker’s promise not to “steal” (his words, not mine) from Alaska’s Permanent Fund to provide revenue for our bloated state government, his self-congratulatory message is false. Rather than making the tough calls on the State’s budget, the governor took the easy way out by offending the constituency he’s apparently least concerned about: the People.

Let’s think about this for a minute. The governor claims he cut the PFD in half, by a thousand dollars. In reality, he cut it by about $1200 for every qualifying man, woman and child in Alaska, as the expected PFD absent his illegal act would have been $2200 rather than the governor’s decreed $1000. That’s a direct, 55% cut to the People.

And what did the governor do with respect to government agencies? Most were cut 5% or less. What does that tell you? He fears the lobbyists and bureaucrats more than he fears you. That’s the message. He’s done little heavy lifting to correct the budget deficit, taking the lazy way out by grabbing the easy money. Rather than really cutting the state budget, he cut hard-working Alaskan families’ budgets instead.

To make matters worse, now the Governor claims the ability to unilaterally determine the amount of all your future PFD’s with the mere stroke of a pen. He can pretty much take whatever he wants from you, perhaps so he can hire a few more crony consultants at a few hundred thousand dollars per whack.

Keep in mind, many Alaskans favor the recall of Governor Walker not because they are absolutely opposed to ever using the Permanent Fund for state government. Rather, they want to get rid of him because he failed to make the hard decisions and instead grabbed the easy money. And he lied to them.

Even after “stealing” your money, Governor Walker’s budget plan does not solve the crisis. It just puts a band-aid on it, putting off the hard decisions for the next governor.

Governor Bill Walker is no leader. He’s a charlatan, loyal to the same old corrupt forces behind most Alaskan politicians.

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Please follow “Save the PFD” on Facebook HERE and on Twitter HERE.

There Is Only One Way to Stop Attacks on the PFD

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On June 29th, we witnessed something unheard of in Alaska. For the first time in state history, a sitting governor asserted the power to unilaterally determine the value of the PFD, or whether he would even permit there to be a PFD at all. If he can get away with it, it is an absolute stroke of political brilliance. For those who say, “but wait, he is only changing the PFD from $2,200 to $1,000”, just think about this a moment. If the governor will now have the power to reduce the PFD to $1,000, why not $100, why not 50¢, why not $0? Politically speaking, the power that the governor has now asserted represents a monumental shift.

The next time the governor doesn’t get his way, or doesn’t feel like the people are sufficiently supportive of his policies (wanna buy a gasline anyone?), all he has to do is ask us if we want a PFD this year. That alone should be more than sufficient to get a flurry of calls to the legislature in support of whatever proposal of his is bogged down in the legislature. And many of those calls would be from those who can least afford to have their PFD slashed or taken away; from those on fixed incomes, from the villages, from those who are barely able to make ends meet as it is. Ah, but the governor would never actually do that, would he?

I think the question is whether he would even have to. In times past we spoke of having the oil companies over a barrel. Now it would be our turn. The thing about political power is that it rarely goes unused. Even without public threats or visible demonstrations, that power is still felt and will have a profound effect on political discourse going forward. And even if one governor decides not to use the full extent of his power, that says nothing about what will happen once a governor is elected (or reelected) when that power is already on the books.

But I have reason to believe that we will not need to wait long to see how this plays out. Just yesterday I, and every other legislator and candidate, noted the formal press release from the governor, in which he threatened to bring voters against any candidate who does not support “The Governor’s New Alaska Plan” or his “Permanent Fund Restructure Plan”. He will accept no answer but support for his plan(s), and he will use every bit of his power as governor to get it, even when doing so earns him ethics complaints for threatening legislative candidates on official stationery, paid for by the taxpayers.

Our elected representatives in the legislature now have a choice to make. It’s the same choice they make every time they go down to Juneau. Are they willing to see themselves as expendable for the sake of something greater than their political careers, or is getting re-elected the box in which they live and move and find their personal meaning?

As an Army officer, when I took soldiers into a combat zone, I knew that the mission was larger than any one of us. And while I offered prayers of thanks each time we returned to Alaska from an overseas deployment, it did not change the fact that our state and our nation would have carried on if one of us had fallen.

If one of us had been taken prisoner by the Taliban, it would have been unthinkable that the President would hand the keys to the city over to terrorists in exchange for a single soldier. To be expendable does not diminish the value of your life or service, it puts it up against the lives and families of those you are fighting to protect, and says that their lives and freedom are worth your sacrifice, if it comes to that.

Alaska State Law: The Facts This year’s PFD is expected to be in the neighborhood of $2,200. That is, if the State Dept. of Revenue follows state law as set forth in AS 43.23.025. The calculation of the PFD is set in statute, and is therefore determined by state law. If the Dept. of Revenue does not follow the law, each of us will rightly be able to say that we were robbed by our own government.

When it was created by the legislature, and signed into law by Gov. Hammond, the PFD was never intended to be included as a budget item, or contingent on passage of the state budget. Initially, state budgets reflected this truth and did not pretend, symbolically or otherwise, to reauthorize distribution of the PFD each year. This is because the PFD is not an appropriation from the General Fund. By law, it is paid from the Dividend Fund, over which the governor has no authority. Even the legislature does not have the ability to alter the PFD calculation without first approving the change in each legislative chamber and then securing the approval of the governor, following the same process required of every revision to state law.

What this means is that the Governor has not “cut” anything, except the law. And if he directs the Dept. of Revenue to ignore state law in distributing less than the full amount of the dividend in October, then he should be held to account for directing a state agency to violate state law. The full amount of the PFD is owed to every eligible Alaskan, with a date set in statute by which it is to be paid (according to AS 43.23.055(2) that date is December 31, 2016).

Again, state law does not simply permit the PFD to be distributed, at the discretion of the governor. AS 43.23.055(2) declares: “The department shall annually pay permanent fund dividends from the dividend fund”. And to obstruct timely payment of that amount is no less theft than spending it for some unauthorized purpose.

If you are like my family, your PFD is included in the family budget, just as it is a significant part of the budget for the many businesses throughout our state who target sales, promotions, or loans based on the timely distribution of the PFD. Would Americans sit by if Obama told the IRS not to issue tax refunds this year “because the government needed the money”? I think not.

Such an action would be rightly seen as government theft of personal property owed to its rightful owner. An IRS promise to include it with next year’s refund, does nothing for this year’s family or company budget, or the rent, mortgage, car insurance, and other expenses that still have to come out of that budget this year. People are always hurt when government fails in its obligations. And when you have debts to pay, as many Alaskans and small businesses do, not having the money to pay them can lead to terrible consequences.

And where is our legislature in all this? Have they followed the example of America’s founders and opposed “with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people?” No? According to the news, the question this week is whether they will even take a vote on whether to oppose the governor’s raid on the PFD. And why is that?

I believe it is because those who have been in the legislature for the last decade or more (and specifically, the Republican Majority Caucus), know that they have voted for each and every unsustainable budget that brought us to the place in which we find ourselves today. The governor is clearly wrong today, but a nearly equal share falls on those Republican legislators who have placed their political careers over voting against the very same unsustainable budgets that they now tell us they oppose.

In recent years, Rep. Reinbold has stood alone among her Republican colleagues in voting against budgets that were clearly unsustainable. For that vote, she was removed from the majority caucus and two of her staffers were laid off. Today, her colleagues clamor about protecting the PFD, the very same PFD that they put in jeopardy by going along with, and giving their support to, budgets that they knew were unsustainable—year, after year, after year.

In the situation in which we find ourselves today, there is only one way to protect the PFD from attack. That is to hold our governor accountable for his actions, and to hold our legislators accountable for theirs. And if you vote to send them back to Juneau for another term, do so knowing that past behavior is often an excellent predictor of future behavior—only next time we won’t just be talking about a $1,000 PFD. Before too long, that discussion will shift to the permanent fund itself.

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David Eastman is a firefighter in Wasilla, a former military police officer on JBER, and a candidate for the Alaska State House in District 10.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

INCREDIBLE: AK Gov. Walker Runs for Cover, Denies Broken Promises on PFD; UFL President Responds

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On September 2, 2014 United For Liberty (“UFL”) was honored to have candidate Bill Walker address a group of United For Liberty members. He met with approximately 50 members from different political parties and associations affiliated with UFL.

In his presentation, candidate Walker made specific statements that he was not a career politician and that if he were elected he would have to go to Juneau and make hard decisions to cut the size and scope of government and this would not be popular. He said this was his first priority. He used the 16% reduction figure often as a benchmark. Additionally, he insisted that he would not raid the PFD or incorporate any sales taxes or income taxes. It is important to note that oil prices were already falling and in October of 2014, prior to the election, prices had dipped below $80.00 bbl. Certainly nobody could predict where oil would bottom out , but it was clear that the price of oil was on a serious downward trajectory at the time Bill Walker made these statements.

The first week of September 2014, candidate Walker was solicited by United For Liberty to submit an article for our October 2014 newsletter. The deadline was September 22 for final submission. A member of UFL accepted the editor’s task to put together the final product. This same member was also working with the Walker team to assist in assembling a narrative to be put in the newsletter. He worked diligently and put the entire newsletter together and submitted to me the entire PFD file to publish on United For Liberty’s website. Following is a letter I sent candidate Walker on October 9th thanking him for the submitted article and asking him to consider submitting one more for a possible additional newsletter before the election (he submitted an additional article on October 15, 2014, but I did not publish it as I did not have one from incumbent Governor Parnell and I wanted to give each candidate fair coverage):

HEADER——> UFL NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION

Dear Bill,

Thank you for submitting an article for our newsletter. I am writing you to solicit one more before the election is upon us. Please consider submitting another article by Friday, October 17th. I do believe it is in your campaign’s better interest to submit as we have a large circulation through our member groups. Governor Parnell has received a request as well.

my regards,
Michael

ps.
Thank you for meeting with us recently. I appreciate your participation and
wish you well.

Candidate Walker also met with a group comprised of the Conservatives Patriot Group (CPG) and the Alaska Republican Assembly, a meeting which he requested and I assembled for his benefit. This private meeting took place on October 5, 2014, and again candidate Walker spoke specifically to protecting the PFD and not incorporating income or sales taxes.

Over the past week, the governor’s wife has sent me a series of emails claiming that the article submitted to UFL in the October newsletter was not authorized by the candidate. These communications were apparently prompted because recent excerpts of Bill Walker’s quotes from this article in our newsletter have appeared in various publications online, including Joe Miller’s Restoring Liberty article: Governor Walker Steals $666 Million From Alaska’s Families, Time to Recall the Liar. She calls the article “bogus,” specifically complaining about the “mass distribution of the bogus article that has wrongly been attributed to Bill.”

It is clear in my letter to candidate Walker that I am thanking him for receipt of his article for the newsletter and asking him to submit a second article (which his team did). Not once did he or anyone on his team indicate to me or anyone at UFL that they did not authorize the article that UFL published to hundreds of Alaskans in 2014. While I respect that the governor has had to make difficult decisions since the price of oil dropped dramatically, the email record definitively shows that the Walker team was aware that his first article was submitted for publication.

Throughout candidate Walker’s campaign, he repeated the same narrative, echoing UFL’s October 2014 newsletter. For example, in an article published in the ADN on October 11, 2014, he stated his opposition to using the PFD to fund state government. He ran his campaign on the same promises described in UFL’s newsletter. There is no sunlight between his campaign’s public statements and his article in UFL’s October 2014 newsletter.

Monster Landslide Rocks Southeast Alaska

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A massive landslide, estimated to be around six-and-half miles long, near Glacier Bay has scientists in New York clambering to get to Southeast. The slide happened Tuesday morning, and was discovered by a local pilot.

On Tuesday morning, when Paul Swanstrom saw the dust cloud hovering over the Lamplugh Glacier, he said he knew what it was immediately . . .

This landslide in Glacier Bay National Park, like the ones in 2014 and 2012, sent millions of tons of debris spilling down the mountainside. According to the Alaska Earthquake Center it happened at 8:21 a.m. Swanstrom flew over it about two hours later. (Read more from “Monster Landslide Rocks Southeast Alaska” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Governor Walker Steals $666 Million From Alaska’s Families, Time to Recall the Liar

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Governor Walker campaigned as a Republican, then made a deal with the Dems as Independent. Now he says both parties are evil. In reality, the biggest evil is looking directly back at Bill Walker in the mirror.

Governor Bill Walker just stole (his words, not mine) approximately $1,000 from every man, woman, and child in Alaska. It was the most destructive, regressive tax in the history of the State of Alaska. And why did he do it? He doesn’t have the backbone to confront the State’s public unions. He’d rather take from the average Alaskan family than confront the institutional corruption that plagues our state.

The man is a liar, flat-out. He promised repeatedly in his past elections to never touch Alaska’s Permanent Dividend Fund. Here’s what the liar said in 2014 to get elected:

As Governor I believe in . . . rejecting the notion that Juneau politicians need to look at stealing money from your PFD or instituting a state income or sales tax in order to pay for their growing appetite to spend money we don’t have. A balanced budget does not mean tapping our state savings account to pay what you are unwilling to cut.

He also stated that, “I have no intention to [pay] for state government by reducing Permanent Fund dividend checks. If we properly develop our natural resources and put in place a sustainable budget that should not be necessary.” And that’s not all. He repeatedly attacked the incumbent governor for a plan “tapping the PFD or creating a state tax rather than cut spending.”

This is the worst type of hypocrisy. A politician who lied not only about his opponent, but then later did exactly what he accused his opponent of.

So what exactly did the Governor do? He refused to cut public spending to match declining state revenues and instead took the easy out: he simply stole the People’s money and blamed the legislature for his unethical act. Exactly how much money did he steal from us? Most estimates suggest that Alaskans would have realized $2,000 from this year’s dividend. So by capping the dividend at $1000, he took about $1000 for every qualifying resident, or 666 million dollars.

In other words, Bill Walker cut Alaskan’s PFDs by many times more than state agencies, in some cases over ten times more. What does that tell you about this governor?

And what does that mean to growing families in Alaska, struggling to heat their homes and pay other utilities in a state where expenses are 25% higher than the national average? It may mean less food on their tables and more frigid homes in the winter. This is a major chunk of change for the average Alaskan family. Of course, multi-millionaire, big-government-loving Bill Walker has no understanding or concern for this.

And yes, millionaire Bill Walker, it IS the public’s money. The state Constitution provides that all mineral rights are owned by the People. Article VIII, Section 1 of the State’s Constitution dictates that the use of resources from state lands should maximize the public interest. Such resources are to be used so that the citizens equally benefit, not so that one special interest – like public unions – have their demands met at the cost of the average Joe.

To make matters worse, after stealing Alaskan’s PFDs, this shyster governor blamed the legislature for his spineless act. Huh?! The envy of most governors nationwide, Governor Walker holds a veto pen that can unilaterally cut any agency and any funding he wishes – just as he used that pen to steal thousands of dollars from hard-working Alaskans. The governor HIMSELF has total authority over state expenditures. He alone is responsible for not addressing the State’s fiscal disaster with integrity.

The cold hard facts are this: Walker has no spine, no guts, he’s just a slick, typical politician who will do anything to keep the corrupt system rolling. And his do-nothing Lieutenant Governor Mallot is standing right there with him, cheering him on.

Alaska Statutes provide that elected leaders who are (1) no longer fit for office, (2) incompetent, (3) have neglected their duties, or (4) are corrupt may be turned out of office by the voters. See AS 15.45.510. Walker’s idiocy with the PFD, his lies about what he’d do as governor, and slavish devotion to big government on the People’s dime, fall squarely within the recall parameters.

Time to turn him out. Recall Governor Walker. Click HERE to find out more.

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