Are you tired of Sarah Palin diaries pushing other more worthy diaries off the front page?
Does it make you want to scream that Sarah Palin Diaries attract more recs and comments than diaries about serious national and international political topics?
If so, you've come to the right place.
Read on to discover the simple and easy way to help Alaska rid itself of Sarah Palin and diminish her prospects for a national political future...
Do you remember the tense days of counting the early and absentee votes in Alaska that eventually resulted in a win for Mark Begich over convicted felon Ted Stevens? Several Kossacks remarked about one Alaska State House race in district 7 Fairbanks where Democrat Karl Kassel trailed incumbent Republican Mike Kelly by 1 vote: 4999 to 5000.
Well now the 49 late absentees have been added to this race and remarkably, Kassel still trails again by exactly 1 vote: 5017 to 5018.
Of the 49 late counting absentees:
Kassel 22
Kelly 19
write-ins 3
blanks 5
-------
total 49
That put Kassel at 5021 and Kelly 5019.
But THEN, comparison of the signatures on the registers versus the machine counts caused the DOE workers to decide that the machine result had overcounted (possible ballot read through twice after a misfeed) and they removed 3 votes from Kassel.
The election won't be certified until after Thanksgiving weekend. The DOE does "quality control" procedures then has a week to conduct the recount although for such a small number of votes it should take only a day.
If it is a tie, the seat will be decided by a coin flip.
Why should you care about this state house seat on the last (not final) frontier?
from Mudflats:
If a Democrat takes this seat, it would bring the number of House Democrats to 19. There would be 21 Republicans which would mean the margin would be close enough for a likely majority coalition. We’ve been slowly adding Democrats to the Legislature and this session we will have a 10-10 split in the Senate, and hopefully a 19D-21R margin in the House.
The legislature still can take action on Palin's ethical lapses and other malfeasance. With a majority coalition in the House, they can legislate against her per diems and her insulting refusal to live in Juneau at the state provided mansion. They can investigate whether she is actually earning her salary while being a part-time governor and full-time celebrity. They can investigate whether she is complying with the state records acts or still using super secret email accounts to conduct her own business on Alaska's dime. They can investigate whether her publically paid staff are really high priced babysitters.
Holding Palin accountable and exposing her lack of ability to function as a governor when there is no free money to throw around will help remove Palin as a contender for national office. And it is my hope she will be driven from politics all together for a much easier and better-paying lifestyle of the rich and famous.
As a bonus, retiring Mike Kelly would be good in and of itself:
- Kelly was one of the plaintiffs in bogus lawsuit to short circuit the troopergate investigation. The lawsuit accused the predominantly republican committee of McCarthyism.
- Kelly , in an opinion piece, has used homophopic language decry benefits for designated partners of state employees:
I was deeply disappointed when Governor Palin ordered marriage benefits to be provided for homosexuals who pair up with public employees, teachers, legislators, judges, commissioners, administrators and local officials. In 1998 the Legislature and Alaskans acted wisely and clearly to prevent same-sex marriage. During that public process they also showed little interest in providing marriage-equivalent benefits for homosexual pairs at public expense. To the delight of the ACLU and other promoters of the activist homosexual agenda and socialized medicine, the 5-member Alaska Supreme Court is ignoring the will of the majority of Alaskans and their elected legislators, to whom we delegate the powers of law-making and appropriation of public funds. The Supremes are clever and experienced at twisting our Constitution to advance their agenda against Alaska's families. Perhaps we should elect, not appoint them.
When Representative Coghill and I discussed the same sex benefits issue with Governor Palin by phone in November, she voiced serious concern about providing these benefits at public expense. After this conversation, I was floored when she caved in without a fight and announced plans to implement marriage-equivalent benefits for homosexual partners effective January 1, 2007. Make no mistake, provision of benefits to homosexual pairs will be just the beginning. Bets are on that the next lawsuits will come from shacked-up heterosexuals and common-law marriage folks who will claim the Supremes have treated them shabbily when compared to homosexual pairs.
- Kelly has some pretty neanderthal opinions when it comes to domestic violence in Alaska:
Kelly made his comments during a committee hearing Friday on a bill that would stiffen the penalty for third-time offenders of domestic violence. He said he was concerned that relying more on the law and an overworked police force to address the issue would allow men to shirk the responsibility of “taking care of their women.”
“It just seems to me that the message is clear here,” he said, “that the female — the other half of the population — is falling down because they’re doing stupid things marrying the beasts among us, or shacking up with them.
Here's the pitch:
The Dems need help to staff the Kassel-Kelly recount and make sure that every Kassel vote is counted. Please if you can throw in $5 or $10 to the Dems, you will be helping the recount:
Link to donate to Alaska House Dems recount
(While you have your credit card out, add some needed $'s to the other National race folks at ActBlue link.)