One of the local problems we have here in south central Alaska is the ability for Democrats to change parties, re-register as Republicans and run for office. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not. But once in office, the faux Republicans always end up acting like Democrats.
One recent example is a guy from the MatSu named Jim Colver, who was elected to the State House as a Republican. Normally the Rules of Engagement have majority and minority keeping one another at arm’s length. Not so for Colver, who has been scheming with the democrat minority over the ongoing budget battle.
He was reprimanded by Alaska Republican Party District 9 leadership for “close collaboration” with members of the House minority. Local media instantly jumped in to help, attempting to portray Colver as simply working hard to take care of his constituents, which is accurate, as long as they are union hacks, Greens, and Democrats. The rest of us are not so lucky.
Letters in support of Colver published in both papers were written by local democrats, who did not identify themselves as democrats. For some reason the rest of us have to self-identify, but never those on the left. I predict Mr. Colver is going to get a primary challenge for reelection this summer. See Frontiersman
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He is a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
