A Day in Portland

We had lunch with Masami and Shpresha and Sharon, people I knew when I was a guest faculty member at Portland State University for six months in 2003-4.




After lunch they put me in my old seminar room to work on a few things and catch up with all the hits coming in about Palin. Like other Alaska blogs, apparently, this was my second highest hit day - 563 right now.








Later we walked around downtown before meeting friends for dinner. The sky was very blue, temps in the low 70s, as we passed the Art Museum.































In a little park area between streets the Oregon Ballet Theatre was practicing in a tent.













A costume store.


























One of the great book shops in the United States. Powell's is room after room after room on several floors or used and new books. A favorite place of our when we lived here.








































































We had dinner here with Gary and Roxanne who we knew from Anchorage and from when we lived here. It was great to see them again.







We checked the tram station near Marty's yesterday. It's about a 20 minute walk home from the end of the line. But both ticket machines at the stop were broken. We turned down Gary and Roxanne's offer of a ride home (way out of their way) and decided to board without tickets. The guy with the beard told us to push the emergency button and tell the driver who said we could ride free then. Then the two Obama canvassers got on. As we were pulling into one station we heard screaming at the other end of the train (about four cars away.) The driver came onto the loudspeaker calling for police. Who boarded immediately as we entered into the station. A young black woman and a young white woman slipped quickly off the train. The police - Wackenhut Security guys - stayed on the train to the end of the line where we got off. At the end we heard the driver reporting the incident - a white guy had been yelling racial epithets at a white girl and black girl sitting together.

Palin's Speech Made Biden's Speech Look Lame

As an Alaskan, I couldn't help but feel good about our Governor's speech accepting the vice presidential nomination. Well, she's only been announced. The nomination comes next week. But she was pure Palin. For those who are wondering, this is real. She's poised, comfortable, and speaks honestly. It was a real contrast to the older man standing next to her with the shit-eating grin on his face.

Palin has become a strong, confident speaker. Her nomination and, even more, her speech will is going to totally change this election. The Republicans did a great job of pointing out all her best points.

The Obama people better be careful when they attack Palin. I'm in a household here in Portland that's got Fox News on. They reported that the Obama people said Palin was in the pocket of big oil. If that's their research, they're in big trouble. She is clearly NOT in the pocket of big oil. But, as I said, I'm getting my news from Fox, so I have no idea if the Obama people really said that.

I did notice that when McCain introduced her and said that she'd stood up to vested interests, he left the oil companies off his list. But Palin didn't leave them off her list. And that has been her biggest coup.

I would say from what we've seen in Alaska, Palin is honest, serious about doing what's right, takes on anyone who she thinks is wrong. And she took on the big oil companies and so far she's won. But the Monehan firing also reveals some lack of experience and lack of sense of the protocol. The video is the first few minutes of this morning's speech.



For another video of Palin, see her introducing a several day workshop for legislators and the public on AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act).

There will be lots of contradictions in this race. The McCain folks have been blasting Obama for lack of experience. It isn't just about being governor for 18 months, it's also her exposure to different ideas and different people. She spent time outside of Alaska when she went to the University of Idaho. Other than that, I suspect she's spent more time outside of Alaska as Governor than she did since she moved to Alaska as an infant. I don't that she's been outside the US besides Canada. These gaps should cause concern. But who knows what the glamor and the media can do?

Marty and Jake

Fox Says its Palin for McCain VP

Photo at induction of Rabbi Michael Oblath October 2007.









"ARE ANY OF THE ALASKANS UP? McCAIN PICKED PALIN" is what woke me up this morning, 15 minutes ago.


My mind is spinning. Sure, we've heard her name was in the ring for VP, but it all seemed so far fetched.

The first time I saw her was a small group of people at the University of Alaska Anchorage when she was just starting to run for governor. Her hair was piled up on her head, she was in scuffed snow boots. She spoke openly and directly. A real person, not a politician. I liked her, but thought she was in way over her head. She said she didn't know to a number of things and even asked if the audience had suggestions. I knew at the time that she'd stood up the Randy Ruedrich, the Republican Party Chair of Alaska, and resigned from the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission very publicly saying it was because Ruedrich had a conflict of interest and she couldn't continue to serve. That was pretty gutsy.

Then, to many people's surprise, she actually beat sitting Republican Governor Murkowski in the primary. Well, by the time of the election, I think we'd all seen the polls so we weren't that surprised. But when she started to run it was a real long shot. The party stalwarts were all against her. She certainly was helped out when it came out the FBI had searched the offices of several prominent Republican officials.

As governor, as I've said in previous posts, she was the right person at the right time. She stood up to the oil companies on the Petroleum Profits Tax (also known as Petroleum Production Tax) and got it raised. Then she stood up to the big oil companies over AGIA (Alaska Gasline Inducement Act). After the previous governor had negotiated privately with Conoco-Phillips and BP to build a natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48. She had reinstated the commissioner of Natural Resources who'd resigned because of how Murkowski was negotiating. They set up conditions the State insisted on and put out a Request for Proposal requiring them. The big oil companies didn't turn in any proposals. But an pipeline company from Canada did. Then the oil companies put in a proposal after the deadline, which didn't meet the state requirements. Palin was able to get the legislature, in special sessions over the summer, to approve Trans Canada's bid to get a license.

Meanwhile she's been on the cover of Vogue magazine and did other such national publicity work. Her biography came out and the book was simply a PR job on the sweet but strong willed girl who grew up in Wasilla. I found it hard to stomach. This was not a serious book.

And now we're seeing some of the inexperience coming to the surface in the way she handled the firing of the head of the State Troopers. It has come out that her staff and family have been pressuring him to fire one of the troopers - who just happens to be her ex-brother-in-law.

This is a woman with a lot of internal strength. She also has very limited experience outside of Alaska and in public office. She was mayor of a town of about 74,000. She's been governor almost two years. She's floated on a bubble of strong moves against the oil companies, supported by the FBI's investigation into oil related corruption in Alaska and three ex-legislators convicted and a number of other people indicted and/or pleading guilty. Her physical beauty has certainly been a major attention getter - she's been called the hottest governor in the USA. She has a son serving in the Middle East and a newborn child with Down's Syndrome. When he was born in April, she said she had her family to take care of and was not a candidate for Vice President.

I think this is a woman with a lot of smarts and strengths. But she also has had probably the least experience of any Vice Presidential candidate in my lifetime. If, in ten years, she proved her mettle, I'd say she'd be a long shot candidate. She'd have been through the rough and tumble. Right now, she's only had amazing successes. The Monehan firing has been the only bump. She isn't used to failure.

But the US and Republican image machines can make a lot of this woman and they will. I'd like to say she could surprise us. But I have to say she also has a huge amount to learn. She hasn't been tested in the rough and tumble of national politics or even the primaries.

No one can say American presidential politics is dull.

Martini Glasses Then and Now

Marty has been educating us on a lot of things. I finally caught one important then-and-now history lesson on video.

Alaska Dominates Menu

Went to a Seafood place tonight in Portland.

Google Searches

I continue to find interesting ways people got to this blog.

• doing' it to it like pruitt used to do it to it
• lots of people, mostly from towns that have McClatchy papers, have been checking on Gary Pruitt. But what is this one about?
• why do i know things before they happen
• I'm sure this person didn't find the answer here
  
• meaning of wild hair up his butt
• Bingo, I had a whole post answering this question.
  
• gary pruitt needs to go
• more pruitt
  
• how can you know if a person is wearing a wire
• well I did discuss the ethics of wearing a wire, but not how you could tell
  
• battered Gary Pruitt
• yak a mai noodles (Lisbon)
• Google seems to first look for the whole phrase. They it looks for the words in a post. Then on the blog as a whole. So this person got the post on Yak and Yeti restaurant. There have been various posts on noodles. How Google decides which post to send the person to I have no idea.
  
• where do the japanese flight attendants eat sushi in anchorage?
• This actually got them to Yamato Ya where the Japanese flight attendants go. But the post didn't say that. But it had a picture of their sashimi.
  
• charlie in on golden pond
• Charlie, who own's Charlie's Bakery, used to own a restaurant called Golden Pond. This is explained in the post so all those words were in one post. But it wasn't what the searcher seems to have in mind. A few South Africans have checked out Charlie's Bakery. I think there must be one there too.
  
• downey gunk in my washing machine
• Downy gunk? This one got to one of the Maytag posts
  
• what do hfh look like?
• This person got to the Habitat for Humanity post (same as Yak and Yeti post.) If that's what they meant by hfh, then they got a picture of what HfH housing looks like. At least one project.
  
• buy companies that can be run by gary pruitt (Fresno Bee)
• fly horses fairbanks to seattle (Lemon Lima)
• I reviewed a short movie called Dear Lemon Lima that was set in Fairbanks. They were going to film the long version in Seattle. I suggested if the French crew that filmed Crossing Alaska With Horses could do it in Alaska, the Lemon Lima team could too. I don't think that's what they were looking for.
  
• how to resign because of inability to do job
• I did talk when people should resign
  
• are thoughts sin
• The Spitzer posts gets hits like this now and then
  
• fire gary pruitt
• us marshals polo shirts
• Here's what the Google preview on this one looked like:
  "... almost everyone had on a yellow polo type shirt with a royal emblem on the chest. ... US Marshals Flying Vic Kohring To California Monda…"(Yahoo search)
• if i was born in 1908 how old would i be?
• Math is so hard. I wonder if my post on people born in 1908 answered the question for him.
  

House Boats

Now these are really HOUSE boats.

Dems Viewed from Portland

Various Alaska bloggers are covering the convention from Denver. Celtic Diva, Alaska Raven, Dennis Zaki are blogging. Delegate Kimberly Pace has been sending reports to Bent Alaska.

I'm getting to watch bits and pieces here at Marty's condo in Portland, Oregon.



This whole convention extravaganza is starting to look unseemly to me. Part of it is the media highlighting any hint of controversy over and over again. But all the flash and partying seems so wrong when the Dem message is that the economy is hurting so bad. And all those corporate sponsors. What happened to campaign finance reform?

Were the ADL Ballots Legal?

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:

1. The Alaska Primary elections had ballots that combined candidates for the Democratic Party, Alaska Independent Party, and the Libertarian Party of Alaska. The Republicans had separate ballots.
2. By combining two or more parties onto one ballot, the primary is no longer a contest between the two party candidates for the nomination of their party. The percentages of vote for candidates that are not running against each other makes no sense at all.
   
3. The state law says "The director shall prepare and provide a primary election ballot for each political party." To me, that sounds like a separate ballot for each party.
4. The Division of Elections Media Guide says that "In Alaska, the political parties determine which candidates will have access to their ballot and which voters are eligible to vote their ballot."
1. Both the Libertarian Party and Alaska Independent Party by-laws call for what is known as a 'blanket" ballot which lists all candidates for all offices. That makes sense since they don't have more than one candidate for any office. Between the two parties, I could only find a total of three candidates in only the US House and Senate races. They have provisions for other options if the other parties do not allow blanket ballots.
2. I couldn't find the Democratic by-laws, but their Plan of Organization says, " The Alaska Democratic Party’s primary election is open to all registered voters." That doesn't say open to all other parties.

It all seems to hinge on whether the Democratic Party by-laws call for an open primary or a blanket primary.


The Post

Alaska Statutes on Primary Elections say:

Chapter 15.25. NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES

Article 01. PRIMARY ELECTIONS

Sec. 15.25.010. Provision for primary election.

Candidates for the elective state executive and state and national legislative offices shall be nominated in a primary election by direct vote of the people in the manner prescribed by this chapter. The director shall prepare and provide a primary election ballot for each political party. A voter registered as affiliated with a political party may vote that party's ballot. A voter registered as nonpartisan or undeclared rather than as affiliated with a particular political party may vote the political party ballot of the voter's choice unless prohibited from doing so under AS 15.25.014 . A voter registered as affiliated with a political party may not vote the ballot of a different political party unless permitted to do so under AS 15.25.014 .

However, the State did NOT provide a ballot for each party. The Republicans had a separate ballot. But the other parties had all their candidates combined on a single ballot called ADL.



So, for the US Representative, Democrats and Alaska Independent Party were combined. This means, that people voting here did not choose between Diane Benson and Ethan Berkowitz, which is what is supposed to happen in a primary, but they chose between Benson, Berkowitz, AND Don Wright, the Alaskan Independence Party candidate. So, the election results percentages are also skewed. While the two Democrats were in competition with each other and Wright was NOT in competition with anyone, Sean Parnell's Division of Election put them all in competition with each other.



So, Berkowitz and Benson's votes add up to 59,487. The race between Benson and Berkowitz really should be
Benson 40.9%
Berkowitz 59.09%

Wright should have 100% of his party vote.

The same problem exists for the US Senate race. All the parties except the Republicans are combined. But they weren't all running against each other. The statewide elections have winners with significant enough votes that it probably doesn't matter. But suppose the Democratic house race were as close as the Republican. From what it looks like to me, the ballot would be very challengeable.


I did a quick scroll through the election results for the State House and Senate races and there do not seem to be any candidates other than Republicans and Democrats in those races. But my initial reading of the Alaska Statute suggests that there should have been ballots for

Democrats
Republicans
Alaskan Independents
Libertarians

The first two ballots would have had slates for all the offices and propositions.
The Alaska Independent ballot would have had one candidate for the US Senate and one for the US House and the propositions.
The Libertarian Party ballot would have had one candidate for US Senate and the propositions.

The Republicans closed their primary several years ago to only include people, if I recall correctly, who were not members of another party and Republicans. According to the Division of Elections Media Packet (p. 14):

In Alaska, the political parties determine which candidates will have access to their ballot and which voters are eligible to vote their ballot. Based on the political party by-laws, the below table outlines the 2008 Primary election ballot choices.

People with no party affiliation could have chosen any ballot.

Democrats, Alaska Independents, and Libertarians could all have chosen a Libertarian, Alaska Independent, or Democratic ballot.


OK, I've been doing more searching and have come up with interesting results. I can't find the Democratic Party By-Laws on line. However, they do have a Democratic Party Plan of Organization. I could find this statement about primary elections:

ALASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY ELECTION RULE

Section 10) The Alaska Democratic Party’s primary election is open to all registered voters.

This isn't explicit, but implies that there should be a Democratic primary election, which is open to all voters. That is different from open to all parties.

HOWEVER, the Libertarians and the Alaska Independents both want their candidates to be in primaries with all the candidates.


Alaska Independent:

Article IX. PRIMARY ELECTIONS

The Alaskan Independence Party believing in the principle of voting for the individual, does establish an open primary election which lists all parties' candidates for office.
9.01 Primary Election Electors

Any registered voter who has not voted another primary ballot may vote in the Alaskan Independence Party primary.

9.02 Non-Disqualification of Electors

The fact that a voter has voted in the Alaskan Independence Party Primary Election shall not disqualify that voter from voting in the primary election of any other political party or parties, where that voter's participation in the primary election of the Alaskan Independence Party is authorized or permitted by the rules of the other party, or by the statutes of the United States.

The Libertarian Party of Alaska doesn't believe in Primaries:

ARTICLE XI: PROCEDURE FOR SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR POLITICAL OFFICE.

a. The Alaska Libertarian Party maintains that primary elections are a waste of taxpayers’ money, and serve only as free advertising for candidates in a process wherein, for all practical purposes, the winners have already been decided, or, as is often the case, only one candidate per political party is in a primary election for a given post. We have also seen examples of candidates undesirable to a given party winning the primary election. But, until that happy day when government-sponsored primaries are abolished, and we may nominate all our candidates at our own convention, we recognize the hard realities and expediencies of politics, and consent to have Libertarian candidates for elective public office appear on a primary ballot which has the following two characteristics:

(1) The primary ballot also lists the candidates of all (or some) other political parties which are willing to have their candidates appear on a combined primary ballot; and

(2) The primary ballot is available to any voter, regardless of party affiliation, who wishes to select that combined primary ballot, as long as that voter has not also selected a different primary ballot.

b. When it is not possible for Libertarian candidates to appear on a primary ballot which complies with the requirements set out above, the Alaska Libertarian Party will, whenever possible, have its candidates for elective public office appear on a primary ballot which has the following two characteristics:

(1) The primary ballot also lists the candidates of all (or some) other political parties which are willing to have their candidates appear on a combined primary ballot; and

(2) The primary ballot is available to any voter who wishes to select that combined primary ballot, as long as that voter has not also selected a different primary ballot, and is not registered as being affiliated with a political party which does not appear on the combined primary ballot.

c. When it is not possible for Libertarian candidates to appear on a primary ballot which complies with either of the alternatives set out above, the Alaska Libertarian Party executive committee shall choose between any primary ballots which may be available for Libertarian candidates.

It makes sense for parties that only have one candidate in each race to want to be combined with other parties. It gains more visibility for their candidates.


I also checked Wikipedia on the various types of primary elections. The Republicans clearly had a closed primary, which they chose to do a number of years ago. But I thought the Democrats wanted an open primary (see below), but what they got was a blanket primary according to Wikipedia:

• Closed. Voters may vote in a party's primary only if they are registered members of that party. Independents cannot participate. Note that due to the use of the word "independent" in the names of some political parties, the term "non-partisan" is often used to refer to those who are not affiliated with a political party.

• Semi-closed. As in closed primaries, registered party members can vote only in their own party's primary. Semi-closed systems, however, allow unaffiliated voters to participate as well. Depending on the state, independents either make their choice of party primary privately, inside the voting booth, or publicly, by registering with any party on Election Day.

• Open. A registered voter may vote in any party primary regardless of his own party affiliation. When voters do not register with a party before the primary, it is called a pick-a-party primary because the voter can select which party's primary he or she wishes to vote in on election day. Because of the open nature of this system, a practice known as "raiding" may occur. "Raiding" consists of voters of one party crossing over and voting in the primary of another party, effectively allowing a party to help choose its opposition's candidate. The theory is that opposing party members vote for the weakest candidate of the opposite party in order to give their own party the advantage in the general election. An example of this can be seen in the 1998 Vermont senatorial primary with the election of Fred Tuttle for the Republican candidate.

• Semi-open. Each voter may vote in any single primary, but must publicly declare which primary she will vote in before entering the voting booth. Typically this declaration is accomplished by requesting a ballot. In many states with semi-open primaries, election officials record each voter's choice of party and provide the parties access to this information.

• Blanket. This system allows voters to vote for one candidate per office, regardless of party affiliation.

• Run-off. A primary in which the ballot is not restricted to one party and the top two candidates advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation. (A runoff differs from a primary in that a second round is only needed if no candidate attains a majority in the first round.)

Since I didn't find the Democratic by-laws, I'm not sure what they say. Their Action Plan says their primary should be open to all voters, but doesn't say open to all candidates. That would seem to leave the question unanswered until someone can find the specific language in the Democratic by-laws that says whether they intended to have an open or blanket primary.