Anchorage Daily News goes after candidate because of his wife’s job, ignores conflicts of interest of his opponent

38
2385

The leftist Anchorage Daily News is keeping up the tradition of leftist journalism for which it has become known. In its latest election coverage, it attacks West Anchorage Assembly candidate Brian Flynn, because his wife works for Mayor Dave Bronson, who the newspaper has publicly and frequently opposed.

The ADN hit piece ignores that Flynn’s opponent Anna Brawley works for Agnew Beck, a big-government consultancy that has a sole-source contract with the leftist Assembly worth at least $50,000. That, too, is a conflict of interest. But the newspaper won’t report that.

Agnew Beck makes its money off of contracts with local and state government, as well as with nonprofits that are funded by taxpayers through government grants. A list of Agnew-Beck’s clients is at this link.

Brawley has the support of all of the members of the leftist Assembly majority, as well as former Assemblyman, now Sen. Forrest Dunbar.

Brawley is supported by the usual suspects.

Flynn’s wife is purchasing director for the city. The fact that she works for the mayor has been raised by Brawley’s supporters in letters to the editor in the newspaper, going back to January. But the newspaper, which is engaging in “cause journalism,” waited until the last week to launch its final attack on Flynn. The newspaper has nothing else to attack him on but his wife.

Flynn’s campaign website is at this link.

Brawley is supported by the same donors who brought ranked-choice voting to Alaska. The Putting Alaskans First Committee has this required disclaimer, showing Unite America, which pushes ranked-choice voting, is the primary contributor, followed by the Laborers International of North America, and the NEA teachers union: “Paid for by the Putting Alaskans First Committee, 3333 Denali St. Ste. 125 Anchorage, AK 99503. I, Kim Hays, Chair approved this message. Top three contributors are UNITE AMERICA PAC of Denver, CO, LIUNA Political Fund of Washington,DC, and NEA-Alaska PACE of Juneau, AK“.

The newspaper has also ignored the extreme conflict of interest of Assemblywoman Meg Zaletel, who runs the Anchorage homeless industrial complex in her role as CEO of the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness, which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Assembly.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you again Suzanne for shining the light on the material conflicts of interest of many assembly members and candidates that don’t even raise an eyebrow or mention by the ADN.

    The ADN was equally silent when the school board decided to award virtually all new construction projects to union firms, raising the cost to all taxpayers while assuring a continuous flow of union pac money to leftist ASD board members’ campaigns. This breach of fiduciary duty by the board was never raised by the ADN.

  2. The three largest contributors are out of state dark money. Huh, interesting…. I thought ranked choice solved that? Well, maybe not.

  3. Nothing new here I would not expect anything else from the daily rag. I tell everybody I know not to take or believe anything from them . They are as one sided view as they can. I am surprised they are still in business.

    • Nobody reads the ADN anymore – it doesn’t matter.
      I’d ignore them Susan D – the ADN is like CNN – irrelevant in shaping opinion anymore.

  4. Reminder. It is only bad when a Conservative does it.
    .
    First axiom of politics remains in full effect.
    The action being taken by the person is not what causes the offense.
    The political affiliation of the person taking the action is what causes the offense.

  5. Anchorage Daily News is owned by the Binkley Family up in Fairbanks. Captain Jim and Mary Binkley, the antecedents of the new owners, were conservative Republicans all of their lives. They owned one of the most successful free enterprise businesses in Alaska history, and were top ambassadors to the entire tourism industry in this state. They must be rolling in their graves to see the ADN garbage editorials turn on the very owners who saved the paper from the trash bin if bankruptcy. How does this stuff happen?

    • Last I checked, Mary Binkley is still living. Jim Binkley took his own life at the start of 2003 when the effects of a degenerative disease became too much to bear. As for your question: Suzanne has pointed it out, I’ve pointed it out and I’m sure others have as well. The change in the political landscape followed a change in the economic landscape. You’re either producing or you’re existing off of people who produce. If you’d rather do something for a living more honorable than virtue-signal your pronouns in Zoom meetings for eight hours, you might have to look beyond Alaska. I didn’t want to leave, but it became necessary.

  6. When are we going to vote out rank choice voting? Is anyone leading the charge? I’ll donate to that.

    • The group is called Alaskans for Honest Elections.
      Use your favorite web search engine, I would post a link, but that is discouraged on this site.

  7. Bronson’s confliction goes much deeper, as is evidenced by his 20 something approval rating.

    It hasn’t been that long ago . . . . the court held 5-4 that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political campaigns by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.

    Sadly, many “conservatives” have short memories.

    • To h— with what the Supreme Court wrongly ruled! Political spending is NOT “free speech”, and its exponential growth only invites, and guarantees, wholesale political corruption.
      .
      Sadly, many (so-called) “leftists” have shamelessly fallen into bed with the giant, predatory and corrupt corporations.

  8. Most unfortunate the 2 live in a liberal voting and voter apathy district, he’d been more helped being a conservative having a stay
    -at-home wife among a district minority that takes the majority only because of apathy. Keep your chin up! There other avenues to serve a district than assembly. When God closes door, he opens a window somewhere

  9. Hopefully the people in Anchorage are not brain dead and see what is going on, but I won’t hold my breath on it. Mail in voting has given us nothing but tyranny from the assembly; Eaglexit please hurry up already.

    • I’d rather see a UAA student in a class leading to a gainfully paid trade than majoring in Philosophy. At least the carpenter will be able to pay their own loan debt.

    • “Now”? Hmmm… I remember when the western portion of the present-day UAA campus was Anchorage Community College. The back side housed several buildings’ worth of vocational education programs. Eugene Short and Charles Wingrove led initiatives to develop vocational education curriculum across the state. I’m surprised they didn’t decide to vacate those programs because the College of DEI and Pronouns needed the space.

  10. The ADNs extreme Leftwing bias is nothing new.
    It’s been obvious for as long as I can remember. I remember their headlines on any story about Young or Stevens were always written to show their virulent hatred for both, because they had the temerity to be…..gasp!….Republicans!

    For years I continued buy that dirty filthy Communist rag just for the comics and the crossword puzzles, and because newspaper itself is the best window cleaner.
    But I finally had enough of their intense hatred for us on the Right and the state of Alaska too, and swore several years ago that they would never ever see one single cent of my money ever again. And they haven’t….

  11. The last time I had a copy of the Daily Slime I used it for what is it’s best use – toilet paper.

  12. When I see opinions offered by the ADN’s readers, they’re dominated by people placing too much emphasis on pith and two-bit witticisms. The participants in this thread, in playing that exact same game, have missed the mark by a country mile. Anna Brawley is running because she’s spent years building considerable behind-the-scenes influence as a policy maker. Before the election has concluded, you should be asking if that’s a good thing. Looking at the dumpster fire that is Anchorage after years and years of a certain vein of public policy, I would say it hasn’t been a good thing.

  13. The ADN used to be a decent local newspaper, but not anymore. It is now a total propaganda mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and the Washington, DC Deep State bureaucracy.

Comments are closed.