It is time for a major change

To the editor:

I received my state of Alaska official election pamphlet yesterday and noted that our independent candidate for governor, Bill Walker, was not included. That was either an amazing mistake in editing by a number of state staff workers or an intentional lack of inclusion by the head of elections, our lieutenant governor Mead Treadwell.

Mead Treadwell’s biography on the state website reads, “He is committed to helping Governor Sean Parnell strengthen Alaska’s economy by filling the trans-Alaska pipeline, facilitating a gas pipeline, bringing affordable energy to Alaskans and standing up to the federal government to ensure access to our natural resources.”

This sounds like a quote directly out of Governor Parnell’s re-election campaign rhetoric. Can I suggest that the omission of the governor’s opponent is again another devious act in the attempt to get our dishonorable governor re-elected? Surely not. They are now sending out a supplement to the booklet. Will all those who got the original pamphlet get the supplement? Who knows?

I am also greatly disturbed by the state’s display of paid advertisements on the back of the state-produced document. The minor amount of income from this advertising is greatly offset by the state’s promotion of one candidate or another. In this case, the Republican Party included two full-page advertisements obviously supporting Dan Sullivan (opposing Begich) and the present governor. A large funding base — of which some, if not a great part, comes from out of the state — allows moneyed individuals (the Koch brothers, for example) and not facts of substance to influence the election process. We do not need that in a state-produced election information pamphlet.

Also, the governor does not include in his biography his prior close connection and employment by Conoco-Phillips, one of the three major oil field companies that have and will receive million of dollars by the reduced value of the pipeline and the drop in oil extraction depletion payments under Senate Bill 21 (erroneously called taxes), thanks to the Parnell administration.

It is time for a major change in our state government. Vote Nov. 4.

Don Callahan

Fairbanks