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Reporting From Alaska
Commentary and Analysis.
Latest posts
Crucial campaign finance measure on the ballot Tuesday
One of the most important items on the state election ballot Tuesday is Ballot Measure No. 1, which would bring back campaign contribution limits in Alaska. This is not to be confused with Ballot Measure No. 2, which is not on the ballot in Alaska until November.
Dahlstrom claims legislator violated state ethics law with pointed email
Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who has crowned herself the queen of the speech police in Alaska, needs a lesson about freedom of speech.
Delaware law, not Alaska law, would govern any Glenfarne buyout
One of the secret agreements between Glenfarne and the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation deals with what the state would be required to pay Glenfarne if AGDC decides the company needs to go. “The repurchase price is based on the value Glenfarne has added to the company,” according to a leaked document that says Delaware law, not Alaska law, would govern the matter. “If there is a dispute on…
Sullivan buries the truth of Iran debacle with avalanche of words
As with every other contentious topic during his 12 years in the Senate, Sullivan thinks that responding to critics of the war in Iran with an avalanche of words and digressions about the gas pipeline, ANWR, etc.—assembled by a committee of his employees—will bury readers so thoroughly that all recipients of the missive will surrender and beg for mercy.
Don't let Elon Musk buy Alaska—Vote No. on 2
The supporters of the campaign to repeal ranked choice voting are groveling before the world’s richest man as Elon Musk tries to buy a voting system that pleases him in Alaska. With this move, the Republican campaign against ranked choice voting becomes an effort by Musk to buy a voting system in Alaska that meets with his approval.
Dan Sullivan will get a pass for casting deciding vote on Todd Blanche
Alaska news organizations covered the predictable “will she or won’t she” story of Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the confirmation of Todd Blanche. But they failed to even mention the name of Alaska’s junior senator, who is running for reelection and is more important in this debate than Murkowski because Sullivan will cast the deciding vote to make Blanche the attorney general.
Trump shakedown of mining company led to approval of Ambler road permit
Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski, Rep. Nick Begich the Third and Gov. Mike Dunleavy heaped effusive praise on Trump last fall for approving the Ambler permit, but never mentioned that it was a federal shakedown of private industry that made it happen.
Al Rowe would have been a 'new kind of lieutenant governor'
Most of the people who run for lieutenant governor in Alaska like to think they will be allowed to do more by the governor than run elections and maintain custody of the state seal. They will reinvent the role of the lieutenant governor. It almost never works out. But in the case of Al Rowe, we really would have had a “new kind of lieutenant governor.” Exactly what kind is hard to say. Explosive?…
State politics has had plenty of turkeys. But only one Dux.
Submitted for your approval: The second-greatest ad campaign for a lieutenant governor candidate in Alaska history.
Dunleavy put gasline project cost at $65 billion to $70 billion
Perhaps auditioning for his next role at a Council on Foreign Relations event June 12, Gov. Mike Dunleavy meandered across a range of international topics with vague and superficial comments that Donald Trump would approve on Greenland, the war in Iran, relations with Canada and more. What he said about the cost of the gasline, does not bode well for the project. Asked about the fall elections and…
'Yeah, that's bullshit. OK? You could quote me. That's bullshit."---Gov. Mike Dunleavy
Here is a portion of the transcript, recorded for posterity by a Juneau reporter, of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s gasline emissions at the conclusion of the last special session.
The sound of Alaska politics in 1974
Just before the 1974 primary election in Alaska, Michael Carey sat down with a tape recorder to record ads by state and local candidates on KFAR and KFRB radio in Fairbanks. The recording you can listen to here provides a good snapshot of the political situation in Alaska 52 years ago.
Alaska's failed leadership and the Southcentral gas crisis
Enstar, which is owned by TriSummit Utilities of Alberta, has opted to act like a political branch of the Dunleavy administration, focused on spreading hysteria about the gas supply situation in Southcentral Alaska instead of a solution. Nothing the Legislature could do this summer will change the energy picture for this winter and beyond, contrary to the claims by Dunleavy and his allies.
Cynthia Henry didn’t mention how Trump raised energy prices in Fairbanks
Cynthia Henry, one of the leaders of the Republican Party in Alaska, has joined the “Build the Line!” cheerleading squad, now claiming that members of the Senate majority are the only thing standing between Alaskans and a blissful era of cheap energy. The Republican National Committeewoman for Alaska, she put her name on a shameless Daily News-Miner letter to the editor that blames Sen. Scott…
Sullivan has nothing to say about Trump's war in Iran
The most striking element of Sullivan’s presentation was his inability and/or unwillingness to talk about the president to perhaps the friendliest audience that he could have anywhere. It’s bizarre that Sullivan would not address an audience of loyal Republicans—including what Sullivan called an “all-star” list of local co-hosts—about how proud he is to stand with Trump.
State improperly deletes naturalized citizens from voter rolls
The lieutenant governor has only one job—other than looking after the state seal—and Nancy Dahlstrom isn’t getting the job done in supervising the Division of Elections. In removing thousands of names from Alaska’s voter rolls, Division of Elections Directory Carol Beecher admitted to legislators this week, the state used old data that hasn’t been checked.
Hilcorp says it 'contributes' $1 billion in taxes and royalties
Hilcorp opposes the proposal that owner Texas billionaire Jeff Hildebrand be forced to start paying an oil tax that has always applied to ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. The proposal is “punitive” and aimed at Hilcorp and Hildebrand, according to one of Hildebrand’s Alaska executives.
Ohio Dan can't stop talking about Petersburg Dan
The Wall Street Journal transcript of an friendly interview by Kim Strassel with Sen. Dan Sullivan has her pausing for an ad at one point and saying, “When we come back more with Dan J. Sullivan, Senator for Alaska about his race for reelection.” The Journal audio has the correct middle initial, but it’s noteworthy that even a stalwart Wasilla supporter of Sullivan’s like Strassel can get the…
Glenfarne never ordered the pipe it claimed to be ready to buy
On November 19, 2025, the president of Glenfarne told legislators that the company was so optimistic about the Alaska LNG project that it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars of its own money to order pipe and get it shipped to Alaska. This was supposed to happen before the state agreed on a property tax break. The pipe was never ordered. The company did not spend hundreds of millions.