Parnell, Treadwell running full steam

WASILLA – The election season is entering its home stretch and the Sean Parnell/Mead Treadwell campaign is running full speed.

Thursday, the two Republicans, who are vying for governor and lieutenant governor respectively, made a campaign stop at the Frontiersman’s editorial board where they spoke about domestic violence, oil and gas, tourism, and diversifying the state’s economy.

Parnell said that one of the things he was most proud of in his first year-and-change on the job was his Choose Respect campaign. He said it takes a three-pronged approach. First is prevention and education. Second, tougher penalties for perpetrators. Third, additional shelter and services for victims.

He said he’s already started to see results there and has spoken with people who told him that just a public service announcement he recorded for television broadcast has opened up conversations on the subject.

“I think that’s a positive step forward when we’re starting to speak about these issues among ourselves,” he said.

Treadwell noted Alaska’s high rates of domestic violence and sexual assault.

“We want Alaska to lead, but not in that statistic,” Treadwell said.

As for oil and gas, which has from the very beginning been the defining issue of the governor’s race, Parnell had a lot to say. A lot of it, at least as regards his Democratic opponent, had a pretty strident tone.

“He wants a government-built line when companies are already spending money trying to do exactly what needs to get done to build a gas line,” Parnell said.

Treadwell chimed in here.

“It is a government takeover plan,” he said, adding that he views the Ethan Berkowitz/Diane Benson plan for Pebble Mine as another government takeover.

Parnell described his own approach as “fanning the flames of private industry” by making opportunities available for private parties to come together and put together projects.

Tourism is another area where Parnell said he feels he’s accomplished quite a bit in his first half-term. He said that in March the industry was slamming Alaska, saying nothing but bad things about the state as a place to do business.

He sat down with the industry and came up with three goals: finding more marketing dollars, reducing the head tax and fixing environmental regulations. He did those three and by June the picture had reversed. The industry was raving about Alaska.

As for how to diversify the economy – it’s a topic Treadwell has spent a lot of time thinking about.

First off, he said, the state needs to spend some time really studying what it already has. Fishing is a big industry. What do the fishermen and processors need to add value to their products? And then the state can look at what new industries Alaska might be able to play a part in. Treadwell brought up server farms for Internet computing. Half the power, he said, goes to cooling the machines.

“You don’t have to spend that money here,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.