u/HALNinerZeroZero

1. Mary Peltola
2. Petersburg Dan Sullivan
3. Gerald Heikes
4. (Write-In) Mayor Dan A. Sullivan

Doooo It !!

By Andrew Gray

Alaskans are witnessing a poignant example of the two-tiered nature of our justice system.

In the first example, a marginalized group fails to understand a nuanced aspect of state election law — a nuance that confuses even state elections officials.

In the second, a former attorney general and his wife intentionally violate state campaign finance law. One side faces prosecution and possible jail time.

The other appears immune from criminal consequences. It’s easy to guess which is which.

Tupe Smith was elected to the Chugach District School Board in October 2023. A volunteer at her children’s school, she felt compelled to run after encouragement from Whittier Community School staff.

A week after she was elected, she learned that she was ineligible because she was an American national from American Samoa, not a U.S. citizen.

On Nov. 30, 2023, Alaska State Troopers arrested her for alleged voter misconduct.In April 2025, 10 more American Samoans in Whittier were charged by the state with voter misconduct.

Their cases raise questions about citizenship, fairness and the proper use of prosecutorial power.

They also point to a double standard, given the recent election misconduct of Treg Taylor, who was Alaska’s attorney general when the prosecutions of the American Samoans in Whittier began.

Taylor, a recent gubernatorial candidate, gave his campaign 60 times more than the legal limit just before primary election day and refused to fully complete a financial disclosure form as required by law, despite repeated requests to do so.

In other American territories, such as Puerto Rico and Guam, natives born there are granted birthright citizenship. Most American Samoans born in American Samoa, though, are not U.S. citizens; they are U.S. nationals. American nationals carry American passports, may live and work anywhere in the country and can serve in our military.

But they cannot vote.

Thanks to the Alaska Constitution, only U.S. citizens can vote in any election.

Tupe disclosed to local officials that she was a U.S. national and was then instructed to mark the U.S. citizenship box on the voter registration form.

She understood that she could not vote in federal elections but believed she could participate in local elections.

The other defendants, too, state that they never intended to commit election fraud. They did not realize that they couldn’t vote in a local election.

This was not just confusing for the defendants. Testimony in House Judiciary in May 2025 showed that, as recently as 2022, the Division of Elections itself did not understand the prohibition on American Samoans voting in local elections.

Alaska has the second-highest American Samoan population per capita of any state; our Division of Elections should have understood the law.

Rather than correct the defendants’ registrations, improve election forms or examine whether election officials gave inaccurate instructions, which the defendants claim led to their mistake, the state of Alaska continues to prosecute them and threaten prison time.

Sadly, the matriarch of the American Samoan community in Whittier, Tupe’s mother-in-law, Milliama Suli, died while being prosecuted.

The Department of Law made Mili’s last year on Earth a living hell. All because she had voted for her daughter-in-law for school board.

The one bright spot: On Friday, the Alaska Court of Appeals dismissed the indictment against Tupe, citing a trooper’s misleading testimony and a prosecutorial error.

According to the opinion, the grand jury received an “inaccurate” summary of an interview with Smith and was provided a flawed legal definition of criminal intent under state voter misconduct laws.

Then there is Treg Taylor, who served as attorney general when the Samoans in Whittier were charged. During his campaign for governor, Taylor contributed $300,000 to his own campaign shortly before the primary election

. Alaska law limits self-contributions by a candidate just before an election to $5,000.Unlike the Whittier defendants, Taylor was not confused about the law. In fact, when confronted with his violation, he argued that the self-contribution limit was unconstitutional.

A former attorney general is especially well-equipped to challenge a law in court, but he does not have the power to decide unilaterally for himself that he doesn’t need to follow laws.

Taylor also violated another statute by failing to provide a complete financial disclosure. The Alaska Public Offices Commission, after repeated requests that he correct his incomplete form, recommended that Taylor not appear on the November ballot. Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom initially did not certify him, but, in a shocking turn of events, Dahlstrom restored Treg Taylor to the ballot late Friday.

Despite this incomprehensible action, the law states (AS 39.50.060) that a candidate who knowingly fails to provide the required financial information is guilty of a misdemeanor.

That person has committed a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

The Whittier defendants misunderstood the law. Taylor knew the law and intentionally disobeyed it.

The Department of Law’s continued prosecution of the American Samoans in Whittier for an unintentional misinterpretation of the law — a law that even the Division of Elections did not understand until recently — while ignoring the crimes of the former attorney general is unconscionable.

Alaskans can do something about this. Join me in calling on the Department of Law to drop its multiyear prosecution of the American Samoans in Whittier.

We need an Alaska justice system that treats people equally.

Not one that is softer on those with more and harder on those with less.

Not one that gives white people the benefit of the doubt while disproportionately locking up brown people.

Not one where a wealthy former attorney general can do whatever they want.

Andrew Gray represents the U-Med District in the Alaska House, where he chairs the House Judiciary Committee and co-chairs the Joint Armed Services Committee.

Don’t be fooled by this charlatan, vote for Bill Hill for US Congress

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Like Sullivan, Begich supported the Big, Beautiful Bill, teeing up costly cuts to social programs like Medicaid—known as DenaliCare in Alaska—and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The SNAP cuts are based on a state’s error rate—a category in which Alaska leads—and the Medicaid cuts will be driven by paperwork-demanding work requirements, both of which will largely go into effect in  Alaska after the midterm elections. 

In fact, Begich has a 100% Trump score according to the nonpartisan political tracker VoteHub, which breaks down how often members of Congress vote with or against the president’s priorities.

BRONSON has been very involved with MINNERY and AFC for many years. This complete and utter meltdown of the Republican Party of Alaska is one for the ages, and I am so here for it. Come for the story, but stay for the comments, this drama is 🔥 🔥 🔥

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To review: The Bronson-Church ticket agreed, as a condition of receiving Republican District 9’s endorsement, not to disparage other Republicans. Yet Church now acknowledges that the campaign made allegations about Wilson’s character and business record during a meeting with the leader of an influential Christian public-policy organization.

Church also copied local pastors with the email, bringing them into the dispute, including Mark Zweifel of True North Church and Derek Dickinson of Journey Christian Church. That had the effect of drawing pastors into what had become a bitter political fight between an also-ran candidate for lieutenant governor and a prominent Christian leader, Jim Minnery.

The original email from Josh Church was anything but mild. He demanded that Alaska Family Council cancel his recurring donations and refund his previous contributions. He accused Minnery of practicing “partisan advocacy disguised as a biblical ministry” and called him a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Minnery responded by calling out what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Bronson campaign.

“Despite you and Dave telling people you are not connected to public attacks on Bernadette — you certainly do it quite well in private settings — the Bronson/Church Team is intimately connected in that your political consultant you are using, Axiom Strategies, is leading the negative assaults on her,” Minnery wrote.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to come to Alaska before the November election to help boost the candidacy of Republican U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan. The incumbent senator is in a closely watched race with former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat. It’s one of a few races across the country that could determine control of the Senate in the November midterm elections. Sullivan lost the Aug. 18 primary by eight points to Peltola.

By Chris Aadland
Anchorage Daily News
September 2, 2026

Anchorage police tallied use-of-force incidents at rates higher than those reported by the Northwest’s largest police departments, according to a newly released independent** **audit that makes a series of sweeping recommendations.

A relatively small group of officers were involved in a disproportionate share of the encounters involving force, according to** **the audit by national public safety firm 21CP Solutions.The LaFrance administration hired 21CP Solutions in July 2025 to audit APD’s use-of-force policies and training protocols.

The audit request came after a spate of officer-involved shootings in 2024 that left** **four people dead, including a 16-year-old girl. This year, Anchorage police have been involved in seven shootings, four of them fatal.

The municipal prosecutor’s office on Wednesday released a 121-page final report on the audit’s findings and recommendations. The consulting firm reviewed more than 5,700 of use-of-force incidents between January 2021 and June 2025. The audit also examined 11 of 13 officer-involved shootings in 2024, including the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Easter Leafa in August of that year.

In the Leafa shooting, one officer fired his weapon at the same time another officer discharged a less lethal 40 mm projectile. Indirectly referencing the Leafa shooting, the audit found officers “elected to bypass the strategic use of distance, cover and concealment” when interacting with subjects without guns.

The audit also found that poor communication prevented the officers from trying the less-lethal projectile to see if the girl would drop her knife before resorting to the use of a firearm.

While the number of times an officer used force decreased by almost 5% from 2021 to 2024, the report recommended dozens of changes, such as requiring officers to try to de-escalate situations or use other non-lethal methods before resorting to deadly force.

It also suggests the department** **provide better cultural competency and communication training.“We’ll continue to monitor that number,” Anchorage police Chief Sean Case said in an interview Wednesday. “Hopefully that number continues to go down. That’s certainly the goal.”

As of last month, the police department had integrated 49 of the more than 50 recommendations made by the consultant, municipal officials said Wednesday. The remaining recommendations are “in progress,” they said.

Disproportionate encounters

The mayor’s office requested a two-phase analysis: the details of each incident and police actions that might have led to use of force; and department policies, training and other use-of-force practices.

The consultant found that American Indian or Alaska Native people accounted for just over 45% of the people involved in use-of-force encounters while they account for just over 7% of the city’s population.

Alaska’s Indigenous residents are also more likely to be victims of crime and experience mental and behavioral health issues, and are arrested at higher rates, Case said.

Case said he hopes recent APD initiatives, like crisis response teams, homelessness outreach personnel and a pre-arrest diversion program, lead to decreases in those statistics, including use of force. “It’s our number. We own it,” he said. “But we’re doing everything we can to address that number, not just use of force but more broadly.”

People with confirmed or potentialmental health issues were involved in over half of the cases reviewed in the audit.

The report’s release comes after the Anchorage Assembly killed a proposed ordinance that would have reestablished a public safety advisory commission. The ordinance was largely criticized for lacking more civilian oversight power** **as recommended by a community task force last year.

Besides shootings, the consultants listed dozens of** **policing techniques that would be counted as a use-of-force incident, regardless of whether a suspect was injured.

Those tactics include kicking or tackling people, shocking them with a stun gun or using a K-9 to intimidate or bite someone. The vast majority of Anchorage’s documented incidents involved lower-level force that didn’t result in injuries, Case said. The audit recommended scaling back the use of police patrol vehicles to block suspects or end pursuits. Such tactics involving patrol vehicles also count as using force.

High tally, small group

In 2024, the full year with the lowest recorded incidents in Anchorage, the department’s use-of-force tally was the highest among five other cities the report compared the department to.

Anchorage’s rate of 397 use-of-force incidents per 100,000 people was nearly 105% higher than Portland’s and about 90% greater than Seattle’s despite having a significantly lower crime rates than both that year, according to the report.

New Orleans, the next highest rate to Anchorage in the comparison, logged a rate of 251 incidents per 100,000 people, according to the consultants.

The audit said Anchorage’s high rate “does not say anything about the appropriateness of force” that officers used because departments define use of, or track, force differently. APD’s sprawling patrol area could also mean officers have less support and opportunity to use other methods when responding to calls, according to the findings.

Anchorage’s relatively high violent crime rate also means officers are responding to riskier situations where force could be used, Case said. About 400 Anchorage officers were recorded using force during the time period, the audit found.But just** **20 officers were linked to nearly 20% of the department’s documented use-of-force incidents, with six officers tallying 100 or more incidents, the consultants said.

The use-of-force concentration among a small group of officers may not be “problematic or worrisome” for the department if those officers are assigned to roles that increase their chances of encountering combative or non-compliant people, the report said.

The department was aware that a smaller group of officers used force more often but not concerned that they were unnecessarily more prone to responding with force, Case said. Many in that group, he said, are assigned to tactical teams that handle some of APD’s most dangerous calls, such as high-risk felony traffic stops. Officers in those situations automatically respond with guns drawn, which counts as a force incident, Case said.

But he said he would like to see that group’s use-of-force numbers decrease because it takes an emotional toll on the officer and affects the broader community.

Changing too fast?

The report states that Anchorage police policy manual updates initiated during the audit** **addressed nearly all of the consultant’s recommendations, such as requiring officers to carry non-lethal tools and better training on the use of those tactics.

The unresolved recommendations involve publicly disclosing internal investigation findings in officer-involved shootings, and requiring officers involved in a shooting to be escorted from the scene by a supervisor and not a peer.

The report was based on** **police data, as well as interviews with APD personnel and community members, the consultant said.

Some department employees who spoke with the consultants for the report said department changes were occurring too rapidly, which resulted in confusion and concerns about some officers** **not being trained on new procedures and practices.

“I am not a fan of the notion of ‘this is how we’ve always done it,’” one APD employee told the consultants. “But I think we are changing quickly without as much thought or planning as we need.” “Sometimes it feels like I’m working on achieving something, then the direction changes all of a sudden,” another member of the department told auditors.

The department has made around 200 changes to policy or training over the last couple of years, Case said. Police also have also started offering new resources, like mental health and wellness services, that he said could help reduce use-of-force numbers.

Police don’t currently have plans for additional changes in response to the report to allow those updates and new training demonstrate whether they are effective before pursing more changes, Case said. Officers are also “maxed out” and can’t digest any more changes at this point, he said. “We’re at that point where we’ve set up a lot of dominoes right now,” Case said.

“It’s not that we’re going to stop the forward progress. It’s that we’re going to let those dominoes to start to move.”The report suggested several metrics that could be used to measure the department’s progress on meeting recommendations.

Those included tracking detailed statistics about use of force incidents, when de-escalation strategies are used, and excessive force complaints and their outcomes.

The audit and progress on its recommendations will be the subject of a public meeting led by CP21 Solutions and Anchorage police officials starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Fairview Community Recreation Center.

The findings and recommendations will also be presented at the Assembly’s Health and Public Safety Committee meeting the following day.

“We do not need Californians dictating Alaska."

"We need an Alaskan, and our commitment to our lifestyle, to determine our government. And JKT is just not what we need," English said. That was a reference to leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, who's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from California residents (AND WAS BORN IN SITKA. ALASKA)

Not a Jeep guy, but I did stumble across this gem and thought that some of you cats might dig this

There is an all-out fucking war in the Alaska Republican Party and I am so here for it 🍿 🍿 🍺 🍺 🍿 🍿

……Downing is playing on conservative Alaskans’ belief that the system is broken and that the political left is taking over the Last Frontier. While likely true, the loudest thing tilting the playing field in this governor race is Downing’s own brand of “now you see me, now you don’t” journalism. Her article serves as an unregistered, activist effort to manipulate the electorate, confuse conservative voters, and engineer a coronation for her close friend and favored candidate, Bernadette Wilson.
Enough is enough. Alaskans deserve transparency, not a bait-and-switch operation that actively damages the conservative movement from within…….

As a lifelong Alaskan who has voted in every election since 1968, I have many questions about one gubernatorial candidate, Bernadette Wilson.

Though she led all Republicans in the recent primary, she has no elective office experience, and I can find little information about her. This is partly because she was one of only two governor candidates (among 17) who did not submit answers to any biography questions (or to questions about issues) in the 2026 Alaska voter guide.

Her campaign lists no educational experience, though this is customary for political candidates for any statewide office. Did she ever attend college? Or drop out? Educational attainment seems relevant for a person offering to address Alaska’s complex issues.

Has she been married? She says she is the “proud single mother” of three, but identifies no partners or exes. This seems an informational absence, given her affiliation with a party perennially asserting family values.

She identifies herself as a “businesswoman,” as an “outsider” better suited to run state government. But her business, Denali Refuse, has a checkered record of nonpayment to a fuel supplier, which had to get a court judgment and then, for two years, garnish her PFDs to get paid. Is such business experience suitable to addressing Alaska’s ongoing budget issues?

She says she is a member of the Naknek Native Village Council but I can find nothing official to corroborate this. By birth and lineage to her Native grandmother, she is automatically an enrolled member of the Naknek tribe. But there is nothing to indicate that she has served on its governing body, the council, has otherwise been active in tribal affairs or ever lived in Naknek. Some involvement greater than a fractional blood lineage could be important to her political qualifications.

Former Gov. Walter Hickel was Ms. Wilson’s granduncle, and she frequently adopts his philosophies, e.g., Alaska as the “owner state” of its resources. But Hickel family descendants have publicly disavowed any implication that she is the bearer of Wally’s legacy, and in July requested that she desist from this.

What is her response to this request?

Central to her campaign is an assertion that Alaska’s government has caused the state to “stagnate” in recent decades. But Alaska has not had a Democratic administration since Gov. Knowles’ terms ended in 2002.

Does Ms. Wilson blame subsequent Republican governors, including Mr. Dunleavy, for recent downturns and “stagnation”?

Everyone agrees that these are serious times for Alaska.

Is Bernadette Wilson really the serious leader we need at the helm?

Jim Brennan is a retired attorney who practiced in Anchorage for more than 40 years. He now lives in Southeast Alaska.

I usually don’t repost stuff from the Landmine, but this one is just too good. to pass up

……..Wilson bid $4,000 for a lunch with Governor Mike Dunleavy (R – Alaska) at the 2023 Kenai River Sportfishing Association (KRSA) banquet and auction. But when it came time to pay, Wilson ghosted. 

KRSA spent months trying to contact Wilson for payment, but those attempts were unsuccessful, according to multiple sources. Wilson was banned from future auctions due to the nonpayment. 
Sources also report that despite never paying for the lunch with Dunleavy, Wilson actually attempted to schedule it. But she was unable to after KRSA officials informed Dunleavy’s office about her failure to pay for the lunch…..

Dayton lost a hero.

The Eleventh Air Force separately identified 2nd Lt. Leah R. Borsich, 23, a project programmer assigned to the 611th Civil Engineer Squadron at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, as the Air Force member killed in the crash.

Another cruel, inhumane action by the fascists

Partisans on the left are spending to raise the profile of right-wing extremists in the belief that their possible qualification for the general election will siphon votes away from the “normal” Republican running. Partisans on the right are doing the same thing, for the same reasons, to elevate fringe-y candidates from the furthest reaches of the left.  
But here’s the thing: It does not work.