News from Patrick Flynn

Another day on the campaign trail, another surprise.  On Thursday afternoon I received a call from a reporter who has worked for two different conservative-leaning, web-based media outlets during my tenure on the Assembly.  Turns out she now works at YourAlaskaLink.com, which you likely know better as channel 13, Anchorage’s ABC affiliate.

Calls from reporters are no surprise, of course, but this one caught me off guard as I was asked if I’d “guest host” their News & Views program, on which I appeared as a guest a few weeks ago, at 5 pm.  Apparently one of the hosts was on vacation and they needed a fill-in.  Even more interesting was that the guests for that evening were two Assembly candidates, Liz Vazquez and Paul Bauer, who are running against two Assembly incumbents, Harriet Drummond and Mike Gutierrez, whom I consider friends.  I noted that I hardly qualified as a disinterested third party in this circumstance but they seemed to think that’d make more interesting viewing.  Well, I figured, what the heck?

First up was Ms. Vazquez, who’d sat next to me at UAA’s candidate forum the previous evening and offered a stunningly convoluted non-answer to a simple question; would she support an equal rights ordinance similar to the version passed by the Assembly in 2009?  I let her know that in three years service on the Assembly I’d never found a “maybe” option while voting and asked her again, would she vote yes or no?  She gave essentially the same answer as before involving jurisdiction, the courts, supremacy of state and federal law, and goodness-recalls what else.  What bemused me about that response was her citation of her legal background (she’s worked for the Department of Law and is currently an Administrative Law Judge) while she didn’t seem to understand that  the forum for Anchorage’s current equal rights protections is our municipal Equal Rights Commission, not any state or federal venue.

I’ve known Ms. Vazquez for many years and generally think well of her so I’ll just say this; my interpretation of her answer was “no, I wouldn’t support an ordinance like that, but I don’t want to offend those who might.”  That may work on the campaign trail, but doesn’t cut the mustard if you’re actually in office.

Paul Bauer followed and I asked him about his campaign, specifically that he isn’t raising money, isn’t advertising and has missed at least two candidate forums where his opponents have appeared.  Given that, how did he expect to win?  Mr. Bauer responded that he felt his web site, social media and talk radio discussions about his candidacy were sufficient to push him over the top.  I didn’t say it then, but I doubt it.

Anyhow, the fun continues and will wrap up in a few days…

Regards,

Patrick