Juneau Democrats Railroad Senate Applicants

Yesterday we reported on the machinations of the Alaska Democrats to reward Obama allegiance-pledgers in the state legislature who set up the Tasergate hit job. Read our earlier post for background, but the gist is that Juneau Senator Kim Elton was rewarded with a plush Washington gig in exchange for being one of the chief engineers of the manufactured "scandal". Elton and the Alaska Democratic Party are pushing Palin enemy Representative Beth Kerttula as Elton's heir in the Senate.

Governor Palin has to appoint a Juneau Democrat to the Senate, and while they are supposed to give her a list of candidates from whom to choose, she doesn't have to use their list. However, whoever she selects will have to be approved by a majority of the Senate's nine remaining Democrats.

Although there were quite a few applicants, the power-brokers have only given Palin the name of Kerttula. The Empire has an update today - Kerttula is, of course, humbled to be the only nominee.

Rep. Beth Kerttula said it was "humbling" to get the sole nomination of the Juneau Democratic Party to replace Sen. Kim Elton in the Senate.

"It was humbling to have that kind of support, and I appreciate it," said the Juneau Democrat.

Apparently it is odd to only nominate one candidate for a position, and the explanation does not sound particularly credible:

Legislative observers say it is unusual, but not unheard of, for the party to nominate only a single candidate to the governor but that a slate of three candidates is usually the norm.

[...]

Metcalfe said the party acted as quickly as possible because the recently shortened legislative session is ongoing without a Senator from Juneau. The party began advertising to fill the position even before Elton was appointed to be the U.S. Department of Interior's Alaska representative. (emphasis added)

What? Why would they be advertising this before Elton's appointment came through? According to the ADN, Elton was not formally offered the job until Friday, February 27th, and he resigned to accept it the following Monday, March 2nd. I guess they must have known the appointment was coming.

But I don't get why they would be advertising in any case, because apparently they had no intention of considering any other applicants besides Kerttula. Yesterday we mentioned pro-development Native Alaskan Gordon Jackson, who wanted to be considered for the seat. Today, Jackson published a letter in the Empire blasting Juneau Democrats for their "good old boy" selection process:

In a year when our President is leading the cause for more transparency in government, it appears that policy is yet to filter down to the Juneau Democrats. Instead of taking the time to at least contact those of us who wanted to be considered for the replacement of Sen. Kim Elton, you have a meeting with no notice, no questions asked of an alternative or any other related issues we might bring up.

It would not have taken much time to announce the meeting and give us at least a half hour to explain our vision of what we might do in the Senate. Instead, you use an executive committee and go forward with Rep. Beth Kerttula. I don't mind Beth and have told her so. But, if you send out an announcement asking for names, give them the time of day! Breathe life into the President's leadership, giving more openness in the governing process.

Instead of that, you close the door and give us the impression of business as usual in a year of change. Heck, I would have been happy to be assembled by the executive committee. But, we were not invited.

I would hope this transparency is given more meaning in the future. It takes time but I think many of us would have met Wednesday night to get this process over with as soon as possible so a recommendation would be sent to Gov. Sarah Palin as soon as possible! Thank you.

Gordon Jackson
Director of transportation for Tligit Haida Central Council, former president and CEO of Kake Tribal Corp.
Juneau

(The more I hear of Jackson, the more I like him. Sounds like he's not afraid to call out shenanigans in his own political party.)

So the Democrats put out a sham "advertisement" for the Senate position, and then never even gave the people who responded a chance to speak or make their case? Kerttula's selection decided in a closed-door meeting? This whole thing still stinks of Chicago-style corruption.