Friday in the Sun!!! (September 23)

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That Didn’t Last Long— According to state house Rep. Andy Josephson’s September newsletter, congratulations should be in order for his new staff additions Caroline Storm and Andy Erickson. The newsletter says:

“I am pleased to announce two new members of my legislative staff who will be helping me serve all of you. Caroline Storm is a retired architect and dedicated public school advocate. Caroline will be working in the Anchorage office through December. Andy Erickson will be working with Caroline in Anchorage until December and then travel to Juneau with me for the session. Andy is a Harry S. Truman Scholar, former advisor to U.S. Senator Max Baucus, and attorney in Anchorage.”

Except now, word around the LIO (The Downtown one we are still going to end up paying for not the one on Minnesota Dr. we will also be paying for) is that Erickson has already been dismissed. From what we hear Josephson did not take kindly to Erickson working with Sen. Bill Wielechowski on his lawsuit against Gov. Bill Walker over his vetoing of this year’s PFD appropriation.

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.

Don’s On It — The race between Steve Lindbeck and Rep. Don Young hasn’t been all that interesting yet, but Don seems to think it’s more real than he is letting on. Alaska’s only congressman has started pumping the D.C. fundraising circuit pretty hard for campaign cash with two D.C. fundraisers this week and one early next week:

Alaska politicos in D.C say it is the most concentrated fundraising push they have ever seen out of Young.

To The Party — The Alaska Republican Party’s love-hate relationship with perennial candidate for U.S. Senate Joe Miller continued last week when the party held a “VIP Reception” (code for fundraiser) after conservative author Ann Coulter’s appearance in Anchorage. While turnout for the event was lackluster, non-Republican Joe Miller was somehow invited to the official Alaska Republican Party event and actually made an appearance. Not showing was his Republican Party nominated opponent Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

We shouldn’t be surprised given what Coulter had to say about Alaska’s U.S. Senate race on KTVA:

Mailer Slam — Independent expenditure group Together for Alaska is hitting Rep. Liz Vazquez pretty hard. This week they sent out these mailers hitting her for hiring her primary opponent David Nees:

Days until the General Election — 46

Around Town — Speaking of independent expenditure activity, seen around Anchorage this week was Alan Philp. Philp is a D.C. political consultant who works with the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). The RSLC is a Washington D.C. based sister committee to the RNC who works to ensure Republicans take and hold state legislature’s around the county. Here is Alaska, the RSLC has been the primary source of funding for the pro-Republican independent expenditure group The Accountability Project.

Philp is kind of the brains of the operation, so his appearance in Anchorage means we should expect to see The Accountability Project getting pretty active for Republican candidates pretty soon.

Back In The Saddle — Also back in Alaska is super conservative political operative Matt Johnson. Johnson is being cagey about what exactly has brought him back to the 49th state, but it’s pretty clear it isn’t a coincidence his reappearance just happens to coincide with Joe Miller’s re-run for Senate. Expect to see Matt out on the campaign trail.

Not To Be Overlooked — With all the state and federal races going on. Lets not forget the next round of Anchorage Assembly races is only a little more than six months out. Candidates can’t officially file to run for assembly seats until February, but they can file with APOC to start raising money.

Among the recent APOC filers to go under the radar has been Democrat Regina Manteufel (I know Democrats are excited about that one) in the Downtown district and Liberty University grad John Brassell in the Eagle River district. Brassell was kind enough to post a short explanation of why he is running:

Perhaps the most notable early filer is South Anchorage incumbent Assemblyman Bill Evans, who filed just last week. Social conservatives are still smarting about what they feel was Evans’ betrayal on the LGBT rights ordinance. They will be almost sure to recruit another conservative to run against him, so this one should get interesting.

Fight Of The Century — The first presidential debate is on Monday and it promises to be quite a show. Will it be a rhetorical bloodbath, a meltdown of epic proportions by one of the two candidates, or just an unwatchable snitfest? We are all dying to know, aren’t we?

But who wants to watch the fight of the century all by themselves? The good news is Republicans and Democrats alike are putting on debate watch parties. Check out one near you and enjoy the carnage:

Anchorage Republicans

Anchorage and Kenai Democrats

Fairbanks Republicans

Facebook Fun — Lest we forget, there is a third candidate in the Vazquez-Grenn South Anchorage state house mele, and frankly he is the most entertaining. It is our favorite candidate of all-time (Sorry Jeff Landfield) Dustin Darden. Here is a doozy he posted to Facebook this week: