Over the last decade or so public employee unions here in Anchorage have been big participants in local elections, with the Police and Fire unions being particularly big players. As with all other public employee unions, they support democrats, blast away at Republicans and conservatives, all while hiding behind and demanding respect for their law enforcement and public safety credentials.
Over the last decade here in Anchorage, they have managed to install the most liberal Assembly in decades with a veto-proof majority. They participated in the rollback of Mayor Sullivan’s open shop union ordinance. And they were big players in Mayor Berkowitz’ wins over Amy Dembosky three years ago and Rebecca Logan last April.
Imagine my surprise when I heard an ad by the Anchorage Police and Fire Unions yesterday afternoon falling all over themselves with proud support for three democrats Republicans, Chuck Kopp in District 24 South Anchorage, Nancy Dahlstrom, running in Dan Saddler’s District 13, and Kelly Merrick running in Laura Reinbold’s District 14. Both ladies are running as self-described conservative Republicans in Eagle River, as is Kopp in South Anchorage.
The ad went on to gush about how strong these three candidates will be for law and order and public safety here in Anchorage and Eagle River, something that makes me laugh, as the unions worked very hard for over a decade to install union-friendly democrats in office here in Anchorage and at the state level, public safety be damned. And they got what they wanted, the highest crime rate in recent memory, nicely generating public support for yet more public safety union members, sort of the self licking ice cream cone techique. Good show, guys.
Kopp is my representative. While I supported him two years ago as a reasonable alternative to the departing Craig Johnson, he doesn’t do a lot in the legislature outside of law enforcement. And he is very proud of working with former Anchorage Mayor, democrat Matt Claman on law enforcement legislation. Claman is no friend of Alaskans or public safety which worries me. Rather, Claman is just another big government democrat. I am not interested in working with democrats. That has gotten us into fiscal trouble, damaged our economy, and rolled back our individual liberty. Some of us are worried that Kopp may be lured across the aisle in a reprise of the Musk Ox caucus, handing a hard-fought Republican majority in the House to minority democrats. So far, he took donations from the Police and Firefighters unions, Laborer’s Local 341 PAC, and the Public Safety Employees Association,
Nancy Dahlstrom so far took donations from Laborer’s Local 341 PAC and the IBEW PAC, not the best of friends or supporters of self-described conservatives.
Finally, we have Kelly Merrick, wife of union man Joe Merrick running in Eagle River as a “conservative Republican.” Art Chance wrote a devastating column about her being union through and through while pretending to be something else. Well worth your read even though Don Young, a union supporter himself over the last four decades, cut public endorsements for her candidacy. http://mustreadalaska.com/eagle-river-false-flag-convenience-rino/
So, we are left with the question of why is the police union supporting Republicans in primaries this summer? What do they expect to gain with this support? The candidates are not saying anything. Whatever it is, it can’t be good for the rest of us, our income, public safety, or personal liberty in this state. OTOH, the unions expect their contributions will eventually get these three to listen to them and support their goals at some level in the years to come.
Given the track record of people the Police and Fire unions here in Anchorage have put into office over the course of the last decade, that won’t work out well for the rest of us either. Keep this in mind when you go to the polls in a couple weeks.
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.
