Posted on 09/14/2007 4:56:44 PM PDT by BlueMoose
Former Veco executive Rick Smith just said he bribed former Sen. Ben Stevens and sitting Anchorage Sen. John Cowdery.
His comment came as prosecutor Nicholas Marsh asked Smith who he’d plead guilty to bribing.
Smith said Reps. Pete Kott, Bruce Weyhrauch and Vic Kohring
(Excerpt) Read more at community.adn.com ...
Don’t kid yourself, Sara has her own set of bones in the closet. Zoning issues mostly, but not as squeeky clean as most folks would hope.
But then, name ANY pol who is squeeky clean - I doubt there is one in the US.
I guess no one is clean then. I had not heard of Sarah’s problems. I know that some don’t like her because of reasons other than her political ways. The Republican party of Alaska leaders don’t like her.
As I write this, Rick Smith is still on the stand, being questioned by Pete Kott’s defense attorney, James Wendt. Smith is talking about how Veco routinely paid for all or parts of polls for Alaska politicians.
“In most the cases, we were probably asked by candidates,” Smith said.
In the questioning, Wendt talks about a “100 or so” such polls.
In particular, they’re talking about a July 12, 2006, Dittman poll worth about $2,750 that was conducted for Kott. The invoice went to Smith, the Veco executive.
From Kyle Hopkins at the courthouse:
“I had not heard of Sarah’s problems.”
Few outside of the Valley have - mostly small town politics stuff, but still, not according to Hoyle.
A lot of folks don’t care for her because of her time as Mayor....
I’ll admit I voted for her, in large part, because I did not have to hold my nose to do so....unlike the Frank.
But as my tagline used to read - If you vote for the lesser of two evils, you are still left with......an evil.
I live in Wasilla and know nothing of wrong doing except using some of the city paper to print her travel schedule. That is very trivial compared to what was going on at the oil and gas commission.
So she used a couple of sheets of government paper.The party tried to equate that to exchanging e-mail with oil executives. Jerry Mackies name came up in Fridays testimony. Another of the good old party. He when to work for the BIG oil after resigning from the Senate.
Please do not change the original headline - instead, add your comment in brackets to the end of the headline. Thanks.
It might be well to see the Rep Party in Alaska split into two parties fighting between themselves. Palin was not with the group who had Murkowski. Unfortunately, the players don't wear baseball jerseys with numbers so we can see who is who.
Alaska is not special in that respect, but there sure is a lot of money sloshing around.
OK
( We had a Moderate Republican Party in Alaska once. The Moderate that was elected in Kenai became a Republican after the election. )
The politicians move in and out of the Rep Party a lot. Hickel was something else last time, but he still rules the Rep Party.
[Allen didn’t testify about the value of the services and materials, though they appeared to represent a substantial portion of the more than $400,000 in illegal payments he admitted making to public officials and their families.
“One of these allegations is that you helped Sen. Ted Stevens with remodeling his house in Girdwood, isn’t that true?” Wendt asked.
“Uh, yes,” Allen said.
“In helping Sen. Stevens remodel his residence, you or Veco paid a number of bills in remodeling that residence, isn’t that true?”
“I, I, I give Ted some old furniture, I don’t think it was a lot of material,” Allen said, stammering at first. “There was some labor.”
“There wasn’t a lot of materials but you paid some labor bills that went into Sen. Stevens’s house?” Wendt continued.
“Yes,” said Allen. “It would be Veco employees.”]
Ray Metcalfe has run as a Republican, Moderate Republican and is now running as a Democrat. What ever fits the time and need . They are all the same. Just change tier letters to fit the need.
My beef was with all the hanky-panky on rezoning friends land for development while denying others that were not her ‘buddy’.
Small town stuff - yes — template? I think so. Just look at the stupid Mat Maid mess. — trying to take care of her buds.
Well see when Mid-America shows up.....hand out and all.
As early as last fall we were privy to information from the dairy industry that there would be a huge jump in costs, by June of this year. If you have been watching the news of late, dairies all over the country are closing nationwide for the same reasons. We are faced with increasing and changing circumstances that are beyond our control. As was stated by former CEO of Dairygold in Seattle, Wes Eckert said there is no future for milk in Alaska, the larger producers in the other states are consuming all small and medium dairies. Just this week two of the three remaining dairies in Hawaii closed and the only dairy left on the islands will close by the end of this summer, leaving milk to be shipped form the mainland.
Because Mat Maid is owned by the state we are unable to secure financing for shortfalls within the corporation. in the last 20 years since Mat Maid turned itself around we have been working on a thin margin, cash wise. With this little working capital we were losing ground in the equipment that produces the milk. Costs don't go down but increase with time leaving us the job of making miracles happen and depending on the loyal employees to make things continue to work.
And this is Sarah's fault ? I don't think so. Sarah was in high school 20 years ago
I also understand there was some disagreement on the roads in Wasilla. But was she taking money for those decisions ? I see no evidence of that. What we are talking about is receiving funds for laws that that provide us with money. If Sarah was doing that let us know.
That should be Jake Metcalf that’s running on the DEM ticket.
Nobody has said bumkus about Homeland security costs to the dairym being the killer. The local ANC ststaions had talked about 'legal costs' related to earlier effort to sale the outfit.
The cost of doing business everywhere IS going up, not just for small dairy / producers. These small to medium outfits go under all the time. Few get bailouts.
All of this is just a sideshow anyway. The main event, a gas pipeline, will be THE item that defines her 4 years in office. So, time will tell after all.
Back the main point - Ted and company being crooked.
Doesn’t matter, he lost my vote on his immigration stand. Bye, Bye Ted.
This is from:
Mac Carter Chair
Creamery Corporation Board
Matanuska Maid Dairy
So he was not telling the truth?
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