Alaska Voters Beat Back Extremist Political ‘Gag’ Measure

by Mike Hall, Aug 26, 2010

Alaska working families weren’t fooled by a so-called “anti-corruption” ballot measure pushed by out-of-state money that actually could have shut out of the political arena community groups, unions, businesses and even local governments.

On Tuesday, voters defeated Ballot Measure 1—also known as the “Gag Law”—by better than 60 percent. The Alaska AFL-CIO, part of the Stop the Gag Law coalition, praised the voters’ savvy in seeing through the measure’s phony claims. Alaska AFL-CIO President Vince Beltrami told the Anchorage Daily News:

I think they knew that it was a smokescreen, that it was something thrown up there by a big outside special interest. They realized it was an attack on families, on communities. They pretty much figured it out as they looked into the details of what was in the ballot measure.

The measure would have banned any contractor—and it defined public employee collective bargaining agreements as government contracts—who does work for a local or state government from contributing to election campaigns or lobbying the state legislature. Their family members also would be prevented from speaking out. In effect, it would have banned public employees and their family members from making campaign donations or lobbying their state lawmakers.

It also banned the use of government money for lobbying, or on political campaigns, meaning municipalities and school districts couldn’t even travel to Juneau to lobby the legislature for funds or programs. Click here for the bill’s full impact on businesses, non-profit groups, public employees and communities.

The money to fund the ballot measure, according to reports filed with the Alaska Public Offices Commission, came from entities led by anti-government zealot Howie Rich, who made a fortune in Manhattan real estate and has pushed for similar limits on government in other states. Click here to read our 2006 exposé of Rich and his attempts to advance his extremist agenda.

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