Bieling Calls AO-37 A Transgender Rights Bill In Radio Debate

;

Yesterday on The Dave Stieren Show on FM 103.7 KFQD Anchorage Hillside state house candidates Jennifer Johnston and Ross Bieling faced off in a lively debate.

In the debate that focused largely on state budget issues and fire safety on the Hillside, Bieling accused Johnston of being a transgender supporting bureaucrat and Johnston accused Bieling of being out of touch with Anchorage issues stemming from not having lived in Alaska until recently.

It was also noteworthy that Bieling goes on to attack Johnston for supporting transgender rights by virtue of her involvement in another highly contentious municipal issue. He said, “Ms. Johnston has had a very liberal view in terms of moving legislation for transgender [rights], it was in AO-37.” AO-37 was in fact a highly contested piece of labor relations legislation and had nothing to do with LGBT issue in any way.

Mr. Bieling appeared to stand by his contention that AO-37 was LGBT-related later in the interview, even after being corrected by both the moderator Stieren and by Johnston.

You can listen to the whole debate here:

;

The debate comes as these campaigns head into the final weekend before the primary election on Tuesday. That is usually a time when campaigns tend to get nastier.

Johnston’s campaign is sending this mailer out in the final days accusing Bieling of being an outsider who has lied about his residency in Alaska.

According to the most recent campaign disclosure reports filed by Bieling’s campaign, he still has almost $56K cash-on-hand, so this race is likely to get even nastier in it’s final few days.