Author: Fritz Pettyjohn

The media bias against Cruz is a sight to see.  Last night at a rally Trump did  two things that were interesting.  The first, a threat to punch somebody in the face, dominated the news.  The second, the confession of ignorance by Trump about federal land transfers, was ignored.

The Cruz ad on this issue clearly got under his skin.  He was wild, crazy, calling Cruz the worst liar he’s ever known.  And then he says, with reference to public lands, that it’s something he doesn’t know anything about.  He knows the statements he made to Field and Stream on land transfers were a mistake, politically.  But he can’t take them back, or admit they were a mistake.  So he pleads ignorance.  That’s his excuse.

This is news, serious news.  Public lands issues are a very big deal in Nevada.  When 85% of your state is under the control of an absentee pack of environmental activists in D.C. it gets your attention.  It’s not just the ranchers like Clive Bundy.  It’s snowmobilers, and four wheelers, and dirt bikers, and hunters, and every other kind of manly activity that the guys of Nevada like to do.  It’s the same thing in Alaska.  You come to hate the federal government.  And Trump acknowledges he knows nothing about any of this.  In Nevada, for Trump, if it’s not air conditioned, he knows nothing.

Exposure of all this would hurt Trump, but it’s not newsworthy because it would help Cruz.  I hope Rush or Levin picked up on this.

All the weisskopfs say Trump wins Nevada big.  I’m very glad to hear that.  That’s the expectation, a big Trump win, and much speculation about what second and third will mean, and for who.

I think if Cruz pulls in the vast majority of votes in non-Vegas Nevada he should take heart.  Losing Vegas is not that big a deal.  Vegas is a very weird town, politically, unlike any other in the country.  Politically, it’s an outlier.  The rest of Nevada is like the rest of the Far West  — Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, western Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and the eastern California, Oregon and Washington.  In every one of these states or regions the message that Cruz took to Nevada works like a charm.  And its repetition will make it stronger.  He’ll carry the same message on March 7th to the Idaho panhandle, the most militantly conservative place in the country.  There’s a reason these guys are so pissed off.  They have to put up with a bunch of panty waists in D.C. who control their land.

These guys are like my son Darren in Montana.  He sent me a T shirt, which I wear once in a while.  It’s got the emblem of the Forest Service on it, except it reads, “Forest Circus.  Department of Uselessness.”

Now maybe you understand what I’m talking about.

 

I was going to drive over to Reno today to see Cruz at a rally, but the guy I want to see, Joseph Semprevivo, is staying back east, working on the SEC, so I bailed.  Joseph’s got me working my butt off, trying to line up legislative endorsements from around the country by this weekend.  Had some luck.  I don’t mind doing this.  Joseph got us the Cruz BBA pledge, so we owe him.  Plus, I’m for Cruz.

I’ll be on Mike Porcaro’s talk show on KENI Wednesday afternoon at 4;30, Alaska time.  Drive time.  Perfect.  I’ve got some pretty good lines for him.  Like, why would you vote for Trump?  What’s he going to do for us?  Is he going to fight to give us our land?  Hell no.  He doesn’t believe in that, and he’s said so.  I’ve got more.

God bless Bill McIlvain.  He’s not going to ask me to fly back to Cheyenne to testify before the Senate.  It wouldn’t do any good.  These guys aren’t going to be swayed by testimony from me.  The fact is, I’m not a good lobbyist.  I look upon these guys as my peers, and junior ones at that.  Not a good attitude, but it comes out.

Blogging may be light this week.  I’m really going to concentrate on the Alaska caucuses.  I caught a few minutes of With All Due Respect on MSNBC.  These wizards are saying that if Trump wins Nevada he’ll win everywhere.  I don’t know about Nevada, but I will flat out guarantee you this.  Cruz wins Alaska in an absolute blowout.  Trump may come in third.  I’ve been wanting to take this guy on, and we’re on my turf.  This is the kind of politics I’ve always taken the most pleasure in.  Taking a big loud mouthed guy like Trump and putting him down. He won’t know what hit him.

Maybe the nastiest thing I ever did was to Bill Sheffield.  He’s running against Fink in ’82, and he’s out whipping up anti-Anchorage sentiment around the state.  He’as running an ad called Rhode Island Red, a map of Alaska, with Anchorage represented as a tiny dot, and yet putting it to the rest of the state.  At the Anchorage Chamber debate I asked the first question from the audience.  “Mr. Sheffield how does that ad you’re running everywhere but Anchorage, Rhode Island Red, how does that fit in with your strategy of bringing Alaskans together?”

Bill stumbled and stuttered so bad the audience started laughing out loud.  He had a fairly serious speech impediment, and it was kind of ugly.

He got elected Governor, and I got elected to the State Senate.  He moved heaven and earth, got the Supreme Court to reopen a  reapportionment lawsuit, and then got the Court to allow him to redistrict the legislature all over again, from scratch.  You can guess what happened to my Senate district.

The Lord punished me for taking too much pleasure in punishing my opponents, and the judgement of the Lord is righteous.

There are a couple other talk shows I’m going to get on in Anchorage, Joe Miller and Glenn Biegel.  (Yeah, the Joe Miller who beat Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary in 2010.) Glenn says he was one of my biggest fans back in the day.  I’ve never talked to Joe.  He came up after my time.  I’m looking forward to talking to him.  Joe and I are going to get along just fine.

Here’s the link to my piece in today’s AT.

I’m setting things up for Robert Uithoven in Alaska.  He’s a political operative out of Vegas.  He’ll be flying up after Nevada.  I haven’t actually communicated directly with him yet.  He’s the Western States Director of Cruz for President, and his plate is full.  Too full, apparently.  I understand Cruz runs a lean operation, but this is ridiculous.

Senate Majority leader John Coghill’s going to help out.  I served in the Senate with his dad, Jack, a real Alaskan original.  Jack really didn’t like the federal government.  He must be in his 90’s now, and John tells me he’s still kicking.

Jack would approve of what his son is doing.  I feel like I’m carrying on his work.

I’m spreading the news.  Tomorrow I’ll be reaching out to Alaska Sen. Mike Dunleavy, Washington Senate President Pam Roach, Idaho Speaker Scott Bedke, Montana Sen. Roger Webb, Oregon Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, Wyoming Senator Larry Hicks, Utah Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, Colorado Senate Majority Whip Kevin Lundberg, Arizona Rep. Bob Thorpe, and New Mexico Rep. Yvette Herrell.  With a couple exceptions, these are people I’ve had extensive conversations with concerning the transfer of federal lands.  Under a supply side BBA interpretation, such a transfer could be included as part of a Balanced Budget Amendment, since it reduces spending and increases revenue.

Getting the eastern states to go along with this at the Amendment Convention might be  a challenge, but I think I see a way to 26.  If Cruz gets elected, it might not be necessary.  That’s the word I’ll be spreading tomorrow.  I’m supporting Cruz, and I look forward to the reaction I’m going to get.  I’m not sure Ted Cruz realizes how smart this is.  He’s as quick as they come, but nobody knows everything.  This is an issue that will catch fire.

People that don’t live in the Far West don’t understand us.  It’s boundaries are best described by Colin Woodard in American Nations.  This part of the country starts at the Canadian border in the middle of North Dakota, then south to western Kansas, then west to central Colorado, then straight south to the Mexican border.  The western border of the Far West is anywhere from 50 to 100 miles inland from the Pacific.  Alaska is also part of the Far West.  Where I live, in the California foothills of the Sierras, is part of the Far West.

We’re different than the rest of the country. My father was born in a sod house on the Frying Pan Ranch, on the White River near the Badlands of South Dakota.  As soon as I could I got the hell out of California and went to Alaska.  This is my part of the country.  For the past fifteen years I’ve wandered all over it.  If there’s any thing to see out here that I haven’t, I’m not aware of it.

This is what you’ve got to understand about us.  We all hate the federal government.  We don’t dislike it.  We don’t distrust it.  We hate it.

When I got to Alaska my Uncle Fritz was selling gold claims.  His claims were mainly on BLM land.  The thing is, to have a claim, all you need is a “discovery” and you’ve got a right to occupy, and develop your claim, by, like, putting up a cabin.  A discovery was a trace of gold.  Uncle Fritz could find gold anywhere.  He was amazing.

He’d sell these claims he’d staked to people that wanted to get in the recreational mining business.  Of course, when he made the sale, he’d always talk about the ground being rich.  Uncle Fritz was a very large, intimidating man, with a 53″ chest and an attitude.  It amazing to see him get money out of people.

Well, the damn BLM was always giving Uncle Fritz problems.  Paperwork and such.  It used to really piss Uncle Fritz off.

So when I say Uncle Fritz would be proud of me, you know what I’m saying.

 

So here’s the story.  Yesterday the Cruz campaign announced it will be having a rally in Couer d’Alene, Idaho on March 6th.  This is the day before contests in Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, Michigan, Hawaii and, of course, Idaho.  Only Hawaii has less delegates at stake than Idaho.

Couer d’Alene sits at the western edge of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, a 3.2 million acre behemoth that includes portions of Montana and Washington.  The people of panhandle Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Washington care deeply about the land.  That’s why they live there.  It’s not an easy life, some times. They are the best stewards of this land because they live on it.  They will not foul their own nest.  They know full well that there is no rational reason they must be supplicants to a Washington, D.C. bureaucracy in order to ride a snowmobile in their own back country.  And it pisses them off.

Phil Nicholas, are you listening?