Friday was the deadline to file for local office in Anchorage, but the deadline for filed candidates to drop out and have their names not appear on the ballot isn’t until today at 5 PM.
The period between the two deadlines allows local power brokers and political parties to ensure there aren’t two candidates of similar political perspective drawing from the same voter pool, making either of their election less likely.
David Nees thought he had found an interesting loophole in Anchorage municipal code when he discovered there’s no provision that specifically prevents someone from running for two local offices at the same time. He then filed separate paperwork to run for both the Anchorage Assembly and Anchorage School Board in this spring’s election.
Anchorage Municipal Clerk Barbara Jones didn’t take kindly to him doing so, telling Nees a local candidate can’t run for two offices at the same time.
With the Anchorage Assembly considering an ordinance tonight that would add more taxi permits in the coming years before eliminating the city’s cap on permits altogether, our sources on…
The effort to stop fluoride from being added to Anchorage’s water supply is one of those fights that tends to elicit rolled eyes and a chorus of snickers in political circles and on local talk radio shows. In political circles, the alleged danger of fluoride in our drinking water ranks right up there with other perceived fringe theories like chemtrails and Muslim terrorist compounds in the Mat-Su. What, too soon on that last one? Sorry.
Wednesday afternoon the Alaska Democratic Party waded into the controversy surrounding Anchorage Assemblywoman Amy Demboski’s posting to Facebook of a questionable Fox Business report showing a map of armed Islamic compounds in the U.S., including one in Alaska. In Demboski’s post, she also linked that report to Greg Jones, a Democratic candidate for State House in the Mat-Su, who is Muslim.
So what will have the room so riled up? The national conversation on the validity of “fake news” and the nationwide fear of Muslim immigration in the wake of a string of terrorist attacks in the U.S. motivated by extremist Islamic groups have converged and landed squarely in the Municipality of Anchorage.
Despite the inability of the Alaska State Legislature to adopt a comprehensive solution to the State’s fiscal crisis and the huge uncertainty that creates for both the private sector and local governments, at least one bond rating agency is looking more favorably upon the Municipality of Anchorage’s credit worthiness.
ll those kneeling to raise awareness for racial inequity, from sports stars to an Anchorage Assemblyman, claim that they mean not to offend anyone but really just want to create a public conversation on the subject. They then immediately and irresponsibility depart the public stage when the heavy lifting begins of creating public spaces for such “productive†and inevitably uncomfortable discussions.