I do hope Begich is “unelectable” and is defeated when he runs for reelection next year. I also know that much of the Republican establishment in Alaska has been corrupt (such as the former governor Murkowski & his crew). And standing up to that corruption is one of the reasons (among many) that I admire Sarah Palin so much.
I did not know that Begich was an early promoter of “speed cameras”. That’s another reason to dislike him. Although Alaskans had the good sense to ban them, here in the People’s Republic of Maryland, they are a significant cash cow for the State and municipalities such as Baltimore. Folks here hate them but turn right around and reelect the Democrats who install them.
Mark Begich was on city council in Anch back in the early/mid 90's. He was forever looking for revenue sources, got the bright idear with photo radar cameras to catch people sliding through red lights in town. The company that made the cams was from Arizona and they had it all figured out that city would make big bucks with their red light cameras in tickets mailed out to everybody. Mark bit hard and got the cam thing going. Of course the Arizona company had a disclaimer of sorts where if for any reason they had to pull their cameras out, they would be paid this huge penalty by the city, ha ha; what a scam Mark fell for. But you know, those left wingers, all they see if $$$$$ in revenue. So anyway, people all over Anch started getting 10-20 tickets in the mail; boy did they get hot. Then somebody started shooting the cams out with a 10-22. It caught on big time. I remember stopping at a light in early morn while it was still dark and seeing 2-3 cars shooting at cams out their windows; became the local patriotic pass time in Anch that winter, no joke. It got so bad that the Arizona company pulled all their cameras, they couldn't keep them in working order and of course they come after their penalty bucks with Mark Begich crawling under rocks for cover, it was hilarious. All Mark's council buddies forgot his friendship and he was booted out of Anch politics pretty quick. NO joke, I was surprised he even run again years later. He wouldn't have been elected if Uncle Teddy hadn't had his problems. After Mark got booted, the state passed a law against such cams ever again in Alaska. True story.
Every time I call Begich's office, I remind them it will be worse than photo radar if he votes the wrong way and his staff always tells me photo radar was the only mistake ever made in his entire life on this earth, ha ha. Anyway, that's the story on photo radar. Actually, sometimes I prefer Mark over LIsa; only one I really trust is Donny Young; you know what ya got with Don Young; an old bush guy at heart and that's why everybody keeps voting him back in. Don't have to even think about Donny Young voting for any kind of gun control.