KODIAK ISLAND ROCKET LAUNCH

First time to Kodiak Island. First time to witness a rocket launch. The rocket, a Minotaur IV, took off from our Alaska Aerospace Corporation’s Launch Complex with a payload of 7 satellites carrying 16 experiments. Everything happened on time and as planned. The Aerospace Corporation is owned by the State of Alaska. I was invited to view the launch because I'm a member of our House Military and Veterans' Affairs Committee, and a Joint Armed Services Committee Designee for the 2011 Legislative session.

ALASKA REPUBLICAN CAUCUS ORGANIZATION 2010

There are really three elections every two years: the primary election, general election, and private caucus elections. You don’t participate in the caucus elections – called the “Organizational Meeting” - unless you survive the primary and general elections. In the first two elections, campaigns are public. In the organization meeting (caucus election) campaigning is conducted privately between legislators. It consists of campaigning for election to Speaker of the House, Majority Leader, Rules Chair, the two Finance Committee Co-Chairs (one for the operating budget, One for the capital budget.), and committee chairmanships.

We ask for “commitments” (promised votes) for the leadership position we seek. You might guess that there’s some “if you commit for this, I’ll commit to that.” What “happens in the organization meeting stays in the organizational meeting.” Or is supposed to stay there. Suffice to say, I was re-elected as Chair of our House State Affairs Committee. I thank my colleagues for that.

You likely have read in the newspaper, or have seen on TV, or heard political gossip, about what happened in our majority caucus organizational meeting that was held in Wasilla on the Friday and Saturday after the general election. Most - but not all – that has been reported in the media happened. Suffice to say, I voted my commitments, and voted with the majority of my caucus (because I thought it was the appropriate things to do) on who ended getting what in leadership, and other positions up for a vote. I can tell you this: out of the four organizational meetings in which I’ve been involved, this was by far the most “interesting.”

For most legislators, and for me, being in a organizational position to best serve constituents is more important than getting chairmanship or membership of a particular committee to serve ourselves.

AREN'T YOU GLAD?

Thank you for voting. Whoever you voted for. But aren’t you glad the 2010 elections are over (well almost)? I am.

I’ve watched a lot of elections (when I was in the military), been involved in a lot of elections, and have been a candidate more than once. But the election of 2010 has been “something else.” The hard fought US Senate race (or should I say “races”) sucked the oxygen out of every other candidate’s race in Alaska.

If you weren’t running for US Senate, or maybe for governor, your campaign material got lost in the mailbox among flyers from the “big guy’s.” I sent out a nifty mailer for my campaign (I always send one to myself, so I can when it’s delivered to everyone else). My flyer was one of five full-page campaign mailers stuffed in my mailbox. I almost missed finding my own flyer. One can only hope the 2010 campaigns will help get the US Postal Service out of debt.

Furthermore, this campaign season saw more name-calling, misrepresentations, outright lies and, worse, character assassination than any election in my memory. Problem is, no one perfect filed for any office – because there are no perfect people.

It’s a miracle opposition researchers didn’t discover that I got in trouble in the first grade for chewing gum.