Brendan Joel Kelley, Anchorage Press
It’s inevitable in a contested primary with an incumbent running that the incumbent—in this case Governor Sean Parnell—will be a virtual dartboard for his competitors.
This race is made all the more peculiar since part of what Parnell—appointed in the wake of former Governor Sarah Palin’s abrupt 2009 resignation—is running is a Palin-initiated program. Many of Palin and Parnell’s fellow Republicans have assailed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), signed into law by Palin in 2007, which had the support—then—of all but one legislator. That legislator was Ralph Samuels, who’s one of the two primary competitors for Parnell in the August 24 primary.
Parnell has mostly kept his head down—to the point his opponents have labeled him a debate dodger—except for his veto of a bill to raise the eligibility level for Denali KidCare. Denali KidCare is the state’s health care program for poor children and pregnant women, and the bill would’ve changed the qualifying threshold from 175 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent. Parnell had supported the bill’s passage during the legislative session, but when the bill and appropriation for the raise in eligibility hit his desk, he vetoed them, saying he was concerned that, by federal law, medically necessary abortions were provided under the program.
Parnell also recently suffered a setback with his hiring of a sitting legislator, Representative Nancy Dahlstrom (R-Eagle River), to a cushy position as an advisor on military affairs. The state Department of Law had originally signed off on Dahlstrom resigning, the position being created, and Dahlstrom’s hiring. Then conservative talk radio host and Parnell critic Dan Fagan began a barrage of criticism which ended with Attorney General Dan Sullivan issuing a decision that questioned the constitutionality of the hiring, and Dahlstrom stepped down.
Both Samuels and Bill Walker, the other primary candidate with significant money and organization, fired with both barrels in press releases against Parnell. And hardly a week goes by without a press release from one of their camps blasting the governor for something. Walker recently filed a public records request asking that the results of the open season for AGIA, in which producers negotiate terms of delivery with TransCanada, the pipeline operator under the act, be publicly released after the open season ends on July 1.
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There will be mud – Two formidable candidates line up against Governor Parnell in the Republican primary
Brendan Joel Kelley, Anchorage Press
It’s inevitable in a contested primary with an incumbent running that the incumbent—in this case Governor Sean Parnell—will be a virtual dartboard for his competitors.
This race is made all the more peculiar since part of what Parnell—appointed in the wake of former Governor Sarah Palin’s abrupt 2009 resignation—is running is a Palin-initiated program. Many of Palin and Parnell’s fellow Republicans have assailed the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), signed into law by Palin in 2007, which had the support—then—of all but one legislator. That legislator was Ralph Samuels, who’s one of the two primary competitors for Parnell in the August 24 primary.
Parnell has mostly kept his head down—to the point his opponents have labeled him a debate dodger—except for his veto of a bill to raise the eligibility level for Denali KidCare. Denali KidCare is the state’s health care program for poor children and pregnant women, and the bill would’ve changed the qualifying threshold from 175 percent of the federal poverty level to 200 percent. Parnell had supported the bill’s passage during the legislative session, but when the bill and appropriation for the raise in eligibility hit his desk, he vetoed them, saying he was concerned that, by federal law, medically necessary abortions were provided under the program.
Parnell also recently suffered a setback with his hiring of a sitting legislator, Representative Nancy Dahlstrom (R-Eagle River), to a cushy position as an advisor on military affairs. The state Department of Law had originally signed off on Dahlstrom resigning, the position being created, and Dahlstrom’s hiring. Then conservative talk radio host and Parnell critic Dan Fagan began a barrage of criticism which ended with Attorney General Dan Sullivan issuing a decision that questioned the constitutionality of the hiring, and Dahlstrom stepped down.
Both Samuels and Bill Walker, the other primary candidate with significant money and organization, fired with both barrels in press releases against Parnell. And hardly a week goes by without a press release from one of their camps blasting the governor for something. Walker recently filed a public records request asking that the results of the open season for AGIA, in which producers negotiate terms of delivery with TransCanada, the pipeline operator under the act, be publicly released after the open season ends on July 1.
Read article online >>>