Campaigns over Alaska ballot measure on predator control get heated
Published Thursday, August 14, 2008
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Stumble It!ANCHORAGE — The battle over Ballot Measure 2 and Alaska’s aerial predator control program intensified Thursday with each side complaining to the state’s political watchdog agency.
McGrath resident Donne Fleagle alleged in a letter to the executive director of the Alaska Public Offices Commission that Alaskans for Wildlife has been engaged in “an apparent pattern of deception and willful attempt to mislead the public.”
Fleagle says the group reported only $2,542.52 in campaign expenses and no expenditures for television advertising in a 30-day report filed July 28. She contends the group has paid more than $24,000 for television advertising on one Anchorage television station, and has ads running on two others.
She also says Alaskans for Wildlife failed to disclose money spent on a direct mail campaign.
An APOC official said Thursday the complaint would have to be reviewed before it could be formally accepted.
Nick Jans, co-sponsor of Ballot Measure 2, predicted that the complaint won’t fly because the donations Fleagle is referencing came in after the 30 days and will show up on an APOC report due Aug. 19.
“APOC records will show that and our bank account backs it up,” Jans said.
Jennifer Yuhas, chairwoman for the No on 2 campaign, said in a news release that Alaskans for Wildlife is not being upfront with voters. She said the group’s campaign disclosure forms say Alaskans for Wildlife purchased the ads but the address provided is for the Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife.
Jans said it is no secret that Defenders is helping pay for the campaign. The opposition is relying on Safari Club International to pay its bills, he said.
“We don’t have anything to hide here,” Jans said. “Outside money coming into this issue is nothing new.”
Also Thursday, the Alaska Wildlife Alliance filed a complaint with APOC that says the state is illegally trying to influence the outcome of Ballot Measure 2.
The alliance says in the last two weeks the state has twice distributed brochures through the state’s largest newspaper touting its predator control program. The group says the state also purchased radio spots that ran in the past 10 days, as well as sending Board of Game members around the state to campaign against the initiative.
“The timing and one-sided nature of the Palin administration’s propaganda are an illegal attempt to influence voters,” said John Toppenberg, the alliance’s director.
The alliance says the state is prohibited from spending money advocating for or against a ballot proposition, unless the Legislature specifically appropriates the funds for that purpose.
Tim Barry, a spokesman for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the Legislature did make an appropriation of $400,000 so that the Board of Game could educate and inform the public about the state’s intensive management program.
He said while the information was coming from Fish and Game, the agency had not “been doing any campaigning or putting inserts in papers or making speeches about the issues.”
Jans, who is an adviser to the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, said the information is clearly an attempt to influence the outcome of the election.
“It is pretty unprecedented the state would campaign against its own citizens to influence an election,” he said.
The ballot measure will be decided in the Aug. 26 statewide primary election.
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On the Net:
http://ltgov.state.ak.us/elections/
http://akwildlife.org
http://www.wc.adfg.state.ak.us/index.cfm?adfgwolf.control
Community Discussion
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Of course they're trying to influence the election. JUST LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO DO IDIOT JANS.
nick jans has no problem with these outsides groups coming in here and telling us how to run things.
As usual polarmark seems to have forgotten to take his medication and is flying off the handle. I realize it would further his narrow purposes to make it seem as though the only outside groups were those supporting the ballot measure. But an honest look at the situation reveals that the Alaska Outdoors Council which opposes the measure (in opposition to a majority of Alaskans, btw) is funded to the tune of some $625,000 from Safari International, a totally "outside" group. I notice polarmark is careful to avoid mentioning that. Additionally, we have the state of Alaska funding a public presentation thinly disguised as "educational" in which they oppose the measure. Palin, a member of the AOC, has tried to pass this off as nonpartisan but it's plainly against it. There is no opportunity given in the presentations or the literature for a complete view of the situation. No mention is made of the 120-signature petition sent Palin last year by professional wildlife biologists inside and outside Alaska. It is Alaskans' money being spent in opposition to Alaskans, a rather amazing situation.
As to JayT's comment, I guess when one has no ability to factually debate an issue one resorts to name-calling.
BTW, the "YES on 2" effort is not only being supported by Nick Jans who has over 20 years' experience living in the Bush, working as a guide, and as a hunter, it is also supported by Joel Bennett, another longtime Alaskan who spent 14 years on the Board of Game, as well as Lowell Thomas Jr, former lt. governor and the son of Lowell Thomas Sr. I know people like polarmark like to try to portray this as mainly an Outside effort but the facts betray his weak attempts at obfuscation if for no other reason than it took the signatures of 57,000+ Alaskans to get the measure on the ballot. I'll repeat that for the hard-of-comprehension afflicted folks such as polarmark.....57,000+ Alaskans signed the petition to put the measure on the 2008 ballot.
Gentle reader...as a quick insight into polarmark's...uh...thinking (?)....you have to realize he is a member of the AIP. That in itself is a source of shame and humiliation which could easily account for his general bitterness, ranting, raving, whining. Those are all earmarks of the typical AIP'er. See, an AIP member has to deal with constant dichotomies. They froth at the mouth about federal "lock-ups" of land but if you have ever tried to just walk across an AIP'er's land you find out quickly what a real lock-up involves. They hold themselves up as the great believers in individual rights but what they really mean is their rights to do whatever they want without regard to anyone else's rights. In general, their philosophy can be summed up in the idea that if money can't be made from it, it doesn't need to exist and to this end they are well-known throughout Alaska for destroying whatever they feel necessary to make their profits. I've often worried that if someday gold is discovered under the Statue of Liberty they will head that way with dynamite and bulldozer saying what right has a pile of concrete and old metal got over their "right" to turn a profit.
BUT...their greatest humiliation (and it's a doozie!) was their election of Walter Hickel as governor under the AIP banner. See...Hickel was running for election, again, to the governorship but could not get his party's, the Republicans, nomination. Of course, the Democrats, Libertarians, etc, had more sense than to accept him. So he went to the AIP and asked them to take him in as their candidate, claiming he held to all their precepts, ideals, etc. Now, the AIP likes to think it is politically sophisticated when, in fact, it's about as much a rube as possible in that arena. And ol' Wally took them to the cleaners. Because the Democrat and Republican candidates drew enough votes each to basically neutralize each other Hickel, as AIP, was able to slip in as the winner. However, within a year of taking office it was so obvious he had used the AIP and had no intention of going their way, they began to whine and moan and cry about him until finally they basically disowned him. Ever since then the AIP has run a distant third (or further back at times) in every election and frankly can barely muster enough votes to get their candidates elected dog catcher. They are the standing joke of Alaskan politics.
Now that you understand all this, perhaps you can see why polarmark...and his AIP komraden....are always so bitter and lunatic in their rantings. They have to live with the embarrassment of being AIP!
I really like the ad that trys to infer its legal to hunt big game in Alaska!!!
I meant to say hunt big game from an airplane.
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