The Supreme Court striking down Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act may have made things a little more difficult for Alaska's Native American Tribes:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/...
The court ruled 5-4 that a formula used by Congress to identify states subject to federal elections oversight, under the act, were outdated and unfair.
The court did not strike down a provision in Shelby County v. Holder allowing special federal oversight -- Section 5 of the act -- but said Congress must come up with a new formula based on current data to identify which states should be covered, effectively nullifying Section 5.
Section 5 of the VRA gave the Department of Justice power to regulate elections in states with a history of ballot-box discrimination against minorities. Alaska was among the states regulated under Section 5 due to English language tests once used to impact Alaska Native voting eligibility.
The act currently covers nine states -- mostly in the south -- but includes Alaska and parts of seven other states. It requires those states to obtain “pre-clearance” at the federal level to any changes to voting procedures. Those can include minor changes, like moving a polling station, or major ones, like approving redistricting maps.
The Alaska Redistricting Board has been working on a new election district map after its last attempt was rejected by the Alaska Supreme Court, which said before making adjustments to protect minorities, the districts must be socially and economically integrated, as well as compact.
With the federal requirement no longer in play, the board will only have to meet requirements of the Alaska Constitution in the next map. - Alaska Dispatch, 6/25/13
And of course, Alaska Republicans like Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell (R), who will be challenging Senator Mark Begich (D. AK) next year, praised the decision:
http://www.adn.com/...
"You could be doing the right thing but there's no way to get out of the micro-management," he said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C., where he is raising money for his U.S. Senate race in the Republican primary. "I have a notebook on the desk that's several inches thick with copies of preclearance requests we have made to the Justice Department for some of the most minor things."
Treadwell said the state's language-assistance program now provides help to Alaska Natives and Filipino speakers of Tagalog, making the Voting Rights Act unnecessary. Asked whether the law forced the state to establish language assistance in the first place, Treadwell said he didn't know.
"I wasn't there when those decisions were made," he said. But given Alaska's progress, it should be allowed to get out from under the preclearance requirement, he said. - Anchorage Daily News, 6/25/13
And here's why Treadwell is really happy about the Supreme Court's decision on Section 4:
Bob Williams, a Democrat from Wasilla seeking to replace Treadwell at lieutenant governor, said the preclearance rule would have stopped measures like the photo ID law, which he said was discriminatory to Bush voters.
"Access to voting is not the same throughout the state," Williams said. "We've seen polling place closed, we've seen access to early voting in person being closed."
The most immediate effect of the Supreme Court decision will be in redistricting, which is already overdue.
The Supreme Court decision now will ease the path for the voter photo ID bill sought by Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage. The bill failed to get to the House floor last session after opposition surfaced over its effects in the Bush, where driver's licenses are much less common than in urban areas. - Anchorage Daily News, 6/25/13
Senator Begich called the ruling a huge setback fro Alaska's Native American voters:
http://www.alaskapublic.org/...
“A couple of election cycles ago absentee voting booths were not allowed to be in certain areas,” Begich said.
Decades ago, the state forced Natives to pass literacy tests to vote. That’s since been abolished, and Senator Lisa Murkowski says Alaska has made improvements on voter suppression – by making sure Natives have access to interpreters.
“We are getting to that point where we are seeing states work aggressively hard and in a fair and balanced way, to see that the voting rights of all Americans aren’t disenfranchised,” Murkowski said. - Alaska Public Media, 6/25/13
And here's something you need to know about Alaska's Native American electorate:
Alaska Natives are the largest minority group in the state, making up 19 percent of the population. [They're also the largest indigenous voting bloc in the U.S.] Access to polls, and English language tests once used to disqualify Native voters have been addressed under federal oversight. ACLU of Alaska's Decker noted that just two years ago, DOJ compelled the state to reconsider eliminating several voting precincts in rural Alaska -- specifically in Tatitlek, Pedro Bay and Levelock. Without the stipulation, it would have forced voters in the small, predominantly Native Alaskan villages to travel up to 77 miles -- all off the road system -- to exercise the right to vote. - Alaska Dispatch, 6/25/13
Striking down Section 4 now gives the Alaska GOP a better opportunity to suppress the Native American vote in Alaska. By doing this, the GOP hopes it will help increase their chances to defeat Begich. Democrats like Begich in red states like Alaska need the Native American vote in order to win elections. The Native American vote helped Democrats like Jon Tester in Montana and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota win their races. The Pine Ridge Reservation helped Senator Tim Johnson (D. SD) win close elections in 1996 and 2002. Begich is a member of the Senate Native American Affairs Committee:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Begich's office, in a news release, says the assignment will allow him to gain "an even more significant role in advocating for Alaska's first peoples." - Anchorage Daily News, 12/12/12
On Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Begich was able to help draft and pass the Hurricane Sandy disaster relief bill which actually helps Native American tribes:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Alaska did not receive any money in the Sandy relief bill that cleared the Senate Monday night.
The bill did include a provision that will allow tribes to directly apply to the federal government for future disaster aid.
A governor needs to request a federal disaster declaration for any issues in a particular state. Senator Mark Begich says that’s changing for tribes.
“It basically gives the tribes, in this case the federal government who recognizes them as a government, a direct request,” Begich said. - Alaska Public, 1/29/13
Even before he was a member of the committee, Begich had made Alaska's Native Americans a top priority:
Alaska's junior senator fired off a letter to President Obama this week that essentially accuses the Indian Health Service of trying to rip off Alaska Natives and American Indians.
Sen. Mark Begich asks for the president's help in "seeing to it" that the agency pays the hundreds of millions of dollars it owes tribal health organizations for unreimbursed administrative costs dating back more than a decade.
"In Alaska alone, three contractors suffered over $218 million in contract support shortfalls reaching as far back as 1997," Begich writes.
He adds that similar amounts are due tribes across the nation. "It is shocking that the agency would now delay justice, call for new audits, or seek 15 years later to renegotiate the amounts that were due at the time." - Alaska Dispatch, 11/30/12
Recently, Senator Begich is working with Rep. Don Young (R. AK) to help pass the Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act:
http://www.sitnews.us/...
Led by Alaskan Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday passed H.R. 740, the Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act, bipartisan legislation that will allow the Sealaska Native Corporation to receive its remaining land conveyance under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971.
The House Natural Resources Committee approved and reported out H.R. 740, for consideration by the full Congress, with technical amendments submitted by Young to address items from the State of Alaska and the sporting community. This vote shows bipartisan support in favor of approval, 29-14.
H.R. 740 would convey to Sealaska approximately 70,000 acres in the Southeast Alaska region as part of a federal promise to Alaska Natives through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) made law more than 40 years ago. The forests and waterways of Southeast Alaska, some 23 million acres, is the indigenous homeland of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian people, who for thousands of years have lived and thrived there. The final transfer of land as promised in ANCSA would return less than one-half of 1 percent of those homelands back to the Native people of the region.
Supporters of the Sealaska land entitlement legislation include Alaska Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich, the State of Alaska, the Alaska Federation of Natives, the National Congress of American Indians, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Alaska Forest Association, the Intertribal Timber Council, the ANCSA Regional Presidents & CEOs, the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. According to a Sealaska news release, there are also numerous other communities, community organizations, and tribes throughout Southeast Alaska and across the United States that are supporters. - Sit News, 6/13/13
Plus Begich has been calling out the Alaska GOP's plan to suppress the Native American vote for a while now:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
U.S. Sen. Mark Begich on Monday called on the Parnell administration and state lawmakers to make strong commitments to education, give greater support for children's health insurance and eliminate any obstacles to voting.
He said he's also worried about what he sees as trends to make voting more difficult in Alaska, particularly for Alaska Natives and other minority groups. The state last year sued over provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act, arguing, in part, that the requirement that the Justice Department approve redistricting plans or proposed election changes is unwarranted. That case is on hold pending the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case.
A bill also has been introduced in the House that calls for voters to present identification to cast their ballots. Begich said the measure would make it harder for many rural Alaskans to vote.
"There is not a problem here" with voter fraud, Begich said.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, called Begich misinformed and said he strongly supports a person's right to vote. Under HB3, the identification requirement could be waived if two election officials know the voter's identity and he or she is on the official registration list to vote in a given precinct. - CT Post, 3/4/13
Also, here's a little info about Governor Sean Parnell (R. AK) that you should know:
Republicans have argued for years that “voter fraud” (rather than unpopular policies) costs the party election victories. A key member of the Corporate Executive Committee for ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force is Sean Parnell, president of the Center for Competitive Politics, which began highlighting voter ID efforts in 2006, shortly after Karl Rove encouraged conservatives to take up voter fraud as an issue. Kansas Republican Kris Kobach, who along with ALEC itself helped draft Arizona’s anti-immigration law, has warned of “illegally registered aliens.” ALEC’s magazine, Inside ALEC, featured a cover story titled “Preventing Election Fraud” following Obama’s election. Shortly afterward, in the summer of 2009, the Public Safety and Elections Task Force adopted voter ID model legislation. And when midterm elections put Republicans in charge of both chambers of the legislature in twenty-six states (up from fifteen), GOP legislators began moving bills resembling ALEC’s model. - The Nation, August 2011
Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, along with Sen. Fred Dyson, R-Eagle River, the chairman of State Affairs and Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, are all members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has stated that Lynn's voter ID bill would also help suppress voting rights for Alaska's Native Americans:
The report, titled Voter IDs and the Native Vote, identifies three areas where voter ID requirements pose significant challenges for Native voters and can be characterized as having a disproportionate effect on the American Indian and Alaska Native vote: First, states with voter ID laws compromise the rights of Native voters by not accepting tribal IDs as valid forms of identification; second, such laws create barriers of cost, logistics, and distance to obtaining required IDs; and finally, these laws risk disenfranchising large numbers of Native voters through provisional ballots. - Native Vote, 10/24/12
So it's clear the Alaska GOP will want to use the SCOTUS decision to suppress the Native American vote to help defeat Mark Begich:
The 2014 election holds big stakes in Alaska. Begich, a Democrat in a Republican-leaning state, is up for re-election, a race that could determine whether Democrats keep control of the U.S. Senate. While centrist Democrats like Begich have shown they can win a statewide election here, the contests are usually close.
Republican Gov. Parnell is also standing for re-election -- unless he chooses to run against Begich. Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, the state's top election official, has already announced that he is exploring a run against Begich.
The Alaska Redistricting Board, which remade the legislative map for the 2012 election, is under orders by the Alaska Supreme Court to redraw at least some districts by 2014. Under the 2012 map, Democrats ended up with small minorities in both houses of the Legislature, and two Native legislators and the sole African-American legislator were replaced by whites.
Most of the issues related to Native voting -- the village poll closings, voter identification, preserving legislative districts where enough voters are Native that they would have strong influence on the outcome, election material made available in indigenous languages -- are tied to protections under the Voting Rights Act. Alaska is one of nine states -- most are in the South -- that are subject to Justice Department supervision under Section 5 of the act. That means that any change to voting procedures must be cleared by the Justice Department before it can be implemented. - Anchorage Daily News, 3/10/13
Begich is calling on Congress to fix this to help protect Native Americans' right to vote:
http://www.islandpacket.com/...
Democratic Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska predicted that lawmakers will make an “aggressive move” to update the formula.
“Because of the ruling of the court, I think there are members who are highly motivated now to bring something forward so we can start discussing in July,” Begich said. - Island Packet, 6/25/13
Senator Begich truly has been a great ally for Native Americans in the Senate and I applaud him for not only continuing to fight for them in the U.S. Senate but also assure their right to vote is safe. If you want to get involved with Native American organizations who have been fighting efforts to suppress Native American voters, you can look into these organizations:
The National Congress of American Indians:
http://www.ncai.org/
The Native American Rights Fund:
http://www.narf.org/...
The Leadership Conference:
http://www.civilrights.org/...
and the Alaska Democratic Party:
http://www.alaskademocrats.org/
Begich knows he has a tough race ahead of him and has been preparing for it. But Begich does have a few things that work in his favor. He's the only Senator from Alaska to have a very close working relationship with the President hence being able to deliver for the state. He doesn't have Sarah Palin on top of the ticket. Plus Treadwell will still have to fight of Tea Party Wild Card Joe Miller (R. AK) in the primary. Also, unlike Treadwell and Miller, Begich is a true blue Alaskan:
http://abcnews.go.com/...
He added that, unlike Treadwell or Miller, he was born and raised in the 49th state.
"It's been for all my political career something I've strived for: where the common ground is," Begich said. "I think it's being born and raised in Alaska. That's how you grow up. We don't look what party you are from ... we look at what you can do for Alaska." - ABC News, 6/18/13
And in terms of funding, Begich got some great news today:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/...
Some serious outside help appears to be mobilizing for Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, ahead of the 2014 election: Begich donor Jim Lottsfeldt, a strategist who has worked for politicians of both parties, is serving as the "senior adviser" to a new super PAC that aims to focus on Begich's race and spend $3 to $5 million steering the conversation toward "Alaska issues" over the next year-and-a-half.
"We looked at what happened in Montana with Jon Tester's race in 2012," Lottsfeldt said. "When outside groups spent more than the actual candidates themselves, the people of Montana were being outspent by interests that aren't based in Montana. We want to have a presence so we can have candidates beholden to Alaska first, because that's their job."
Lottsfeldt, whose past clients include Begich and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, said the Put Alaska First PAC is "strongly non-partisan" and will "support the candidate or candidates that are good for Alaska's economy." (That could include the state's at-large House race, though Lottsfeldt said the Senate race would be the focus.) Lottsfeldt said Begich would definitely qualify for the PAC's support given his work on resource development in the Senate, but he didn't rule out the PAC supporting a Republican, too, after the field had firmed up. Lottsfeldt has given $4,500 to Begich since 2008, according to federal campaign contribution records. He has also donated to Murkowski and Democrats' 2010 Senate nominee, Scott McAdams.
If the PAC can meet its budget, Lottsfeldt said it plans to spend on TV, radio and mail, but it also wants to focus on building a field organization to register and turn out more Alaska voters. Lottsfeldt singled out Alaska Natives as one group whose turnout he'd like to boost, noting that many Natives who move from smaller villages to Alaska's bigger cities don't re-register. Alaska Natives were a critical voter bloc for Begich in his narrow 2008 victory, though Lottsfeldt noted that they are not monolithic Democratic supporters. - National Journal, 6/26/13
If you would like to donate or get involved with Begich's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.markbegich.com/