Miscellaneous

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez of Orange County has the opportunity to be a transformational figure in California politics.  Mexican-Americans hold the balance of political power here.  If they stick with fellow minority blacks, the liberal Democrats can’t lose.  We’re a one party, deep blue state, as blue as it gets.  If they go with white Republicans, we’re purple.  Sanchez is the key, and she’s already made her decision.  She’s going with us.  She has no choice.  The black Attorney General, Kamala Harris, has been groomed for the Senate by, among others, former Speaker Willie Brown, still a very influential voice in Democrat politics.  The entire liberal political establishment, which is very powerful, is united behind her.  She’ll have unlimited cash.  She’s well spoken and “clean”, as Joe Biden would say.  A female Obama.  A woman who, as a United States Senator, would be taken seriously as a Presidential candidate as soon as she’s sworn into office.

But she’s got a problem, named Loretta.  Sanchez can beat her.  Take what’s left of the Republicans, add Mexican-Americans, and you’ve got a majority.  It’s arithmetic, not rocket science.  Loretta’s a political liberal, for sure.  That’s the way she votes.  But she acts like a blue dog.  She’s got an attitude.  I know very little about her, but I like what I’ve seen so far.  When she was in the Assembly she accused the Mexican-American Speaker of calling her a whore.  He denied it, but it shows she’s got spunk, doesn’t take orders.  She reminds me of Washington Senate President Pam Roach.  My kind of gal.  I get along very well with women like Loretta.  I like women in general, and I like them a little feisty.  And I like Mexican-Americans.  They hold the key to the future of my native state.

I guess I owe California.  When I started at Cal, in 1962, tuition was about $90 a semester.  Books were a lot more expensive than tuition.   UCLA Law cost my wife and I $232 a quarter.  That was exactly how much her dividend checks were on her little inheritance.  We never took out a loan of any kind, and when we went to Alaska we didn’t have any money, but we were debt free.  So, yeah, I owe California, and I’m going to pay my debt by going to work for my fellow Democrat Loretta Sanchez.  If I get the chance, I’ll advise her to run as a Jack Kennedy Democrat.  Not Teddy.  He was a punk.  Jack, the man.  I’ve got a lot of advice for her.  She should not support Hillary.  That would be really dumb.   She should back Lincoln Chafee for President, the antiwar Democrat.

My high school buddy and camping partner, Danny Fleming, knows how to get in touch with her.  He knows all these Democrats, including Willie and Jerry Brown.  When Jerry was first Governor he was single, and had an affair going with some Democratic lobbyist.  It was hush hush, so Danny would escort this woman to parties where she’d hook up with Jerry.  I emailed Danny this morning, asking him to put me in touch with Loretta.  I bet he comes through for me.

Demographers tell us Mexican-Americans will be running California in the near future, and I don’t dispute that.  But what kind of Mexican-Americans?  Ethnic hustlers, Latino equivalents of Al Sharpton, or people like Loretta?  I bet Loretta knows all about Cesar Chavez, probably much better than I do.  Chavez was dead set against major immigration from Mexico.  It expanded the labor pool, making it harder for him to organize the pickers in the San Joaquin.  Mexican-Americans are Americans from Mexico.  They prefer the United States to their country of origin.  That’s why they’re here.  They don’t automatically vote with the liberals.  They’re against gay marriage, for example, and are not environmental fanatics.  They want jobs, they want to earn good money, just like everybody else.  The coastal elites in California are screwing them over.

I think Loretta understands all this, and I think that’s why she wants to run for the Senate.

And it’s why she’ll win.

Things are looking very dicey in Oklahoma.  CoS failed in the House.  Dave Guldenschuh is there on the ground, and says the arguments used against CoS are the same that will be used against us.  Former Senator Tom Coburn, a beloved political figure in Oklahoma, is currently hospitalized with advanced prostate cancer.  He sent out a letter today, pleading with Oklahoma legislators to strap on a pair and defy these nutty Birchers.  To no avail.  Dave is really disgusted with them.  He’s going to advise sponsor Banz to pull the bill, and try again next year.  I concur.  We shouldn’t take a chance.  We need Oklahoma.  If we fail on the floor, we may not be able to revive it next year.  Prudence.

The only way we’re going to get Oklahoma is with the Reagan Initiative.  Dave says no amount of education and persuasion will work.  These legislators are beholden to people who want to kill our bill.  They don’t listen.  They don’t care.  But they will listen to the oil industry.  They’ll listen very, very carefully.  And once the oil industry understands the implications, for them, of a supply side BBA, with land transfers and regulatory reform, they’ll be all in.  I know these oil guys.  In Alaska we used to say you can tell if an oil man is level headed.  It’s if he drools evenly from both sides of his mouth.  The Reagan Initiative is a drool inducer, for oil men.

Holly Fretwell of the Property and Environment Research Center is out with an important paper on the untapped wealth of federal lands in the West.  I’ve invited her to present at the Seattle Summit.  I bet she comes.  PERC is at Montana State, in Bozeman.  My wife and I will be renting a house in Bozeman for a month this summer, so I’ll shoot out to the campus to meet her.  My eleven year old granddaughter will be spending a week with us.  I’m trying to get her interested in attending MSU.  I’ll take her with me.

There’s big money in oil.  Big money jobs.  My wife and I moved to Anchorage smack dab in the middle of an oil rush.  Uncle Fritz called it a stampede.  In ’69 they found an elephant on the North Slope, and they were in the middle of building the pipeline that would make Alaska rich.  If you weren’t making at least $70,000 a year on the pipeline, there was something wrong with you.  You didn’t need any skills.  All you needed to do was join the Teamster’s Union.  Alaska was a strong union state, and Jesse Carr, the Teamster boss, cut a deal with the oil companies.  It was called a Project Labor Agreement, and it meant Jesse, and some other labor bosses, controlled most of the workers building the pipeline.  The amount of waste was incredible.  The oil companies didn’t care.  What’s an extra two or three billion in construction costs?  Chump change.

So, to me, the nicest part of the Reagan Initiative is all the high wage jobs that will result.  I like to imagine hundreds of thousands of young Americans getting their first real taste of good money.  The kind of money that will encourage them to have families, because they’ll be able to afford families.  All those college grads, living in the basement with their student debt, will have a choice.  Do I sit on my ass, and piss and moan, or do I go West, and make a life for myself?

I want to give them an option.

Do we really need to expand the BBA by using it to add revenue, as well as cut spending?  Is the Reagan Initiative, essentially a supply side attack on the deficit, really needed?

The Reagan Initiative was designed for Wyoming, specifically.  When we lost there, after having been trounced in Montana, something had to change.  The old BBA wasn’t enough, and there was a reason for that.  A new approach was needed.  I’m as stubborn as the next guy, but ramming my head against a wall gets old.

Despite a 16% decrease from 2013, total government spending in Wyoming last year was $13,000 per capita, second highest in the nation.  Wyoming has no income tax, individual or corporate.  The State gets half its revenue from Federal Mineral Royalties and Coal Lease Bonuses.  Both these programs will be on the chopping block when federal spending cuts are made, if they ever are.  Budget cutters in Washington won’t have a lot of sympathy for Wyoming.  To them, the people of Wyoming are getting a free ride.

That’s why we lost Wyoming.  State legislators, some very conservative, weren’t afraid of a runaway.  They were afraid of what will happen to Wyoming if the budget has to actually be balanced.  They’ll get screwed.  Right now they’ve got one Senator, Enzi, as Chair of the Senate Budget Committee.  Their other Senator, Barasso, is number four in the Senate Majority leadership.  They’ve got some protection, but they’re very nervous.  Enzi’s a big supporter of the Balanced Budget Amendment, but he declined when asked to give us some help.

Half of Wyoming is owned by the federal government.  If that land (excluding parks, reservations, and military installations) were transferred to state ownership, there would be a massive increase in resource development on it, allowing Wyoming to make a transition away from dependence on federal funds.  The people of Wyoming don’t want to be dependents of the federal government.  They want economic independence.  The Reagan Initiative is their best hope of achieving it.

We informed Gov. Kasich of Wyoming’s special concerns, and were rebuffed.  He wasn’t interested in giving special treatment to one state, knowing where that would lead.  Every state has special needs.  Accommodate one, accommodate all, and pretty soon you’re unable to balance the books.

So if we’re going to do this for Wyoming, we need to do it for all the western states, from Montana down to New Mexico, and points west.  What’s in it for the rest of the country?  Regulatory reform.  Saving the coal industry, igniting an economic boom, and freeing the states, and the people, from the smothering embrace of the regulatory state.

This is why the Reagan Initiative is necessary.  We won’t get to 34 without it.  Idaho, Montana and Arizona have the same sort of federal dependence that Wyoming suffers from, though not quite as extreme.  With the Reagan Initiative we can get these states, and make it to 34.

If we had millions of dollars we might be able to run a campaign in these states, showing that federal spending is unsustainable, and that when we all go bankrupt Federal Mineral Royalties and Coal Lease Bonuses will only be fond memories.  That’s all true, and we could make a powerful case.  Maybe strong enough to win.  But maybe not.  Since I got involved eighteen months ago we’ve talked and talked about getting some money.  Very little has been raised.  I believe it would be prudent of us not to count on it now.  Thus, the Reagan Initiative.

I’m open to alternatives.  I’m waiting for someone to show me another way.

And waiting.

Perhaps someone at the May 16th meeting in Savannah can explain to me how we get Wyoming.  I’ll be listening attentively.  Senate Presidents Niederhauser of Utah and Faber of Ohio will be presiding, apparently.  Two smart guys.  There will be a lot of bright people at this meeting.  Maybe somebody’s got a better idea.

If the western states get their land there may be some grumbling.  After all, 27 states have passed BBA resolutions without demanding special treatment for themselves.  Why reward holdouts?

Because this is politics, that’s why.  Sometimes you have to give in order to get.  You play the hand you’re dealt.

When I first got to Juneau I intended to butt heads with Senator Bill Ray of Juneau, a major part of the corrupt political machine that controlled the Senate., I saw him on the street the day before we convened, and gave him a close look.  Maybe too close.  He chaired Judiciary, which I was supposed to serve on.  He announced publicly that he would not allow me on his committee.  I had to go to his office, introduce myself, and assure him that I would be a valuable working member of his committee.

After a while, we kind of liked each other, personally.  Bill liked to tell me stories, and some of them were pretty good.  He got a call from some Presidential candidate, asking for help in Alaska.  He told the guy, “What’s in it for me?”

I learned a lot about politics from Bill Ray.

This is a rising star in Ohio Republican politics.  The Republican political establishment in that state has promoted him throughout his legislative career.  Now he’s 49, Senate President, and term limited.  I don’t know his next move.  I suspect he wants to run against Democrat Sherrod Brown for the U.S. Senate in 2018.  He’d be a perfect candidate.

Bill Fruth knows these people; he’s from Ohio, was a small town Mayor there when he was in his 20’s.  Bill was the first person I talked to about the Reagan Initiative.  I respect his opinion.  He was intrigued, but cautious.  He did not discourage me from pursuing it, but he wanted to keep quiet about it.  I told him that I was going to try to sell it to state legislative leaders around the country, and he discouraged me from talking to Faber about it.

Unless he convinces me otherwise, I’m going to tell Faber about it next week, and ask for his help.  He’d make a good national Co-Chairman of the Seattle Summit, except for his ties to Kasich.  We don’t want to be seen as tied to any one Presidential hopeful.

Ohio is part of coal country.  Not to the extent of West Virginia or Kentucky, but coal is big in Ohio.  Faber’s number one political contributor is American Electric Power, which burns coal to generate 2/3 of its juice.  AEP, along with every other coal burning power generator in the country, is in the crosshairs of the EPA.  They want it to stop burning coal.  Faber would love to be able to do something about that.  With the Reagan Initiative, he can.  He can be a leader on this issue, the kind of leader who gets rewarded with election to the United States Senate.

Faber totally gets Article V.  When Fruth reached out to presiding officers around the country, including some Task Force Co-founders, for help in Wyoming, only Faber responded.  He wrote a letter to Wyoming Senate President Nicholas the day he was asked.  That spoke volumes to me.

Faber’s a very bright guy. Maybe he can tell me what’s wrong with the Reagan Initiative.  Whatever he has to say, I’ll be listening very closely.

We’ll have an awards dinner the night of August 3rd, and we should have a guest speaker.  I’m going to ask Kasich.  He was on Meet the Press today, in top form.  When he’s on, he’s really good.  He’s inching toward running.  I’d be shocked if he didn’t.  He would be a very serious candidate, with a legitimate shot.  He’s the only one in the field that I, personally, might prefer over Rand Paul.  It depends on how hawkish he is in the Middle East.  If he starts sounding like some of these other guys, all macho and kick ass, I couldn’t support him.  Paul showed me some balls last night in New Hampshire.  He goes on an antiwar tear, and pulls no punches.  Kasich would have to show me he won’t fight a war for Israel before I could support him.  We want out of the Middle East.  We’ll guarantee Israel’s security, but beyond that, it’s not our problem.  We don’t need their oil anymore.  The Asians and Europeans do.  Let them figure it out.  If the Shia and the Sunni, and everybody in between, want to kill each other for the next hundred years that would be a great human tragedy.  There are great human tragedies playing out all over the world.  Let’s help out in some that don’t require us to go to war.

If Kasich can’t come to Seattle I’m going to invite Rand Paul.  He hasn’t really pitched in on Article V the way Kasich has.  But he’s all in.  I’d like a chance to talk to Paul about the Reagan Initiative.  I think it’s his cup of tea.  What part of the Reagan Initiative wouldn’t he like?  Politically, the down side to the Reagan Initiative is it’s a declaration of war on the environmental left.  But if I’m a Republican, I want these crazy bastards screaming at me.  I’d want them to come to my rallies, and try to disrupt them.  I want to get picketed.  I want these nut jobs throwing tomatoes at me, or worse, preferably.  So there is no down side politically.  If you’ve got the balls.

When I ran for the Senate in ’82 no one knew who I was.  I was a small time lawyer who’d been in the state eight years.  I’m not really a very sociable guy.  I stuck close to my family and a few of my drinking buddies.  Outside of politics, I really didn’t know anybody.  I’d never met the Republican candidate for Governor, Tom Fink, whose help I needed badly.

So I read in the paper that Fink and the Democrat, Bill Sheffield, are having a luncheon debate at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce.   This is a big deal, 500 or more people.  Both these guys are former Presidents of the Anchorage Chamber.  So I go and find out they’ll take questions from the audience.  I get first in line at the mike.

Sheffield was running a TV ad all over the state, except Anchorage.  It was called Rhode Island Red.  It said Fink was the candidate of Anchorage, and Anchorage alone, while Sheffield was the candidate of all Alaskans.  So I get to ask the first question, “Bill, you say you want to run a campaign that brings Alaskans together.  How does that TV ad you’re running, Rhode Island Red, fit in with that strategy?”

It shook Bill pretty bad.  He wasn’t real bright, and had a slight speech impediment, so he had a hard time saying anything.  People in the crowd were starting to laugh. It was brutal.

I got that Fink endorsement.

When I got out of Cal in ’67 I decided to go to Europe.  My former girlfriend, Melody Magdalena Papini, was going, so I figured I would too.  I only had about $600, but I got a charter from Oakland to London for $125, and I was going to hitchhike around, and stay at youth hostels.  It worked out. I wandered all over the place for six months, from North Africa to Tehran.  Had a lot of adventures.  I even ran into Melody at the youth hostel in Rome.  She was a beautiful girl, had a classic Italian look. But she didn’t want me, and so that was that.  I found out a few years later that she died of hepatitis at a hippie commune in Colorado.  Very sad.  She never figured things out.

When I got back I planned on going to law school, but I wasn’t ready.  I didn’t know what to do.  So I went up to Alaska to meet my Uncle Fritz, and that was that.  I found a home.  I came up in June, and went out to Jewel Lake to go swimming.  It was 84 degrees, and the girls were in bikinis.

I loved Alaska.  Everything about it, except the weather, and when you’re young and strong you don’t let things like that bother you.  I got a job in the warehouse at Northern Commercial.  I would have gone commercial fishing or crabbing, or worked construction,  but had no idea how to get one of those jobs.  You had to know somebody, and I didn’t know anybody.  I made three friends, Ron Nash, a local, Steve Kaminski, from Waupun, Wisconsin, and Dennis Jorgensen from El Cerrito, California.  I nicknamed Ron the “Ratman”, because he had a kind of rodenty look.  He didn’t mind.  We rented places together for almost a year.  I became good friends with these guys.  I didn’t really have many friends in college, outside of the Young Republicans.  That’s how I met Melody, was the YR’s.

Looking back, this was an important time in my life.  These were just regular guys, and we hung out like regular guys do.  It helped me get my head on straight.  One time we got in trouble, and it pisses me off to think about it.  We met this young Native kid, we called him the Cloud.  He was a space cadet.  He was hanging out at our place one time and the cops come and arrest us all for marijuana possession.  We didn’t smoke dope, at least Steve and Dennis and I didn’t.  But they found some pot somewhere and arrested us all.  Steve didn’t know what to do, and pled guilty, like a fool.  They actually locked him up for two weeks.

Dennis and I pled not guilty and got a lawyer.  I remember going to the law library down at the court house to look up the law.  I was very disappointed to see that it took eight volumes to print the Alaska Statutes.  Alaska had eight volumes of law?  I thought this was the last frontier, for Christ’s sake.  We got off, and that was that.  But talk about your bullshit.  I’ve never cared much for authority.  I don’t think I ever had a real authority figure in my life, except Uncle Fritz.  Maybe that’s why I’m a political libertarian.

The founders were libertarians, at least the Virginians, like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Marshall.  The list goes on.  The Puritan New Englanders were founders too, like Adams.  Adams was not a libertarian.  Far from it.  The legendary fight between Adams and Jefferson was the precursor of most political battles in this country ever since, right down to today.  We’re with Jefferson, our opponents are with Adams.

Jefferson called himself a Republican, and he won that battle.  But the descendants of Adams, modern Democrats, have been running this country for the last 100 years.  Our fight, today, is Jefferson’s fight.

Unlike Adams, Jefferson was a very cool guy.