Who can afford a vacation after four years of Obamanomics?
Well I went to AK in 2011.
My Brother in Law told me Sarah Palin came to his home when she was campaigning for Governor.. She told him he had the best view in Fairbanks and they had a cup of coffee together.
He told me she did a lot for Alaska and wanted to help small businessess continue to grow up there. His whole family really likes her and HATES what McShame did to her.
Just my two cents and all anecdotal.
A couple of short trips last 2 years in and around the Anchorage area on business. There was certainly a good chunk of the population looking like they would be of the leftist/liberal persuasion from my own observations at least. Maybe its different further inland?
I traveled FROM Alaska when Sarah Palin's oil tax policies reduced the amount of oil/gas work available for future projects done in Alaska.
Since then I've traveled to Alaska while doing engineering/design for Alaskan maintenance type projects from Texas as there is not enough engineering/design types left in Alaska to complete those tasks.
Went in 2009 on business. Aramark was a client of the company I worked for. They run many of the hotels in Denali and are in partnership to run the buses into Denali, plus all the ancillary things like white water rafting etc..
So my visit had nothing to do with Palin.
Some observations from my visit, which may be skewed due to the business I was in was seasonal/tourist oriented,:
Alaska is not a right to work state. Businesses have to deal with the union plague.
Many workers in the tourist industry either worked Alaska in the summer and elsewhere in the winter, i.e. the lady who drove the bus I took from Denali to Anchorage worked Denali in the summer, but lived and worked in Coer d’ alene Idaho in winter. A large portion of those workers that lived in Alaska year round, especially the union tour guide bus drivers, worked in the summer but lived off unemployment/government in the winter.
Anchorage and Talkeetna appeared to me to be nothing more than smaller versions of Seattle or Ca. Full of so called artists and hippies.
The Aramark employess I interacted with came across as being ill equipped to work/live in Alaska. Instead of enjoying Alaska they complained about not having the trappings of a big city or the winters. We’ve heard that from hippies/liberals before. They work or live somewhere and wish/want to make it like somewhere else.
The laws in certain businesses, thanks to former Senator Stevens, required native alaskan majority ownership, i.e. Denali National Park, or preferential treatment to native Alaska companies in the bidding process. Explains the proliferation of Alaska Native Corporations in places like Huntsville, Ala where large defense work exists and such corps. take advantage of the preference in federal laws.
From a non-business, personal observation standpoint. I loved my visit to Alaska. Natural beauty, wide open spaces, freedom to be left alone and the regular every day people were friendly. I didn’t get the opportunity to go beyond Anchorage or Denali to Fairbanks or to Juneau, Seward, Barrow.
If I had the financial capabilites or an employment opportunity arose, I’d consider living in Alaska.