The three candidates are vying for different seats: Lawrence for Seat D, King for Seat E and Davies for Seat H. They also posted the highest number of contributions, including from sitting assembly members and labor unions.
The financial reports cover a
21-day campaign period ending Tuesday. Reports filed 30 days before the election, on Sept. 5, cover earlier financial activity.
Davies raised more in the seven-day period than any of the 11 assembly candidates — $23,407 through 162 contributions, which follows up on a strong 30-day financial report. That puts the former state representative at a total fundraising mark of $35,059, well outpacing incumbent Assemblyman Joe Blanchard II and local businessman Joshua Bennett in the race for Seat H.
Blanchard last reported $620 on hand and raised $5,680 from 29 contributions to put him at $6,300, the fourth highest among all candidates. Bennett has put in $5,000 of his own cash and has declined contributions.
Davies hit the high mark with more than half coming from individual contributions of $25 to $200, but also received 10 big-ticket contributions from political action committees representing unions. Those unions include the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Alaska Public Employees Association, Public Employees Local 71, Alaska Teamsters, Laborers 942, International Union of Operating Engineers 302, United Association Local 375, International Association of Firefighters 1324, the Alaska State Employees Association and the Fairbanks Education Association PAC. Contributions from the groups ranged from $400 to $1,000.
King and Lawrence also have strong PAC backings. Lawrence netted $3,900 of his $12,328 from unions to put him at $15,453. King has received $2,400 of his $4,794 from unions to put him at $7,070. The three were the only assembly candidates to receive union financial backing.
Lawrence is running against Assemblyman Michael Dukes, who is seeking his first full term after winning a one-year term last year. Dukes raised $5,225 in 28 contributions, including $500 contributions from local businessmen Mark Sandford and David Pruhs, to put him at $5,600.
King is in a six-way race with Aaron Bennett, Leslie McFarlane, John Kohler, Michael Palembas and Guy Sattley. Both Palembas and McFarlane have filed for municipal exemptions, indicating that they don’t plan on raising and spending more than $5,000.
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Former Assemblyman Guy Sattley’s fundraising has picked up since an initial report of just $100. He has raised $2,910 to put himself at $2,910. He received eight contributions this period, including one from himself for $2,000.
Kohler, who threw a fundraiser party, raised $2,522 from 20 contributions to put him at $4,719.
Aaron Bennett, the younger brother of Joshua Bennett, has $5,000 of his own money and has declined contributions.
Other than the Bennett brothers, who both contributed a personal maximum of $5,000, and Sattley, who contributed $2,000, little personal money has made it into the races.
One point raised by sitting Assemblyman Matt Want, who is not up for election this year, has been the number of contributions made by his fellow assembly members.
“My job as an assembly member is to make the decisions for the public when I’m asked to and not when they’re asked to,” he said. “I don’t think it’s right to use my position to influence the outcome of an election.”
But Assemblyman Karl Kassel, who has given at least $100 to Davies, Lawrence and King, countered that his donations don’t interfere with his assembly duties. There aren’t rules barring assembly members from contributing funds.
“John Davies has been a friend of mine for over 30 years, and I feel like it’s my responsibility as a friend of him to support him,” he said. “I look at the merits of every issue and vote on the merits of the issue and I don’t think my contributions interfere with my ability to serve on the borough.”
Davies also has received small contributions ranging from $30 to $100 from current assembly members Tim Beck, Kassel and Nadine Winters, along with a $350 contribution from Jim Dodson, the CEO of the Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. King and Lawrence received contributions from Assemblymen Mike Musick and Kassel.
Former borough Mayor Jim Whitaker also contributed to King and Davies, giving Davies $250 and $450 to King.
Blanchard received a $100 contribution from Fairbanks North Star Borough School District board member Silver Chord.
On the spending front, Davies and Lawrence were the only candidates to break $10,000 during the latest financial period. Davies spent $18,692 on a blitz of television, radio, newspaper and online ads, along with yard signs. Lawrence spent $10,028 on online advertising, newspaper and radio ads, and signs and fundraisers.
Most of the rest of the candidates spent somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 during the most recent filings.
In Seat H, Joshua Bennett spent $3,982 on banners and radio ads. Blanchard spent $2,236 on radio ads and signs.
In Seat D, Dukes spent $3,881 on signs and radio advertising.
In Seat E, King spent $3,682 on mailers and radio, newspaper and television ads. Kohler spent $3,382 on newspaper and radio ads and a fundraiser. Sattley spread his funding out at multiple television and newspaper ads. Aaron Bennett spent just $571 on a couple of radio ads.
itsjusttime: Around twenty years ago, Claus Naske up at UAF put together a "living history lecture series." I went to a bunch of these lectures. Based upon what I heard, I could not conceive how anyone in their right mind could possibly view or portray Bob Atwood as conservative or Augie Hiebert as liberal. Some folks hang on to their ill-gotten perceptions for far too long, I guess.
Oh_please: This isn't about emotion. I object every time I see a union slate, or partisan slate, or ITA slate, or IACC slate, or for that matter, ANY obvious attempt to align every Assembly race as this group versus that group. Eliminating the at-large Assembly would eliminate the free-for-all to file, which causes that. Speaking specifically to the unions, though: unionism would be dead in Alaska if it weren't for the size of government here. Tim Beck is STILL trying to push through his pay raise for borough employees. The two together is only a coincidence if you believe in coincidences. Meanwhile, there are plenty of us in the private sector who deal every day with a concept unknown to government employees called COMPETITION who are expected to work harder for less all the time, even if the end result is an income level dipping below the cost of living. These newcomers making up the population increase you keep referring to will be happy to take your place if you have any problems with that.
« TheManWhoShotLibertyValance wrote on Friday, Sep 30 at 05:41 PM »
Let's face it. The unions have laid down their money on Lawrence, King, and Davies for a reason. They expect a return on their payoff.
You bet cha -- the only way they will get a payoff jackpot is if they get their soldiers selected. somebody that gives a candidate 20 bucks is not going to get much of a payback. When they kick and $20,000 in a local race where people usually spend around $5000 they expect to get their monies worth.
"Let's face it. The unions have laid down their money on Lawrence, King, and Davies for reason they want to rip of the public treasury.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly rubber stamp the wage increases agreed to by the mayor they put into office. To do it, you must have a majority.
This is not a unions vs corporations it is the teachers union and public employee unions vs. looting the taxpayers using the force of law.
Google Bell California city Council
In California the state troopers arrested the mayor, city Council and a few others who were making $600,000 a year plus whatever else they could steal.
Hank Hove was the Central Labor candidate for borough mayor. Believe me. I was there.
Whitaker ended up speaking in Denver for Barack Obama at the '08 Democrat Convention. He sang Obama's praises, which meant double since he was a registered Republican. He also invested us locally in the port authority---which proved to be a money pit.
Yes---2 liberals.
***
TAC---
So you consider yourself a "better" to me, do ya'?
When was it that you became so intellectually dishonest? There was a time when you used to argue merit, not personality. Ever since the Joe Miller campaign you've become more and more stuck in your ideology. Maybe before that you were just disguising your true self, and then got your feelings hurt, and are still lashing out. Oh well---I'll continue to hope for your recovery.
Myself, I would never claim to be your "better". Or anybody else's. I'm too humble for that. But I will argue merits.
So if someone shows through their words and actions that they are against everything you are for, you should NEVER use your organization to back someone to replace them? Heaven knows that corporations would never stoop to making campaign contributions in hopes of getting in politicians that are give them an advantage! The unions would use their money for other things, but the borough assembly has become so anti-worker that they need to spend the money to stop it.
Whatever you do, don't look at the GIANT 'vote no on 2' sign on the right-of-way across from the pipeline viewing place on the Steese. With a sign THAT big breaking the law there's NO WAY you could vote no on 2!
Really, KAOS? You're bragging that you let your emotions cloud an informed voting choice? You know what happens when you let your emotions cloud a voting decisions?
We get this:
Or this:
That being said, KAOS was my favorite concert of the 80s.
TAC - you beat me to it with posting Dukes' pouty, pissy, if-we-don't-get-our-way-we-start-shootin' graphic. What a joke.
And how come no conservative poutrage over the shady outside-interest groups funding the 'no on 2' campaign? What's that? Outside group funding is OK when it supports something you support? Oh...
Bill Walley used to recuse himself, but I don't think that he did in his last couple of campaigns. I remember him talking about what were, at the time, revisions in fairness laws that allowed him to continue just as long as he wasn't campaigning on his show. I'm pretty sure that issue discussion IS allowed under current laws.
But hey, if some of you believe that Dukes is breaking the law at KFAR, then get off your ass and make a complaint with the authorities. I suspect that you wont. It's much more fun just to toss unfounded accusations around.
***
This article shows pretty clearly who the borough liberal cabal is. If you liked Whitaker, and you like Mayor Hopkins, and you like Prop 2-- then by all means vote the labor approved ticket. If you're more interested in your own pocket and your own property then you should vote for McFarlane, Blanchard, and Dukes. If you don't know anything and just vote for the prettiest TV ads, then maybe you should vote "present". Nobody will hold it against you.
"People leaving Fairbanks in Droves?" Census shows over a 4% increase between 2000 and 2010.
When commentators on Fox decide to run for office, they have to resign their on-air jobs. It's a sad state of affairs when you realize that Fox News is more ethically run than our own little small town blabber (& in this case, blubber) channel.