My Turn: Clean elections drive big money out of state politics
KOTZEBUE - The store clerk was folding our newspaper into the grocery bag alongside our eggs and yogurt when the blaring front-page headline caught his eye: "Kott Gets Six Years."
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"He got off easy," the clerk said, shaking his head, squinting in disgust. "They should have put him away for twice that long."
Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced former Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, to six years in federal prison for bribery, conspiracy and extortion - and for lying in court during his own trial.
Kott will join former Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Anchorage, already in an Oregon prison, for political corruption. Former Anchorage lobbyist Bill Bobrick has been sentenced for conspiring with Anderson but got less time after cooperating with authorities. Former Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, awaits sentencing in February for political corruption. Oil executives who have pleaded guilty still face prison time.
Other former and current elected officials and political operatives have either been indicted or are under investigation in Alaska's ongoing, astonishing political corruption scandal.
Instead of truly representing constituent interests, Kott was working for the oil industry, pushing the state House to pass industry-favored tax legislation. Indeed, hidden FBI cameras captured boozy sessions, vulgar language and boastful swagger in Juneau's Baranof Hotel, where the depth of Kott's felonious sellout was made clear to everyone.
If there was any doubt, it evaporated when a wire tap snagged Kott boasting in that notorious hotel room to uproarious laughter: "I had to cheat, steal, beg, borrow and lie." To which then-VECO CEO Bill Allen pointedly reminded Kott: "We own your ass."
A spectacular plunge: from speaker of the state House all the way to new guy in the Big House.
Kott and company are sure making our job easier. We've been collecting signatures in Kotzebue this month as part of a statewide campaign to drive the big money out of Alaska politics. Most rural voters are eagerly signing our petition, a first step in bringing "Clean Elections" to Alaska.
If 24,000 valid signatures are submitted to the state by the start of the legislative session in mid-January, this ballot initiative will go before voters in November 2008.
Clean Elections are publicly funded. To qualify, among other requirements candidates must gather a minimum number of signatures, raise a modest amount of small donations, and agree to abide by strict campaign spending limits.
Clean Elections can prevent oil companies and other special interests from disproportionately influencing elected officials through big campaign contributions. Candidates can better represent voters instead while leveling the playing field for Alaskans running for office. Seven other states already have Clean Elections, the longest being Arizona and Maine where Clean Elections are remarkably popular with voters after sharply reducing private contributions to candidates.
Some Alaskans initially find the idea of government-funded elections off-putting. But almost no one denies that the current system has failed spectacularly and that Alaska's politics have become a national embarrassment. Most Alaskans we talk to understand that we have to take our government back from the oil industry and the corporate interests that have corrupted it. Compared to tolerating more of this sleaze, allocating one-half of 1 percent of Alaska oil revenues to fund Clean Elections makes a lot of sense.
Alaskans of all types -liberal, conservative, libertarian, independent, progressive, dog mushers, professionals, trades people - are appalled by these outrageous scandals. Wildly divergent voices from conservatives Gov. Sarah Palin and former Gov. Wally Hickel to progressives Rep. Les Gara and Sen. Bill Wielechowski want to try Clean Elections.
The day after the judge sentenced Kott, we started collecting signatures. Just about everyone signed happily, from the captive audience waiting for packages at the post office to customers and vendors at local Christmas bazaars.
Occasionally, we heard a note of resignation and defeat. "We're never going to clean up the dirty politics in this state," said one local woman, throwing up her arms.
We think the advice parents give their kids when they despair applies here: We lose only if we don't try.
• Susan Andrews and John Creed are journalism/humanities professors at Chukchi College, a Kotzebue branch of the University of Alaska and are working with the Alaska Public Interest Research Group. Their latest book, "Authentic Alaska II: Voices of the Far North," is due for release in 2008.