COSMIC CARNIVAL – Kasey Davis performs under black lights at Sitka Cirque studio Wednesday night as she rehearses for the weekend’s Cosmic Carnival shows. The shows are a production of Friends of the Circus Arts in collaboration with the Sitka Cirque studio. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Significant staffing cuts are likely in Sitka’s scho [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The Assembly at a special meeting Thursday improved t [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
From solar flares, to black holes, comets and shootin [ ... ]
By ARIADNE WILL
Sentinel Staff Writer
At its regular meeting Wednesday, the Planning Commission [ ... ]
By NATHANIEL HERZ
Northern Journal
The Alaska Senate has proposed a new aid package for the sta [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE and
JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
Over the last 26 years, Penelope Gold has used [ ... ]
HOME OPENER - Sitka’s Sadie Saline runs after hitting what became a two-run triple against Thu [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 18
At 1:22 p.m. a dog w [ ... ]
Family Fun Fest
Slated Saturday;
Everyone is Invited
Sitka Tribe of Alaska will host a free Family Fun [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Rep. Rebecca Himschoot says in the discussion on educ [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Song, dance and a cast of school-aged actors will brin [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Don’t talk to people claiming to be from Medicare o [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
The Alaska House of Representatives voted Wednesday to allow comp [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dismissed an appeal filed by [ ... ]
Mr. Whitekeys
In Sitka to Tell
Gold Rush Tale
Sitka Historical Society and Museum will present ‘‘Th [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 17
At 9:08 a.m. a transformer was r [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The threat of major cutbacks to the subsistence socke [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the first vote on the city budget for fiscal yea [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
In the final day of play in the recreational division City League volleyball [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Three amateur athletes from Sitka were among tens of [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A proposal to require Alaska schools to keep opioid-overdose-r [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s Kobuk River, which flows out of the Brooks Range above [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 16
At 8:07 a.m. a woman [ ... ]
Presentation On
Medicare, SS
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and Cynthia Gibson, CFP®, an [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Conservatives Push Constitutional Convention
By James Brooks
Alaska Beacon
A group of conservative Alaskans, headed by a leading member of the Alaska Republican Party, has formed a new campaign organization intended to encourage Alaskans to call a constitutional convention and allow sweeping changes in the way Alaska runs its government, sets its budget and regulates the lives of its residents.
Jim Minnery, president of the anti-abortion Alaska Family Council, announced the creation of ConventionYes on Monday. Minnery is a member of the new group’s steering committee. The group’s chair is Craig Campbell, national committeeman for the Alaska Republican Party.
“The Constitutional Convention call is a fundamental question for ‘We the People,’” Campbell said in a prepared statement. “This is an opportunity for us to go back to see where our state is and where we want to go and under what rules we want to live by.”
Alaskans are asked once per decade whether they want to call a convention, and the next vote is on the Nov. 8 general-election ballot.
Convention opponents have been campaigning for months, arguing that a convention — particularly in a politically polarized time — will cause uncertainty and chaos.
“It is a slippery path, and once you decide to open up a convention, the constitution is very clear that delegates who are selected are completely free to entirely rewrite the document,” said Bruce Botelho, a former Democratic attorney general who chairs the leading anti-convention group.
The Alaska Supreme Court has repeatedly interpreted Alaska’s constitutional right to privacy to cover health care, including access to abortion.
A convention could be a first step to banning or limiting access here, either directly — by rewriting the privacy clause — or indirectly, by changing how judges are chosen.
R. Keith Heim, a member of the ConventionYes steering committee, said his biggest interest is changing the constitution to mandate large Permanent Fund dividends.
“The biggest driving force for the convention, yes, is to basically put this Permanent Fund dividend into the constitution,” he said.
Asked about the abortion issue, Heim said each member of the steering committee has “our own personal things that we’re bringing to the group.”
Among the other members are Jake Libbey, publisher of the conservative Christian website the Alaska Watchman; former Alaska legislator Fritz Pettyjohn; conservative Alaska environmental scientist and lodge owner Fred Vreeman; and Leigh Sloan, an Anchorage woman who says on her website that her “desire is to shift paradigms in our culture to reflect kingdom truths.”
The latter term is sometimes used to describe evangelical Christian ideals.
The group has not yet registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission and lists its top three donors as two members of the steering committee and a relative of Pettyjohn.
In comparison, the vote-no group Defend Our Constitution is well established and well-funded, having listed more than $320,000 in donations as of its latest disclosure report.
Among the supporters of the “vote no” cause are the chambers of commerce in Fairbanks, Juneau and Ketchikan, the Alaska Municipal League, and the regional Native corporations Sealaska and Doyon Ltd.
Many independent and Democratic politicians oppose the convention idea, as do some Republican candidates.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy is a notable exception, saying in an interview earlier this month that he will not advise Alaskans to vote for or against the convention. Despite that stance, Dunleavy voiced many of the talking points espoused by the new vote-yes group.
Heim said one of the new group’s key goals is to overcome the vote-no group’s assertions that the convention will cause chaos.
He said it’s important to understand that voting yes doesn’t trigger immediate action. State lawmakers will have a chance to pass enabling legislation, there will be a vote for delegates, and there will be a third vote to decide whether to accept what those delegates decide, a process that is likely to take years.
“We’ve just got to get the people to understand that voting yes is not going to kill the state,” he said. “It’s going to enable the people to say, ‘I don’t think this is right.’”
https://alaskabeacon.com/author/james-brooks/
Login Form
20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
The 7th Annual Honoring Women dinner will feature Roberta Sue Kitka, ANS Camp 4; Rose MacIntyre, U.S. Coast Guard Spouses and Women’s Association; Christine McLeod Pate, SAFV; Marta Ryman, Soroptimists; and Mary Sarvela (in memoriam), Sitka Woman’s Club.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
Eighth-graders Joanna Hearn and Gwen Marshall and sixth-graders Annabelle Korthals, Jennifer Lewis and Marianne Mulder have straight A’s (4.00) for the third quarter at Blatchley Junior High.