Spectrum/Thompson
In response to Roy Burkhart's Jan. 13 Spectrum piece, “Campaign criticism should go both ways,” I feel I should set the record straight. In the future, the District 15 Republican Party chairman would do well to heed Mark Twain's advice, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
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Mr. Burkhart must have checked the APOC records and found out that I did not take any money from special interests, PAC's or political parties. So instead he changed the wording to try and fool folks into thinking I did. Not true, Mr. Burkhart. Shame on you.
The party chairman and his wife seem to be the largest contributors to political campaigns and parties in District 15. He donated the limit to Rep. Neuman, and his party actually gave more than the legal $10,000 to Neuman and had to take some back.
Now why would Mr. Burkhart try to make it look like I took money that I didn't?
Campaign contributions are handovers of cash or some in-kind donation that directly helps someone's campaign. The rules are very plain on this, and a political party operative like Mr. Burkhart knows that quite well.
So when he complains that Alaska Conservation Voters paid for a mail-out, he's just spitting in the wind. They can do as they please. I can no more stop them from exercising their free speech than
I can stop Mr. Burkhart
from his.
The point is, I never asked them for their support and had no idea that a mailer was even sent out, or to whom. In fact I never even saw it until fellow candidate Doyle Holmes showed me one, late in the campaign.
Another point of misinformation by the party chair is that he claims that I “vigorously pursued an endorsement from the NRA and the Alaska Outdoors Council.” Wrong again, Mr. Burkhart.
I attended an NRA workshop and filled out a questionnaire. The NRA gave all three candidates the same “A” rating. With Mr. Burkhart's help, Neuman managed to get an early endorsement. I talked to the national head of the NRA about partisan politics coming into play, and Neuman's endorsement was temporarily removed from the NRA Web site.
I then informed Doyle Holmes that he should get the endorsement, since Doyle is a lifetime member. Neuman was told to join the NRA right after his primary win, and he did so and paid his new membership with campaign contributions. The NRA finally decided to endorse both Neuman and Holmes.
That's the truth about that little fiasco. My family and I are big supporters of our Second Amendment rights, and the A rating was fine with me.
Mr. Burkhart also wants you to believe that I'm anti-development. Wrong again. I just believe in reasonable development, much along the lines of Jay Hammond and the owner-state principles of Wally Hickel.
No, Mr. Burkhart, I'm not a Democrat, Green or AIP either. I'm an independent, and I know that's a tough concept for a Republican Party operative to grasp.
Now, do you really want to broach the subject of ethics with me? Well, Mr. Burkhart, any day that you want to debate that subject, I'm game. No one in this state has testified more or tried harder to get ethics reform than I have. It's all part of the record in Juneau.
In fact I warned your party about the Seekins ethics bill being against the First Amendment in testimony, just last session. They ignored it, until your own legal experts proved me right. I'll be testifying for ethics reform again this year.
Don't get me wrong, not all Republican politicians are ethically challenged. I admire Sarah Palin, Nancy Dahlstrom, Andrew Halcro and Wev Shea. But then again, those are four Alaskans that the Republican leadership has real problems with. Go figure.
So Mr. Burkhart, you might be king for the day, and in your eyes I might be no better than a criminal. But I predict you'll come around. I'll leave you with a very old, anonymous saying: A lie on the throne is a lie, still, and truth in a dungeon is truth, still; and a lie on the throne is on the way to defeat, and truth in a dungeon is on the way to victory.”
Wasilla resident Myrl Thompson is a citizen lobbyist and former independent candidate for the state House.
Comments
12 comment(s)nexQuimimip wrote on Feb 14, 2009 3:07 PM:
Donna wrote on Feb 6, 2009 7:14 AM:
I would like to contact him if anyone can get him my e-mail address it would be greatly appreciated.
Donna J. Hoover (formerly Donna J. Groleau) "
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Alas, even if it should make its way over to corporate Diebold, it'll be dismissed as the irrelevent raving of an unrecognized voter (unrecognized, courtesy of Diebold). Only in America. "
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