Friday in the Sun (Feb 12)

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Take a deep breath, we have a lot of stuff to get through today…

Happy Day — Happy Birthday to House Majority Leader Charisse Millett. She turned 29 yesterday.

We’ve Arrived — You know you’ve made it when those who control information have to follow you….and so we have:

Feel free to go like the page yourself and join the people in the know.

Where’s Joe — Many have been asking where is Joe Miller and will he will run against Lisa Murkowski? His latest FEC filing begs the question, literally. It shows he is apparently conducting his business from Council Grove in his native state of Kansas. As someone who has endured the bleakness of Kansas living, I feel for ya Joe, I really do.

Midnight Sun On The Air — Master of Morning Radio Rick Rydell (AM 650 KENI) has asked us to come on every week and share Friday in the Sun with his audience. So listen for our inside scoop every Friday morning at 7:35.

Bye Bye Joy — One of the four candidates for South Anchorage and one of the three registered Republicans, Joy Bunde has filed paperwork to withdraw from the race. We reported earlier in the week we had heard Alaska GOP grand poobah Randy Ruedrich had been dispatched to talk her out of running and he appears to have succeeded. Don’t relax so fast Republicans. Joy says she intends to run next year when Bill Evans will be up for re-election. Considering the previously dropped out David Jensen has said the same thing, Rs could already be looking at splitting their votes three ways in 2017.

Staffing Up — Regardless that neither Joe, nor anyone else has jumped into the ring against Lisa, her campaign continues to ramp up. She now has a full-time campaign manager and deputy campaign manager on board in Steve Wackowski and Rachel Kallander respectively. Scott Kendall of the Black Rock Group, who had been managing things until staff was hired, will stay on as strategic council.

Anything Left — If you happen to see any of the public employee union politicos out at lunch, you might want to offer to pick up the check. These poor guys have to be running low on cash right now. The latest APOC filings show that through February 1st, several candidates for state and local offices were guzzling in the union PAC money at impressive rates. Alone, Forrest Dunbar has taken in $12,000 and Gabrielle Ledoux $13,500. I looked for Republican and/or business group equivalents, but nothing comes close to the union money.

Race Where You Didn’t Expect One — The westside and southside races for Anchorage Assembly are doing their darnedest to be the most drama packed races we’ve seen in a long time, but the race out in Chugiak/Eagle River is about to get EPIC. Everyone knows assemblywoman and former mayoral candidate Amy Demboski is running, but who would challenge her? One word…..BEGICH…ok, more words, Nicholas Begich III. He is said to be a Republican so running out in conservative land isn’t crazy. One has to assume the Begich clan has polling data showing Demboski numbers in the tank for even a Republican Begich to challenge her.

Donny Brook — We reported yesterday about the extra staff Senate Republicans gave Sen. Donny Olson for moving to the majority. The question still remains, what did the majority need from him? My sources in Juneau say majority leaders weren’t totally confident they could cobble together 10 votes for accessing the Permanent Fund Earnings Reserve to fill the hole in the state budget. They of course need 11 votes to pass such a measure and Donny’s vote, only costing them a staffer and seat at the majority table, was the cheapest one they could definitively purchase.

Tweet Touche — A fine retort to one of my tweets….

Republican on Republican Violence — Anchorage Assembly races aren’t the only ones generating drama. The races for Anchorage School Board are getting testy as well. Perennial candidate David Nees is being pushed by former Mayor Dan Sullivan, Natasha Von Imhof, and the good ladies at the Midnight Sun Republican Women’s Club to drop out so their chosen girl Kay Schuster can run one-on-one against Starr Marsett. The other option is for either Nees or Schuster to switch races to run against Bettye Davis, but it would seem one of the powers that be has polling that shows Davis is unbeatable.

The deadline for candidates to drop out is Tuesday.

P.S. Showing that Nees isn’t the super conservative he purports to be, when I saw his school board campaign signs with his name in cursive, I asked “do Anchorage schools even teach cursive anymore?” His response “They will if I’m elected.” You see, looking to expand government programs already….LIBERAL!!!!!

Fly Into The Sun — If you have morsels you’d like shared in this column please email me at [email protected].  If it is interesting and true, I’ll put it out there.

Event of the Week — I was totally going to go, then I saw the line about no stilettos or early arrivals and…psht…you just can’t expect me to schmooze under those conditions, so I’m out.

One More, All Together Now —