Andrew Halcro's blog

Republicans resist corruption
Ongoing trials show some lawmakers stood up against unethical behavior

Legislative ethics travails have mostly focused on Republican failings so far, but the ongoing trial of former House Speaker Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, is painting some in the party in a different light.

Though two as-yet-unindicted Republicans have been fingered by witnesses as bribe recipients, some others have been identified as standing up against corruption.

"It's been a little difficult to be on the high road as a Republican for the last year and a half," said Sen. Gary Wilken, R-Fairbanks.

The soap opera at Matanuska Maid, Alaska's iconic seventy one year old dairy, has been in the news since June when the Board of Agriculture and the Creamery Board voted to shut it down after the predictions of continued massive financial losses.

On Wednesday, I was a scheduled guest on the Eddie Burke talk radio show. I was asked to appear and talk about the dramatic turn of events at Matanuska Maid. In the last two weeks the 71 year old dairy went from a declared profit in June and a business turn around success story of the century to record losses in July and a whole lot of finger pointing.

“Alaska, where you can't be too fat or too drunk”

Homer Simpson

Did we really need an outsider who won the award at his high school reunion for most weight gained and whose car is permanently parked outside Moe's tavern to remind us that labels are increasingly being used by those who shouldn't? In Alaska politics we didn't.

A few years ago, a bi-partisan group of state lawmakers held a press conference at the capitol to draw attention to the need for action on balancing the budget. And even though there were at least six different legislators who all spoke about the need for politically unpopular solutions, my picture was the only one that appeared with the story the next morning on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News.

The recent actions by Governor Palin's hand picked Agriculture Board concerning the fate of the state owned Matanuska Maid Dairy have shown yet again why government has no business operating a business.

A little more than fifteen months ago I was given a glimpse of Alaska's future. What was posed as an innocent question from one candidate to the another over coffee on the campaign trail, has quickly become the hallmark of our current Governor's leadership and decision making process.