Year of the Tiger Begins

From Year of the Tiger:

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, and it is a sign of bravery. This courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household. These are fire, thieves and ghosts. . .

Just as how their counterparts in the jungle are impulsive, so too are individuals born in the Chinese Year of the Tiger. When people think of tigers, it is their vigor and power that comes to mind first. But it has also been noted that tigers are known to share and are unselfish animals. The reason people admire the tiger is due to the fact that they are ferocious and domineering on the outside, but they are just as noble and distinguished on the inside. These are the same personality attributes that persons will have who are born in the Year of the Tiger.

People that are born in the Year of the Tiger are generally well liked because of their charismatic personalities. Often, failing at a given duty or being unproductive in his personal or professional life can cause a Tiger to experience a deep sense of depression.A Tiger is always at their happiest when they endeavor to climb the ladder of success. Attaining the top spot is his foremost purpose; being in a position of power is her ultimate goal. They are quick learners, need to be challenged and often prefer to work alone. Some Tigers tend to change careers more frequently because they get bored quite easily. They are natural born leaders and perform at their best if working towards positions of power and influence. So once there is no further room for progression, they will often move on to something else. [The rest at Year of the Tiger.]

From Chinese Fortune Calendar:

 2010 is Year of Tiger and it will arrive on February 4, 2010. Many people must be eager to know they have better luck in the coming year than 2009. Here, we want to use Chinese Astrology Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth) theory to explain people fortune in 2010 and foresee what will be happening to them in year of Tiger.

According to Chinese Five Element Astrology Calendar, 2010 is the Year of Metal Tiger . Gold is related to Metal and money. People who like to talk about wealth will say that 2010 is a Golden Tiger year. In Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth)  theory, the color representing metal is White. Therefore, we also can say that 2010 is the Year of White Tiger. The White Tiger is connected to the symbol of jinx in China history. Some Chinese might consider that 2010 White Tiger is a bad year.

Chinese Astrology is a Balance Theory of Five Elements. Each animal can be converted into Five Elements. Tiger contains Mainly Wood, Fire and little Earth. Wood and Fire together will make Fire stronger. Metal is afraid of Fire and Metal is also against Wood. That means Metal and Tiger together will fight each other, which implies 2010 won't come quietly and peacefully. We can image that 2010 is a Tiger wearing armor. This Tiger doesn't like armor on the top its body and keeps jumping around. For safety, we should keep our distance from it. That's why many Chinese don't like White Tiger.

Tiger has the potential to become vigorous, ferocious and cruel. So Tiger is a symbol of power and authority. This kind of personality is good for the leadership. With the inflexible and destructive personality, Tiger has very poor people relationship, especially, with family members. In traditional customary, Chinese family don't invite people born in year of Tiger to involve private wedding ceremony. [the rest at Chinese Fortune Calendar]

Alaska Humanities Forum Pitches In Juneau

This is part of my continuing coverage of the people who come to Juneau to talk to their legislators.  Of course, I'm only you showing a fraction of 1%.  But just to give you an idea.

I ran into Jim MacKenzie in the hall outside the Senate Finance Subcommittee meeting Thursday. Jim, a former student, runs the Leadership Anchorage program at the Alaska Humanities Forum.  He and others from the forum, including his boss, AHF president and CEO Greg Kimura, to tell legislators about what the Humanities Forum is doing.  Fortunately for me, they also were serving lunch (this was the first time I've gone in without breakfast).

So here's Jim and Greg on the video. 

I did ask Greg who they could justify bringing so many people down to Juneau and he said they are doing double duty, visiting with people involved in Humanities Forum programs here in Juneau.  Up til now, he said, they haven't had any state funding, but their funding for the summer history teachers workshops has run out, and this is a really important program to help teachers teach Alaska history.

This is their Alaska history curriculum for high school teachers.  The DVD's have historic Alaska films that they converted.









They also published this statehood anniversary collection, Alaska at 50,  which Greg said was the top seller at the University Press.  That's probably not saying a lot.

Senate Finance Subcommitte Looks at Insurance, Energy, Industrial Development, Fish, and Travel

Working in the Capitol building is like being a pin ball.  You go in one direction (Thursday I went to the State Affairs Committee at 8am) and then you find yourself colliding with other balls and going off in a lot of different, unexpected directions.

I met someone who suggested I head to the Senate Finance Commerce subcommittee where I heard people present their budget proposals for the

• Division of Insurance
• Alaska Energy Authority (AEA)
•  Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA)
• Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
• Alaska Tourism Industry Association (ATIA)

Each department had documents, some with more, some with less, data.  They all say they do good things.  And they may well do such things.  Or some might others might not.  The Division of Insurance director Linda Hall sounded sincerely interested in helping Alaskan consumers avoid being caught in insurance fraud.  They were the only group to keep their handout to one piece of two-sided paper.  But I really dislike when agencies use shortened numbers without telling people how many zeroes to add.  I know their budget is more than $6,816.5.  Do I add two zeroes?  Three?  Insiders know this, but how should the public know?  They say the collected $58 million in premium taxes, penalties, and fees.  They got $214,000 in additional payments to Alaskans.  That doesn't sound like much when short hospital event can cost $40,000 or more.
Their public service pledge is "to consistently exceed the expectations of those we serve."  That's cool.  I wonder if they do.  Good goal though.

The others were less consumer protection or regulation sorts of agencies.  At least the Seafood Marketing Institute spells out its budget request total = $18.7 million, of which $3.7 comes from the State of Alaska, $9.1 million from 'voluntary industry assessments' and $5 million from the federal government.  They gave an example of a Brussels Trade Show that cost about $300,000 and netted in $36,000,000 in on site sales and '$394,000,000 more projected for the year.'  And their website has some recipes:

Chef John Besh's Wild Alaska Seafood Recipes You Can Make At Home:

• Blackened Wild Alaska Cod with Fennel and Orange Salad
• Wild Alaska Halibut with Mushrooms and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
• Lacquered Wild Alaska Salmon in Butter Lettuce Cups with Vietnamese Dipping Sauce
• Grilled Wild Alaska Cod Tacos

 But this is like buying a home or a car after looking at the brochures.  On the other hand, I don't know what the committee members know already, and who all else has scrutinized the budget. 

Their website is really a marketing site for Alaskan Seafood, so it really wouldn't make sense for them to post the handouts they gave the committee there, but I couldn't figure out how to get the stuff from the committee site either.  You can get their annual report on line.  Sen. Menard praised the Seafood Marketing Institute for their great ads in the Alaska Airline magazine.

 I just don't know enough about this process.  The Alaska Tourism Industry Association handed out a hard copy of a power point presentation.  It was pretty simplistic.  It did list the 2009-2010 44 Marketing Committee Volunteers, but did NOT list the 24 members of the Board of Directors. 

[Photo is, I believe, Patti Mckay of ATIA reporting to Sens. Menard and Thomas. Double click photos to enlarge.]

The Republican Party is the one that argues most strenuously for the free market and against government intervention.  Except for the Division of Insurance, the agencies at the meeting seem to be government agencies helping out businesses.  As a Democrat, I tend to think that government has a role in helping to stimulate the economy, but I certainly would have asked more rigorous questions than the two Republicans on the panel, Sen. Thomas and Sen. Menard, to be sure that the money was going to give a significant return.  There just wasn't enough information in any of the handouts for me to be able to judge.  And there wasn't much time to ask many probing questions either. 


Chip Thoma from Responsible Cruising in Alaska was there and gave me a copy of a list of questions for the committee to ask ATIA.  Thoma wants to know why the state's share of ATIA is now 75% when it used to be 50%. [These are not my figures.]  He also wants to see backup for the information ATIA offers and questions the lobbying efforts of ATIA in conjunction with the Alaska Cruise Association, which, he says:

• oppose the one-halibut limit on guided sport fishing, a major cruise ship excursion that pays large monetary commissions to the cruise lines.
• oppose the state cruise passenger tax, which pays for cruise-related capital projects in 12 ports throughout the state
• criticize the legislature for 'hoarding' cruise tax moneys
• support cruise lines and the ACA filing a federal lawsuit against the state cruise passenger tax

I don't know enough about any of these agencies to know if they are using the money responsibly and effectively, but I do know that the handouts they gave the committee certainly didn't give enough information either.  

And, to continue the pinball analogy, when I went into the hall, I bumped into a former student and when I went to look for him a little later, he was in a nearby room pitching for the Alaska Humanities Forum.  This constant sudden change in trajectory due to random meetings is probably okay for a blogger, but I wonder how legislators and staffers get anything real thinking done. 

For the Snowbound - Consider a Break in Springlike Juneau

I'm afraid these aren't great photos, I've been trying to get some shots, while rushing to work in the mornings,  that would show off why the snow bound might want to consider a weekend break in Alaska. 

 

 Wednesday

Wednesday - This is Franklin Street.  

Notice the snow is on the mountains, not in the streets.

Thursday. Mountains, not in the streets.

Today.  With Sunshine. From our window.

Today, sun and blue sky.  From another window.

And just so I don't get accused of misleading you, here's a map of Alaska, showing you that Juneau is in what is called Southeast Alaska.  To get your bearings, Southeast is north and west of the US Northwest.  The map will enlarge a lot if you click it.

And for those who want to wish Abraham Lincoln a happy birthday (and Charles Darwin), you can singalong at least year's post on this day with the Anchorage cast of Hair.

Security Cam

The Thomas B. Stewart Building just opened recently after being remodeled. It's still not quite finished. The stairwells, for example, aren't done. The new staff and public lounge is here at the end of the bridge from the second floor of the Capitol.

So, Thursday as I was typing away, the worker came in and installed this new security camera. I asked him where I should sit so the camera wouldn't see me. He said, they're installing it to keep an eye on bloggers. (I realize as I write this now, that some people might not realize that he said this jokingly, having seen me doing video interviews in this room.)

Boyd McFail Lobbying Against Mandatory Car Daytime Headlights

I keep being amazed by the number and variety of people walking the halls of the Capitol to make their case to legislators. Alaskans complain that Juneau is far away and isolated and people can't get to see their legislators. It may be hard to get here, but once people get here, I imagine any other state Capitol buildings being more accessible than Alaska's. And people manage to get here.  It's crawling with people from all over the state. And you can walk into a legislator's office and if you can't see the legislator right then, they'll probably offer you another time or a staffer who will take down your story. I've never been in another state's legislative building during a session so I don't know how accessible they are, but here the building is wide open for any and everyone to walk into the building and into most anyone's office. Among the many people in the halls today were a group from Bristol Bay, the Alaska Humanities Forum (I'll try to get a post up on them) dentists, people advocating for public transit, and who knows what all else.

Here's a video Boyd McFail explaining why he's against mandatory daytime headlights on Alaska highways just before talking to Rep. Max Gruenberg.

Sorry about the audio, I've turned off the autostart

The Gavel to Gavel embedded audios in the last two days, unfortunately, were set to start playing audio automatically. I had this problem once before with a video but it was a while back and I had to go look up how to turn it off.

It's really not to hard. Just look in the embed code. It will say 'autostart' somewhere followed "true." The true makes it turn on automatically when someone opens the page. You just have to replace the "true" with "false" and then people have to click on it to start it.

It's a real pain - especially on blogs - and I'll try to talk to the Gavel to Gavel folks and get them to change the embed codes so it doesn't go on automatically. For more information about the codes, this Apple tutorial makes it easy.

Why It's Clear as Mud or Who's on First?

[I would note that the Department of Law attorneys seem to have refined their answers since last week's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  I'm guessing that they've absorbed enough questions from people and are now better prepared for the kinds of questions people are asking. But that doesn't make things clear.  That lack of clarity is perhaps more precise though.]

I'm trying to figure out how to write about this morning's State Affairs meeting. See previous post for the audio.  You'll get some idea of the problem when I say that a lot of the discussion revolved around the meaning of words.  The Citizens United v. FEC decision means that there can't be restrictions on corporate independent expenditures on political speech, but it doesn't affect limits on contributions made directly to candidates. 

It does NOT affect disclosure and disclaimer laws.  So the question is, how does this impact Alaska law?  Alaska banned all issue advertising by corporations (and labor unions), so Alaska has no laws requiring disclosure or disclaimers for corporations and labor unions  since they had nothing to disclose.

So, what does Alaska need to do to be able to keep corporations and labor unions from distorting the elections through unlimited spending on campaign issue ads and other 'independent expenditures" on political issues?  Making sure that the public knows who is paying seems to be the first answer:  making sure disclosure and disclaimer laws apply to corporations.

One of the problems is that the Federal language and the State language are not the same.  And much of the discussion got bogged down in questions about what words mean:

[Note:  The words are from my rough notes taken at the meeting.  I've gone through and cleaned them up a bit, but not completely.   Again - read with caution and go to the Gavel to Gavel audio in the previous post to get the actual words used.]

Johnson:  Political speech - is there political speech outside an election?  Say, opposition to particular election or legislator, is that political speech?

Johnson:  with ballot initiatives you could name yourself anything you want.  Will this require us to include contributors to these groups?  Can’t be anonymous.  If a group, do they have to list all of them now?

 [Johnson is Rep. Craig Johnson]

or

Johnson:  In prohibited expenditures in our statutes:  Can’t be anonymous unless printed material other than ad in newspaper.
Ptacin:  I believe that only applies to individuals
p. 28 AS15.13.084
Johnson:  It says a person…
Ptacin:  Person includes labor union and corporations, separate from individual
Johnson:  Here it says person, which means corp.  so as I read this a business could do anything other than a newspaper anonymously.
Ptacin:  A person is not entitled to make an expenditure anonymously, except….
Johnson;  Except read ....
Ptacin:  that exception qualified by (a) refers to individual
Petersen:  One step further...but an individual could print up flyer without name on it and go door to door, no disclaimer responsibility.
Ptacin:  Under this distinct set of circumstances, yes.
Seaton:  A little confusing.  Corporation, individual, natural person, person, all those could you clarify?

[Dept.of Law attorney John Ptacin; Rep. Pete Petersen;  Rep. Paul Seaton]

or

Seaton:  Person includes corporations and labor unions but excludes natural persons?
Johnson:  I want clarity, I think a natural person is a person
Ptacin:  Law distinguishes between natural person (individual) and person applies to labor unions and business
Seaton:  You're saying person excludes individuals and natural persons
Ptacin:  Mr. Dosik is on the phone Atty General’s office, he can answer better.
Dosik:  A person is broader group than individuals - includes individuals and entities and organizations ???  seems to conflict

[Dept. of Law attorney Thomas Dosik I believe]

There were also problems with how to get the actual contributors to disclose who they are rather than hiding behind names like "Alaskans for Good Things."

Johnson:  with ballot initiatives you could name yourself anything you want.  Will this require us to include contributors to these groups?  Can’t be anonymous.  If a group, do they have to list all the contributors? now?
Ptacin:  Doesn’t change laws regarding groups - reports in 30 days.  Expenses and contributors.  With independent expenditures different.  If corps and labor unions entitled to make independent speech, they would tell us in ten days.
Gruenberg:  AS 15.13.084 (2)  A person may not make an expenditure using a fictitious name or name of another.  I can’t find definition?  Do regs define that or precedent that defines that?  If not, what is the legislative history?  The intent?
Ptacin:  I don’t.  Regulation on … Give me a minute
Gruenberg:  Question can be for anyone else?  Any agency common law decision?
Holly Hill from APOC by phone:  There is a current case before the Commission that we aren’t at liberty to discuss.
G: Is one of the issues fictitious name?
Holly Hill:  0901cd  assigned to hearing officer:  APO-01   Asst. AG Dosick may be able to tell us when it will be decided.
Dosick (Dept. of Law attorney by phone):  Within several months.
Lynn:  So about election time?
Dosick:  Yes.

[Rep. Max Gruenberg; APOC is Alaska Public Offices Commission]

 The current statutes don't help a lot:

From AS 15.13.400 Definitions
(11) "individual" means a natural person;
(14) "person" has the meaning given in AS 01.10.060 , and includes a labor union, nongroup entity, and a group;
(13) "nongroup entity" means a person, other than an individual, that takes action the major purpose of which is to influence the outcome of an election, and that
(16) "publicly funded entity" means a person, other than an individual, that receives half or more of the money on which it operates during a calendar year from government, including a public corporation.  
(8) "group" means

(A) every state and regional executive committee of a political party; and

(B) any combination of two or more individuals acting jointly who organize for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of one or more elections and who take action the major purpose of which is to influence the outcome of an election; a group that makes expenditures or receives contributions with the authorization or consent, express or implied, or under the control, direct or indirect, of a candidate shall be considered to be controlled by that candidate; a group whose major purpose is to further the nomination, election, or candidacy of only one individual, or intends to expend more than 50 percent of its money on a single candidate, shall be considered to be controlled by that candidate and its actions done with the candidate's knowledge and consent unless, within 10 days from the date the candidate learns of the existence of the group the candidate files with the commission, on a form provided by the commission, an affidavit that the group is operating without the candidate's control; a group organized for more than one year preceding an election and endorsing candidates for more than one office or more than one political party is presumed not to be controlled by a candidate; however, a group that contributes more than 50 percent of its money to or on behalf of one candidate shall be considered to support only one candidate for purposes of AS 15.13.070 , whether or not control of the group has been disclaimed by the candidate; 

 

Is your head spinning yet?  Translation (I think):

Individual = Human being, with a body, blood, brain, etc.
Person = Corporation or Labor Union
Publicly Funded Entity = non-profit organizations  (I think)
Nongroup entity = appears to be a group formed by a corporation or labor union to affect elections like a PAC

Here is the whole list of definitions from this section of the Statutes (I'm not including 8 again to save space but it is above.)

AS 15.13.400. Definitions.

In this chapter,

(1) "candidate"

(A) means an individual who files for election to the state legislature, for governor, for lieutenant governor, for municipal office, for retention in judicial office, or for constitutional convention delegate, or who campaigns as a write-in candidate for any of these offices; and

(B) when used in a provision of this chapter that limits or prohibits the donation, solicitation, or acceptance of campaign contributions, or limits or prohibits an expenditure, includes

(i) a candidate's campaign treasurer and a deputy campaign treasurer;

(ii) a member of the candidate's immediate family;

(iii) a person acting as agent for the candidate;

(iv) the candidate's campaign committee; and

(v) a group that makes expenditures or receives contributions with the authorization or consent, express or implied, or under the control, direct or indirect, of the candidate;

(2) "commission" means the Alaska Public Offices Commission;

(3) "communication" means an announcement or advertisement disseminated through print or broadcast media, including radio, television, cable, and satellite, the Internet, or through a mass mailing, excluding those placed by an individual or nongroup entity and costing $500 or less and those that do not directly or indirectly identify a candidate or proposition, as that term is defined in AS 15.13.065(c);

(4) "contribution"

(A) means a purchase, payment, promise or obligation to pay, loan or loan guarantee, deposit or gift of money, goods, or services for which charge is ordinarily made and that is made for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of a candidate, and in AS 15.13.010(b) for the purpose of influencing a ballot proposition or question, including the payment by a person other than a candidate or political party, or compensation for the personal services of another person, that are rendered to the candidate or political party;

(B) does not include

(i) services provided without compensation by individuals volunteering a portion or all of their time on behalf of a political party, candidate, or ballot proposition or question;

(ii) ordinary hospitality in a home;

(iii) two or fewer mass mailings before each election by each political party describing the party's slate of candidates for election, which may include photographs, biographies, and information about the party's candidates;

(iv) the results of a poll limited to issues and not mentioning any candidate, unless the poll was requested by or designed primarily to benefit the candidate; or

(v) any communication in the form of a newsletter from a legislator to the legislator's constituents, except a communication expressly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate or a newsletter or material in a newsletter that is clearly only for the private benefit of a legislator or a legislative employee;

(vi) a fundraising list provided without compensation by one candidate or political party to a candidate or political party;

(5) "electioneering communication" means a communication that

(A) directly or indirectly identifies a candidate;

(B) addresses an issue of national, state, or local political importance and attributes a position on that issue to the candidate identified; and

(C) occurs within the 30 days preceding a general or municipal election;

(6) "expenditure"

(A) means a purchase or a transfer of money or anything of value, or promise or agreement to purchase or transfer money or anything of value, incurred or made for the purpose of

(i) influencing the nomination or election of a candidate or of any individual who files for nomination at a later date and becomes a candidate;

(ii) use by a political party;

(iii) the payment by a person other than a candidate or political party of compensation for the personal services of another person that are rendered to a candidate or political party; or

(iv) influencing the outcome of a ballot proposition or question;

(B) does not include a candidate's filing fee or the cost of preparing reports and statements required by this chapter;

(C) includes an express communication and an electioneering communication, but does not include an issues communication;

(7) "express communication" means a communication that, when read as a whole and with limited reference to outside events, is susceptible of no other reasonable interpretation but as an exhortation to vote for or against a specific candidate;

(8) "group" means [already listed above, not repeated here]

(9) "immediate family" means the spouse, parents, children, including a stepchild and an adoptive child, and siblings of an individual;

(10) "independent expenditure" means an expenditure that is made without the direct or indirect consultation or cooperation with, or at the suggestion or the request of, or with the prior consent of, a candidate, a candidate's campaign treasurer or deputy campaign treasurer, or another person acting as a principal or agent of the candidate;

(11) "individual" means a natural person;

(12) "issues communication" means a communication that

(A) directly or indirectly identifies a candidate; and

(B) addresses an issue of national, state, or local political importance and does not support or oppose a candidate for election to public office.

(13) "nongroup entity" means a person, other than an individual, that takes action the major purpose of which is to influence the outcome of an election, and that

(A) cannot participate in business activities;

(B) does not have shareholders who have a claim on corporate earnings; and

(C) is independent from the influence of business corporations.

(14) "person" has the meaning given in AS 01.10.060 , and includes a labor union, nongroup entity, and a group;

(15) "political party" means any group that is a political party under AS 15.60.010 and any subordinate unit of that group if, consistent with the rules or bylaws of the political party, the unit conducts or supports campaign operations in a municipality, neighborhood, house district, or precinct;

(16) "publicly funded entity" means a person, other than an individual, that receives half or more of the money on which it operates during a calendar year from government, including a public corporation.

"I think it’s a mess at this point."

That was State Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Bob Lynn's characterization of where things stand regarding Alaska's campaign spending and disclosure laws in the wake of the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC decision and after listening to an hour of discussion this morning.

Rep. Lynn's take was significantly different from Department of Law attorney Alpheus Bullard who said, "It's clear as mud."

I've got 13 pages of rough notes - too rough  for me to post right now, and I haven't had time to think this through enough and there's a meeting at 11 on funding for the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) funding which should prove to be interesting.

Basically, the committee decided to have Chair Lynn send a letter to the Governor asking the administration to draft legislation for the legislature to work from since the Dept. of Law seems to be the source of most expertise on this.  Outside the meeting, someone said that Sen. French is also drafting a bill.

This discussion was different from last week's Senate Judiciary hearing - even with the same attorneys testifying.  I'm still trying to figure out specifically why.  I think the attorneys have had more time to think things through and were more specific about where there were issues.

And the line of questioning from he committee seemed more detailed and informed.  One issue that seemed new, was looking at the issue of tax deductibility for independent expenses related to political speech.  Rep. Seaton suggested that if corporations can deduct expenses spent on political speech, but individuals couldn't, there would be a clear unfairness.

Another indicator of the difficulty, here's attorney Bullard in response to a question about what kind of disclosure can be required of corporations in political speech ads:

Rep Johnson, through the chair. [they have to address specific members through the Chair] It’s difficult [to answer your question.]  In other states, there are major requirements to have disclaimer, they might have to reveal the five largest contributors.  At a certain point, we get to the anonymous contributor of $5 who bought a raffle ticket. This is the opposite end of the continuum.  The answer to your question lies somewhere in between. 

I'll clean up the rough notes and try to summarize the key issues.  You can also listen to the whole thing on Gavel to Gavel.  (It says it's 47 minutes, but the session was close to two hours.)

University Caucus Formation Love Fest

 University of Alaska President Mark Hamilton addressing

the new University Booster Caucus

At 4pm Wednesday in the Senate Finance Committee room the University of Alaska Caucus was officially formed.   I've been looking at all the caucuses listed in the schedules of meetings and trying to put together a post about them.  Basically, these caucuses are formed by legislators who are interested in supporting a particular issue.  Some of the caucuses include:

• Anchorage Caucus
• Bush Caucus
• Fish Caucus
• Majority and Minority Caucuses

And now the University Booster Caucus joins these.


The three chancellors, Fran Ulmer, UAA;  John Pugh, UAS;  and Brian Rogers, UAF.

Everyone said nice things about each other and it was a different atmosphere from most of the other meetings I've been to.  But then that is what the caucus is supposed to do - promote the university. 

I guess I should add, that I am a professor emeritus (fancy word for retired but still connected to) at UAA and I know some of these people. 

I support the cause of higher education in theory, but would love to see the practice more efficient and effective.  I do hold the UAA Chancellor in high regard. 

The caucus members are listed as
Co-chairs:  Sen. Johnny Ellis; Sen Joe Thomas;  Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom; Rep. Anna Fairclough

Members:  Sens. Bettye Davis, Dennis Egan; Hollis French;  Linda Menard;  Joe Paskvan;  Gary Stevens; & Bill Wielechowski
Reps.  Les Gara; Berta Gardner; Carl Gatto; David Guttenberg; Lindsey Holmes; Scott Kawasaki; Mike Kelly; Beth Kertulla; Cathy Munoz; Pete Petersen; Jay Ramras; & Chris Tuck

Although the Chancellors mentioned how the University has branches all over the state, this caucus is clearly heavy with the Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau legislators.