The Midnight Sun

After more than seven and a half years covering Alaska politics, The Midnight Sun political blog is joining the Alaska Current. Starting Feb. 1, The Midnight Sun officially becomes a part of the Alaska Current, a growing journalistic collective. The...

East Anchorage Representative Lance Pruitt took to email Wednesday to get in one last plea for campaign donations before the end of the year. While not mentioning anyone by name, Pruitt made clear he thinks the he knows who his opponent will be “...a former legislator has filed a letter of intent, and while they have not clarified if it is for the House of Senate it is likely they will seek the House seat.”

Rumors have been swirling for days Bernadette WIlson, host of conservative talk radio station AM 750, FM 103.7 KFQD’s mid-morning show would be let go at the end of the year. It seems that may have now happened.

Our nomination for the worst tax policy idea of 2015 goes to Alaska Governor Bill Walker for his proposal to reestablish the state’s personal income tax.

As the start of the next legislative session nears Jan. 19, the governor said he has made plans this year to meet with the leaders of the House and Senate Finance and Resources committees every two weeks, “because just about everything goes through Resources or Finance,” as a way to improve communication between executive and legislative branches, he said.

The Alaska Republican Assembly says money from public employee union PACs has been the decisive factor in defeating local conservative candidates across Alaska. Now they are offering what they say is a solution.

I’ve been curious how average Alaskans, consumed by their daily lives and seemingly uninterested in policy minutiae, were digesting all of this budget talk. Since no broad-based statewide polling has yet been made public, I thought I would attend two very different budget presentations for audiences of opposing political views to see just how those audiences were taking it in.

Tuesday’s Anchorage Assembly meeting started off with a bit of a bang. Within the first 10 minutes Assemblyman Ernie Hall took the unusual step of apologizing to Muni staff for the disparaging comments towards them made by a fellow Assembly member in an email.

The latest television ratings are out and both significant competitors in the Anchorage television news war are crowing.

Multiple sources familiar with the situation say these attacks on the integrity of the Municipal Clerk and Municipal Attorney over the LGBT ordinance lead to the mass resignation from Demboski’s committee.