News Wars — Anchorage’s tv news competition between KTUU and KTVA appears to be heating up over KTUU’s move this week to poach KTVA Assignment Editor MJ Thim to co-anchor KTUU’s Morning Edition along with Ariane Aramburo. The infectiously upbeat Thim would seem to be a natural fit for news oriented morning show. He must be held in high regard by KTVA brass. Word is their response was literally “This means war.”
Base Support — Republican Eagle River Rep. Lora Reinbold has received the official pre-primary endorsement for re-election from her Alaska GOP district committee. You’ll remember Reinbold has been on the outs with Republican legislative and party leaders over her decision to vote against a state operating budget she felt was too large. In fact, according to Reinbold the Alaska GOP refuses to send out or post notices for her fundraisers. It will be interesting to see if the party offers her any support now that her district has given her their support.
Not New to the Muni — Mayor Ethan Berkowitz has appointed Jilliane Inglis to be the Muni’s new Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator. Don’t worry budget hawks, even though the move sounds like a new employee has been added to the payroll, that isn’t the case. It means the administration has assigned the duties to an existing employee and is expecting them to take the roll seriously, something Berkowitz’s administration doesn’t think their predecessors did.
AHFC Moves — At the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation’s monthly meeting this week Brent LeValley was elected Board Chair and Marty Shuravloff Vice-Chair. They also indicated the board will be requiring a special meeting in December, but were mum as to why. Word is CEO Bryan Butcher will be out by the beginning of the year so this meeting may be needed to deal with transitioning to someone new. Hey, Dan Fauske is now available.
Ad Watch — Americans for Prosperity – Alaska are running ads just to tell you how awesome they are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-5BPZt5uPA&feature=em-uploademail
Fly Into The Sun
If you have morsels you’d like shared in this column please email me at mnsunak@gmail.com. If it is interesting and true-ish, I’ll put it out there.
Big Week
After a slow Thanksgiving political week things start to heat up next week. Several big decisions loom for government entities and candidates of all sorts start scrambling to raise money before the end of the year.
Here is some of what’s happening:
Anchorage Community Development Authority Board Meeting (ACDA) — December 3rd, 3:30 pm, 245 W 5th Avenue, Suite 122 – You’ve probably heard a lot this week about plans for an overhaul of the Anchorage Downtown Transit, but those reports were necessarily short on details. That is because the board hasn’t formally decided what to do or set a budget. This Thursday the board meets to do just that.
Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC) — December 3rd, 9 am, Calais Building One, 3201 C st. The AGDC board will have a lot to discuss. Every partner in the AK LNG project has to approve the 2016 work plan and budget by December 4th, that includes the AGDC. They also have the matter of filling the position of the fired/resigned President Dan Fauske. Will the board actually go out to find a replacement or will they simply tap Marty Rutherford for the spot? I’m hearing they will do the latter.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
