GOP State Rep. Calls for Stevens, Young Retirements
Written by Sean on August 21st, 2007State Rep. Mike Kelly has written a letter to the editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner calling for the retirement of two-thirds of Alaska’s Congressional delegation. This is no small matter in a state that has relied heavily upon porkbarrel projects brought home by members who have been in Washington since Cal Ripken Junior was in elementary school. Whenever they, the voters of Alaska, or the good Lord decide that it is time for their time in Washington to end, those funds will dry up in a hurry.
Stevens and Young are the old guard. They are willing to make any deal to bring the most money back to Alaska. Not only are they deal-makers, but they do not begin from the conservative principles that are at the core of the Republican Party. To maintain their clout, the pair, while compiling an overall liberal voting record, cast every vote necessary to maintain their clout, including voting to confirm conservative judicial nominees. This kept the money flowing to Alaska and kept Stevens and Young in Washington.
Now, though, that money has gotten them into trouble. Senator Stevens is currently being investigated by the FBI, an investigation that will likely continue well into 2008 at the very least. Whether the allegations of corruption with regard to personal favors are true is irrelevant at this point. Having his home raided by the FBI is a public relations nightmare. Even Stevens himself has said that the investigation could cause him problems heading into the election. The two primary benefits that Senator Stevens has offered for so many years are that he has been safe and that he has voted with us on issues that could ultimately threaten his influence. Now, the former is gone. Although Rep. Young’s current standing is not quite as bad, it is not much better.
Senator Stevens in particular no longer enjoys the confidence of his own Party within the state. He reinforces negative perceptions that Republicans are corrupt, and his candidacy in 2008 could not only cause his own seat to be in jeopardy, but also reinforce perceptions nationwide that Republicans are the Party of corruption. If Stevens no longer enjoys the support of Republicans, it is logical to conclude that he may well not have the support of the majority of Alaskan voters on Election Day. I hate to zero in on a Republican when we should be fighting Democrats, but the seat may well depend on Republican voters replacing the long-time incumbent in the primary.
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And Rep. Kelly even calls for the resignation of the current head of the AK GOP, Randy Ruedrich–Sweet! Reudrich has been a corrupt idiot for years now and went waaay out of his way to defend Frank Murkowski (which was impossible to do) and to attack Sarah in the 2006 gubernatorial primary. After Palin won, Ruedrich even had the arrogance to insist that he was going to stay on as head of the GOP; Sarah avoided a direct confrontation with him at the time, but with Sarah’s popularity, I think he’s just about irrelevant now. In fact, they whole bunch of them might just be on their way to irrelevancy! O frabjous day!!
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And while I’m still excited about AK, I have to post this story. It’s the latest major success story for Sarah (not that she can go up that much farther in the polls!).
The Mat Maid Dairy (a govt. managed dairy in the Mat-Su Valley) had been having financial difficulties for a while because it was run as a government bureaucracy, and the previous management had refused to consider privatizing the Dairy. After Gov. Palin announced that she was going to fix up the Dairy, the management (leftovers from Frank Murkowski’s administration) got super annoyed with her, and when she arrived for her scheduled tour of the Dairy, they made her wait outside in the lobby for an hour or so while they made sure she had the “proper clearance.” Arrogant idiots, she’s the governor.
Well, Sarah didn’t have any authority over the Creamery Board that oversaw the Mat Maid Dairy, so they must have thought that they were safe from being fired. Again, they’re idiots. Sarah turned around and fired the entire state Agriculture Board, and then had her new Agriculture Board in turn fire the entire Creamery Board. He he he.
Well, two months later, the Mat Maid is now making a profit:
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2007/08/21/opinion/opinion1.txt
The Frontiersman editorial staff, BTW, is usually very liberal, and to hear them singing the praises of privatization is just plain bizarre.