Tag Archives: Lisa Murkowski

Working To End A Mistake

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Ranked-choice voting (RCV) has been put in place in various voting districts in America. The supporters of this idea claim that it gives voters more of a choice in elections. Actually, it does a really good job of confusing voters and electing peoples’ second choices rather than their first choices. For instance–if five people vote for candidate A, four people vote for candidate B and three people vote for candidate C in the usual election process, candidate A wins. In RCV, if seven people listed candidate C as their second choice and no other voters listed a second choice, candidate C would win. It’s a confusing system where no one wins.

On February 27th, Alaska Public Media reported:

A ballot measure to repeal Alaska’s ranked choice voting and return to a partisan primary has cleared an initial review.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, who heads the Alaska Division of Elections, announced Tuesday that sponsors of the anti-ranked choice initiative gathered nearly 37,000 signatures — about 10,000 more than necessary. She said the state is still in the process of verifying all the signatures.

Phillip Izon, director of the group sponsoring the repeal, said he doesn’t expect they’ll have any trouble meeting the threshold.

“We did a lot of work on validation, verification. Spent many months on it. So we feel very confident,” he said.

The signatures come from 34 of Alaska’s 40 voting districts – four more than the law requires. 

Alaskans for Better Elections is defending the new voting system and campaigning against repeal. Its director, Juli Lucky, said her group heard of anomalies in the signature-gathering process, so they plan to examine the petitions once they’re made public.

The implementation of RCV is Alaska is probably responsible for the fact that Lisa Murkowski currently represents the State of Alaska in the Senate.

Alaska’s Senate Race

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On Tuesday, Alaska and Wyoming had primary elections.

In Wyoming, Fox News posted the following totals:

It seems clear that the people of Wyoming did not feel that Liz Cheney was representing them adequately. Harriet Hageman was endorsed by President Trump and obviously did very well.

In Alaska the results are more complicated.

Fox News provides the numbers:

These are the results of the primary, but both Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Tshibaka will advance to the general election for Senate along with two other candidates yet to be determined.

President Trump has an impressive record in endorsing candidates. I wouldn’t count Kelly Tshibaka out in the general election.

Fox News reports:

Of the seven Republican senators who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the Capitol riot, only Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is running in 2022. 

She faces a host of primary challengers, and Trump has long worked to deny her a spot on the ballot. However, changes to Alaska’s voting method could help Murkowski stay in the race. Alaska eliminated party primaries following a 2020 referendum, and implemented a ranked-choice system where the top four vote-getters in a non-partisan primary will advance to the general election. 

The new voting system also means it could be days or weeks before final results are known in some races.

It should be noted that Lisa Murkowski and her staff worked very hard to get that new voting system put in place–it is probably the only chance she had of staying in the Senate race. This is one election to watch closely in November.

 

 

Why Primary Elections Matter

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On Thursday, Townhall reported that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed as the 116th Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Three Republicans voted in favor of her confirmation–Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah. All of the Democrats voted in favor of her confirmation.

The article reports:

Just before the vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the occasion “a wonderful day, a joyous day, an inspiring day for the Senate, for the Supreme Court and for the United States of America.”

One of the narrowest Supreme Court confirmation votes in history, the final step in Judge Jackson’s path to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the United States follows a much less chaotic set of hearings than Democrats and their leftist activists made Trump’s appointees go through. There were no disruptions inside the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing room as senators questioned Judge Jackson, no baseless accusations of sexual misconduct in anyone’s past, no demands for additional investigations, no public criticism of family members, and no Michael Avenatti-type characters. 

Instead, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee engaged in respectful but tough questioning that sought to elicit information about Judge Jackson’s judicial philosophy. None was provided. 

Concerns about Judge Jackson’s stated belief that Critical Race Theory should “meld” with the Constitution to determine judicial decisions were brushed aside as obscure conspiracy theories. 

Choosing someone for a responsible position based on anything other than outstanding qualifications is foolish. I suspect Justice Jackson will make her presence felt on the Supreme Court fairly quickly. When we see criminals favored over victims and laws that have nothing to do with race declared as ‘racist,’ we will begin to understand the damage that has been done.

Hopefully all three of the Republicans who voted for confirmation will face a primary opponent the next time they are up for reelection.

When Republicans Go Bad

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On Tuesday I posted an article about Senator Rand Paul’s amendment that would end the position of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position Dr. Fauci has held for more than thirty years. Unfortunately, common sense does not often make appearances in the Senate. Senator Paul’s amendment was to replace that one position with three new institutes, each with its own director. The institutes would be a National Institute of Allergic Diseases, a National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and a National Institute of Immunologic Diseases. Replacing one all-powerful agency with three less powerful agencies would be a step toward bringing America back to where it began–government by the people–not by un-elected bureaucrats.

On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported the following:

Six Republican senators voted against an amendment Tuesday that would eliminate the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) position, which is held by Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Senators voted on Kentucky Republican Rand Paul’s amendment to replace the NIAID with three separate national research institutes on Tuesday morning in Washington, D.C.

Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Jerry Moran of Kansas each voted against the amendment.

The senators did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s requests for comment.

“We’ve learned a lot over the past two years, but one lesson in particular is that no one person should be deemed ‘dictator-in-chief,’” said Paul when he introduced the amendment Monday, adding, “No one person should have unilateral authority to make decisions for millions of Americans.”

The article concludes:

The Senate passed a resolution, led by Paul, to repeal the mask mandate for public transportation on Tuesday.

While Democrats voted in favor of Paul’s resolution, according to The Daily Caller, Romney was the only Republican to vote against it.

Paul had also promised last week to force a vote in mid-March ending “unscientific” mask mandates on planes and public transportation.

“Apparently government doesn’t want to relinquish its power and plans to extend the mask mandate on planes & public transportation,” tweeted the Republican senator. “Not on my watch! I’ll be forcing a vote next week to end this unscientific mandate.”

Please remember these votes when voting in the mid-term election.

It’s Not Over ‘Till It’s Over

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Senator Susan Collins has announced that she is voting to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. As she began her speech to the Senate today, protesters had to be quieted down or escorted from the Gallery. The other day we saw Jeff Flake corned in an elevator by two left-activist women (story here).

And we have this picture of a ‘friendly’ conversation between Senators Diane Feinstein and Lisa Murkowski:

I have no source for this picture except that it was posted on the Q website.

Joe Manchin has announced that he will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh. I am not impressed. He announced after Susan Collins announced–her vote should assure the confirmation. I wonder if he would have voted yes if he were the deciding vote.

There has been a lot of political pressure surrounding this nomination. The Gateway Pundit quoted the following from The Wall Street Journal:

Leland Keyser, who Dr. Ford has said was present at the gathering where she was allegedly assaulted in the 1980s, told investigators that Monica McLean, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a friend of Dr. Ford’s, had urged her to clarify her statement, the people said.

[…] On Thursday, a day after sending to the White House the report on its investigation into the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh, the FBI sent the White House and Senate an additional package of information that included text messages from Ms. McLean to Ms. Keyser, according to a person familiar with the matter.

That doesn’t sound as if Professor Ford and her allies were really interested in providing the truth of Professor Ford’s charges. I don’t know the rules of Senate hearings, but in a court of law that would be witness tampering. It will be interesting to see if there are any consequences to the actions of the Professor and her friend.

Meanwhile, it isn’t over yet. It probably won’t be over after Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed. If the Democrats take Congress, I have no doubt they will attempt to impeach Kavanaugh. Now that we have a nine-person Supreme Court, it is my hope that we can now deal with some of the elements of the deep state. I suspect that the deep state is a part of what this fight was about.

Toward Energy Independence

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One America News is reporting today that Senator Lisa Murkowski will propose legislation to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The article reports:

In a tweet Senator Lisa Murkowski said the bill will create jobs, keep energy affordable, and reduce the deficit.

The legislation would open up roughly one-and-a-half million acres of the refuge to oil and gas drilling

It would also allow federal officials to sell leases for drilling rights.

Analysts claim the move could increase federal revenues by more than one billion dollars over the next decade.

The bill only requires a simple majority to pass in the Senate.

There will be a hearing next week.

The House Committee on Natural Resources has the following information on its website:

Opening less than 3% of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska for responsible energy production could create thousands of jobs, generate billions in new revenue and help reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Small Area = Big Energy Potential

  • The North Slope of ANWR, known as “Area 1002”, was specifically set aside by Congress and President Carter in 1980 for oil and natural development. This area is not designated as Wilderness.
  • A plan developing 500,000 acres—less than three percent of ANWR’s acreage—would provide access to the majority of ANWR’s resources.

Supplying America’s Families and Businesses with American Energy

  • According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, the North Slope contains an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil.
    • This is more than the known oil reserves of entire countries that the U.S. currently imports oil from, including: Mexico, Angola, Azerbaijan, Norway, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
  • At peak production, ANWR could supply up to 1.45 million barrels of oil per day.
    • This is more than the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia every day.
    • Alternatively, 1.45 million barrels of oil per day is over one quarter of what the U.S. imports from OPEC countries each year.

The article at the House Committee on Natural Resources website includes the following map, which shows how little of ANWR would be impacted by the drilling permits.

I think it is time to stop the unnecessary hysteria and begin to develop America’s energy resources.

The Fourth Estate Has Forgotten Its Purpose

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The purpose of journalism in a representative republic is to keep the voters informed on the issues so that they can make intelligent choices at the voting booth. The idea is that the voters will elect people who represent them and who make wise decisions. In theory that is a really great idea. In practice, it currently does not work.

Yesterday Investor’s Business Daily posted an article about some of the recent reporting by the mainstream media on ObamaCare. Now that the repeal of ObamaCare has failed in Congress, evidently the media feels comfortable reporting the truth about how bad ObamaCare is.

The article reports:

Up until last week, the Times had been reassuring its readers that ObamaCare was doing just fine. In an April story, for example, it said that “growing evidence suggests that the markets are far from collapse. Several recent analyses argue that this year’s increase was a market correction, and that a smoother market would follow in the years ahead.”

It added that “many insurers had been struggling to make money but now seem closer to breaking even.”

Another Times article from a few months back quoted Gary Claxton, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, saying that “things are getting better.”

In fact, we were told that the only reason the ObamaCare markets were struggling now was because Republican repeal threats were creating “uncertainty.”

Now the Times is telling readers that “even people who rely on its coverage agree that it still has big problems.”

Reuters, meanwhile, published a story the day after the Senate repeal votes failed, reporting that “hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets in the coming months.” This information has been widely available for months, but was apparently of no interest to Reuters before the repeal effort collapsed.

Much of the mainstream media is now reporting that ObamaCare is unsustainable and will collapse under its own weight. So where were those stories when the votes were taken? There is a lot going on here. The Democrats want ObamaCare to fail so that they can institute single-payer, totally government-controlled healthcare. If you think that is a good idea, take a look at how it has worked at the Veterans Administration. Also consider the fact that the British healthcare system has considered denying people needed care because they were overweight or smokers or drinkers. Do you really want the government telling you how to live your life?

The Republicans (specifically John McCain and Lisa Murkowski) betrayed the voters when, after seven years of promising to repeal ObamaCare, they voted not to repeal. It is time to put the Washington elites under the same health insurance as the average American. The media does not realize what single-payer will do to them, but the Washington elite knows they can avoid the hazards of single-payer by exempting themselves (as they have in the past). If the current Congress will not create a healthcare system that covers themselves as well as the rest of the country, it is time to elect a new Congress. ObamaCare does not need to be modified–it needs to be destroyed. It was a bad idea from the beginning.

 

The Need For New Leadership And Different Republicans In Congress

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Last night the Senate voted on a bill to repeal certain aspects of ObamaCare. The Senate failed to repeal ObamaCare. The Gateway Pundit reported the story. Three Republicans voted against the bill to repeal ObamaCare–Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John McCain of Arizona. The first thing that needs to happen here is that all members of Congress and their staffs need to no longer be exempted from ObamaCare. Let’s make these legislators live under the laws they are forcing the voters to live under. The second thing that needs to happen is that the Republicans in Congress need different leadership. The third thing that needs to happen is that the three Republicans that voted against the partial repeal need to have primary challengers when they run for re-election.

According to the article, the bill to end ObamaCare that was voted on late last night included:

  • It would repeal the individual mandate, which is the requirement that most Americans buy insurance or pay a penalty. The provision was intended to help control costs by encouraging younger, healthier people to enter the market. Republicans have said it forced people to buy plans they did not want.
  • The bill would roll back the employer mandate, a similar provision that says large employers have to provide insurance for their workers.
  • The plan would expand a program that allows states to waive certain provisions under Obamacare.
  • It would suspend the medical device tax.
  • The proposal would increase contribution limits for tax-free health savings accounts.
  • It would defund women’s health provider Planned Parenthood for one year.

This bill was an extremely stripped-down version of repeal. It is a reflection on the swamp in Washington and those Republicans who are part of it that the Republicans promised to repeal ObamaCare for seven years. The promise was,  “Give us the House, and we will repeal ObamaCare. Give us the Senate, and we will repeal ObamaCare. Give us the White House, and we will repeal ObamaCare.” I guess the real solution is, “Give us a Republican Congress with integrity and a spine, and we will repeal ObamaCare. It is truly a shame that Senator McCain chose to reappear in Congress only to submarine the wishes of the American public.