BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 04:47 PM

Yikes, Robo. I hope I didn't give the impression that I want Sarah Palin elected! I'm only afraid that her pretty face will blind some people to her stances.

If Knowles had not been on the ballot I would have voted for Eric Croft. I voted for Knowles on the basis that he is a known quantity. Although he holds some positions I don't agree with- ANWR, the oil industry, etc - I believe he is honest and I KNOW that he listens.

And just maybe his being an oilman gives him a margin of credibility to some voters outside his party.

There is no way I want Sarah Palin to be governor. The groups I have been talking with are in agreement that we have to get her to articulate her stand on issues so those positions can be attacked and dissected.

Because the fact is that she drew FAR more votes overall than Knowles did.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: robomatic
Date: 29 Aug 06 - 04:08 PM

Ebbie, let's see how pleased you are when Sarah Palin gets elected. You'll wish we had the comparatively liberal Murkowski. (I'm for Knowles, but he doesn't have this election in the bag after getting beaten by Murkowski's daughter).

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 09:16 PM

"the $175 million Alaska is attempting to secure for the sister project, a span that would connect Ketchikan with Gravina, home to only a few hundred people." From the article

I'm not in favor of the bridge(s) but then there is no reason for me to be- I don't live in either of the communities.

But I object to how the subject is presented. They always say about the proposed Ketchikan bridge - Incidentally, it is not NEAR Ketchikan, it is the bit of ocean betwen the "city" of Ketchikan and Gravina island - that only a "few hundred people" live there as that is what the absurdity is (Actually, there aren't even that many people). The media scarcely ever mention that the island is where the only airport is nor do they mention that it is only a few hundred feet away. Nor do they mention that every time a person is ferried across the water it is a $12.00 ride, $24.00 round trip.

So, yes. I can see why some people want it.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: pdq
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 07:20 PM

ALASKA'S 'BRIDGES TO NOWHERE'

Key lawmakers want to start building a $2 billion bridge to boost development, prompting battle over pork.

By Todd Wilkinson | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA – Staring from metropolitan Anchorage into Cook Inlet, the far shoreline across Knik Arm seems a world away.

Inhabiting this natural moat, beluga whales surface at high tide. Moose and brown bears trail the willowy lowlands. Bald eagles are as common as blue jays in the lower 48.

Today, motorists can't drive directly to the tiny hamlet of Port MacKenzie from here, but that could change, courtesy of US taxpayers. Two Alaska Republicans with clout in Congress, Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, are pushing for funds that could send the Anchorage suburbs leapfrogging into those hinterlands.

The proposed $2 billion Knik Arm Bridge - one of several projects that could make Alaska the biggest winner in this year's transportation-bill sweepstakes - has stirred outrage from critics who see it as pork-barrel spending that will send federal deficits spiraling up. Some call it "the Big Dig of the Far North," a reference to Boston's overbudget tunnel project.

Now, Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona and others intend to launch a Senate-floor battle dismissing this project, and plans for a $175 million sister bridge near Ketchikan, as "bridges to nowhere."

The fight highlights how reauthorization of the massive transportation bill - which will set the nation's highway agenda through 2009 - has become the subject of intense debate amid rising federal budget deficits.

President Bush has vowed to veto any federal transit spending over $256 billion. Yet the Senate proposal is $318 billion, and Rep. Young's House proposal once stood at $375 billion.

In the political parlaying, critics claim that Alaska - large in land, small in citizen numbers, and fifth in transportation dollars - wields disproportionate clout. This year, it could win twice as much highway money as New Jersey. Beyond transportation, Alaska receives seven federal dollars for each tax dollar sent to the US Treasury.

Like many lawmakers, Young has boasted that he wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't bringing home the bacon to constituents. (Neither he nor Senator Stevens responded to requests to be interviewed for this story.)

"There are 435 members of [the House] and virtually every one of them has submitted proposals for transportation projects," says Steven Hansen, a Capitol Hill staffer who works for Young on the house Transportation Committee and defends his boss's zeal for bridges.

America loses $70 billion due to workers' long hours in traffic, lost productivity, and wasted gas, Mr. Hansen says. Many of the 42,000 annual highway fatalities, he says, are related to safety problems that road improvements could ameliorate.

As Young sees it, the highway bill also is an investment that will trickle down to local economies, creating thousands of new jobs nationally. It will open his home state to more natural resource development, which could create jobs while worrying environmentalists.

But to Keith Ashdown of the nonprofit government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS), the highway-spending logic is flawed. "What we're seeing is that it doesn't matter how important your project is as far as serving a legitimate public need. What's most important is whether you have a politician with ties to the transportation committee."

A TCS analysis shows the average lawmaker wins $14 million worth of highway projects, while members of the Senate and House Transportation Committees pull in about $40 million each - some far more. On the House side, Jim Oberstar (D) of Minnesota got $90 million in projects and minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California was awarded $120 million. Speaker Dennis Hastert (R) pulled in $160 million, and Young of Alaska, the committee chair, lined up $590 million - surpassing many states with 20 times its population. Unrepentant, Young has said he'd "be ashamed of himself" if he hadn't delivered spoils to Alaska, which relies on federal subsidies for its transportation infrastructure.

No highway spending is more controversial than bridge work. Senator McCain points with incredulity to a $200 million earmark being sought by Young for the Knik Arm Bridge (a down payment on a cost that could reach 10 times that much) and to the $175 million Alaska is attempting to secure for the sister project, a span that would connect Ketchikan with Gravina, home to only a few hundred people.

One impetus, rarely mentioned, is that the bridge would create an easy route for timber companies to log Pacific rain forest.

"If you look at the Big Dig tunnel project in Boston, which was considered the poster child of embarrassment as far as federal transportation boondoggles," says Ashdown, "it will end up appearing to be a great deal if the Gravina and Knik Arm bridges are built."

Alaska, Ashdown continues, isn't the only haven for controversial pork-barrel bridges. Every state has a bridge it is peddling. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a half-dozen proposals to replace historic bridges in America's heartland are unnecessary. Richard Moe, the trust's president, noted that federal highway engineers are seeking to replace Kansas's Amelia Earhart Bridge for $54 million - while the old one can be rehabilitated for as little as $10 million.

As in Alaska, dozens of the proposed bridge projects would benefit only a small number of people. In sleepy Rulo, Neb., pop. 191, the state wants to spend $25 million to double the size of an old bridge on a rural highway.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: emjay
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 03:53 AM

And Lindauer was from Chicago.
The bridges aren't really to nowhere. I think they would be a waste of money, but one was to connect Ketchikan to Gravina Island where the airport is located, the other was intended to connect the Matanuska-Susitna borough (Alaska doesn't have counties, boroughs are political subdivisions) to Anchorage. Right now there is just one road and when it is closed due to accident or weather, there is no alternate route.
Murkowski did go against the legislature to buy the jet which is too big to land on many of the airstrips around the state.
He also did away with the longevity bonus which was paid to older Alaskans. It was already being phased out, but he chose to end it abruptly. The legislature voted to reinstate it, he vetoed the bill.
He claims to have brought the state back from the brink of bankruptcy but that likely has a lot more to do with oil selling for $70 a barrel instead of the $9 it brought during his predecessor's tenure. (I think those figures are roughly correct.)

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 02:49 AM

What bridge is that, Wesley?

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 02:14 AM

But at least John Lindauer didn't get elected.

I must say that this week I am very pleased with Alaskans and proud to be one.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: robomatic
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 01:56 AM

These days no one spends money like Republicans. It beggars the imagination, not to mention the exchequer.

Again, Murkowski performed better than I expected. We have had much worse to choose from in Alaska. Get Ebbie to tell y'all about the Lindauer campaign. Now THERE was a true swine of the lowest common denominator.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ron Davies
Date: 26 Aug 06 - 12:11 AM

Ebbie--

Is it true that Murkowski also lobbied the legislature for a private jet--his prop plane wasn't speedy enough--then when turned down, "grabbed $2 million from the department of public security to buy one anyway and used it for campaign and personal trips" ? (Wall St Journal 25 Aug 2006.)

Even the WSJ has had enough of him and similar politicians--"If Republicans are run out of Congress in November, one big reason will be that, like Mr. Murkowski, they have become far more comfortable running the government than reforming it."

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 02:16 AM

Meaning?

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Old Guy
Date: 25 Aug 06 - 12:22 AM

I am sure Gray Davis would agree.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Aug 06 - 01:27 AM

No, he just names his daughter. *G* Actually, robo, I have the impression that Lisa Murkowski is doing OK in the Senate. (For others: When Frank Murkowski resigned from the Senate in Washington DC and won Alaska's governorship in 2002, the new governor appointed his daughter who was in her first or second term in the Alaska House of Representatives to his Senate seat. It caused an uproar.) Would you agree? Obviously I don't agree with some of her views and opinions but it seems that she is listening and learning.

It's hard for me to believe that Palin will overcome Knowles. Being a two-term former governor he has tremendous name recognition and a known track record. But she did get more numbers overall than Knowles did, and the Republican party in Alaska is bigger than the Democratic party so maybe so. If the Grand Oil Party promotes her heavily, Alaskans may get to know her better. I had never heard of her before she began campaigning this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: robomatic
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 07:03 PM

Ebbie:

I think the odds favor Ms. Palin.

I was very against Frank when he ran the first time, but he actually made an effort to run the state which was more than I expected from him. And he didn't name anyHis unpopularity grew with the far right wing of his own party, and Ms. Palin is young, folksy, and far right. The Democrat, Tony Knowles is a very nice guy and was a good governor his first time around, but although he'd be far-right (Democrat) of the Lieberman sort anywhere else, he's the wrong party for most of today's Alaskans.

And at least Frank didn't go naming airports after himself like Senator "TS" Ted Stevens!

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Barry Finn
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 03:23 PM

"May it be a harbinger of the midterm elections this fall."

Yes, so most of us are hoping, Ebbie. I hope you fair well up there. Hold onto your dogs & your other natural resources, the repub's in the lower 48 are looking to eat you up.

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Wesley S
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 03:23 PM

How's that bridge coming along up there? Was Frank a supporter of it?

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 03:20 PM

BTW: I'm assuming that the "unpopularity" under discussion can extend to the other 49? We didn't vote Murkowski out, that goes without saying, but we're very glad to see him go!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 03:20 PM

*smile*...nowhere to go but up, huh? Good for you all, Ebbie....lets hope it's a sign! (Though, with memories of Wally Hickle still in my head, I will hold my breath)

Subject: RE: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 03:19 PM

First most unpopular governor--I'd say Dubya had that honor when he was in office, and his successor, Rick Perry, is living up to the title pretty well. Both of them are real idiots.

SRS

Subject: BS: Alaska- Bid Adieu to Unpopular Governor
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Aug 06 - 02:24 PM

For the last four years Alaska has had a governor who quickly grew into the second-most unpopular governor in the country. (I don't remember who is in first place, but he can't be too nice a guy.)

In yesterday's primary election he was soundly trounced by two contenders for his crown. A woman, a former mayor of a community of 7,000, ended far ahead and in the general election will face the victor on the opposing side..

Frank Murkowski, former longtime Senator and one-term governor, with most precincts reporting, garnered less than 19% of the vote.

May it be a harbinger of the midterm elections this fall.