Luke Hopkins, Tammie Wilson reveal earnings in financial disclosures
Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Luke Hopkins and Tammie Wilson, the two finalists for mayor of the Fairbanks North Star borough, filed disclosure statements with the state early in their campaigns that show Hopkins works part-time while also receiving retirement payments and Wilson’s family collects income from a range of sources including rental properties in Illinois.
State laws require detailed financial reports from political candidates and elected officials, particularly following a statute rewrite that followed the arrests of several state lawmakers three years ago. Reports from Hopkins and Wilson, both filed in August, provide information for a snapshot of the financial lives of both candidates, who will meet in a Nov. 3 runoff.
Hopkins, a semi-retired University of Alaska Fairbanks maintenance superintendent, claimed earnings of $64,978 in 2008 through part-time work and a state pension.
Hopkins left his full-time post as a superintendent five years ago when he was elected to the Borough Assembly but reported he remained as a half-time north campus manager, fielding and analyzing requests from groups looking to use parts of campus land for research or educational uses. That part-time position paid $17,455 last year, according to Hopkins’ report.
Wilson, who with her husband owns and manages three rental properties between Illinois and Alaska, earned $13,989 last year from rents and as a part-time church group resource manager, according to her report. She worked for part of the year as a clearinghouse manager for the nonprofit organization Love INC and reported making nearly $6,000 in that role. She is not employed now.
Both Hopkins and Wilson are married. Hopkins and his wife reported collectively taking in more than $110,000 last year, including Hopkins’ pension but excluding Alaska Permanent Fund dividends. The figure includes five months’ work by Hopkins’ wife as a development manager for the Fairbanks Native Association, a position the report indicates she left in mid-2008.
Wilson and her husband collectively claimed a little more than $62,000 in income, counting his work as a millwright and payments from a millwright’s retirement plan.
Both families’ income figures include monthly stipends of $900 for service on the Borough Assembly, although Wilson joined the assembly only one month prior to the close of 2008.
Wilson and her husband also reported holding an investment portfolio worth more than $100,000. Their holdings include stock in the semiconductor manufacturer Applied Materials and the truck builder Paccar.
Hopkins reported $13,600 in payments in 2008 from a mutual life investment portfolio. His report provided no more details of that plan.
Community Discussion
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The Newsminer always mentions Hopkins first.
Is Wilson's $13,989 from rents gross or net?
What about figures for 2009?
Hopkins, a semi-retired University of Alaska Fairbanks maintenance superintendent, claimed earnings of $64,978 in 2008 through part-time work and a state pension.
______________________
If this doesn't explain the PER/TERS problem I don't know what does. $65K...WOW!!!! Add the cost of benefits....the state is paying Luke $100K per year!!!
seems at least one of them is running for public office for the $$$
The bottom line from this is that Wilson has little exposure to the financial requirements of the mayor job. Vote experience. Vote Hopkins.
All the reporting requirements do is show the public where their
monies come from and if there could be a conflict of interest in their
voting, so people can be assured yhose they elect are honest and
straightforward citizens and not an unsavory type. It serves no
other purpose.
What is more inportant is what will they do in the office they are
running for!! That is the important determination you must make in
voting for either candidate. Good luck..
Go Luke!
Jxope7, does that mean that you always vote for the richest people because they know how to manage money?
Tammie doesn't have the experience required to run the borough. I'll be voting for Luke and I encourage all of you to do the same. It's only the far right fringe that is backing Tammie.
Tammie Wilson has the experience to understand how to operate a household not dependent on government wages. Both Hopkins and his wife receive their income form tax payers money. FNA is a government funded non profit. By the way, what was the part time job Hopkins had. All Hopkins is doing is adding more tax payer income. With what he reported ($110,000 last year)and the almost $100,000 the major gets, he will be making over $200,000 a year. Since neither need the money, lets see if either will donate the salary to charity.
"It's only the far right fringe that is backing Tammie."
You have no idea who we are that back Tammie or why. Quit making assumptions about people you don't even know.
Members of our church have been doing homework on the two candidates for mayor with an eye on honesty. What we've been learning about Wilson leaves us very concerned. Those of us who have lived here long enough remember other Republicans who claimed to be fiscally conservative but who were not. Rhonda Boyles, Garry Hutchison, Ralph Seekins and Frank Murkowski, all betrayed us. Voters, having been burned by these RINO Republicans, tossed these phonies out of office.
One of the biggest costs of operating the borough government is with the salary and benefits for the employees. Those benefits are tied to three year contracts. On May 28 of this year Wilson voted twice to pass two very costly contracts that have benefits that far exceed what is paid in private sector employment. How generous was Wilson with our money in these contracts? The medical plan costs an employee only $20 to $50 dollars per pay period, and it provides:
$2,000,000.00 in medical coverage- a $1,000,000.00 increase over the last contract. The plan includes dental, vision, drug and alcohol treatment, and mental health care.
The contract includes the cost of participation in the Public Employees Retirement System for a paid retirement.
The contract includes lots of paid time off. 12 paid holidays per year plus another 36 days of paid leave for employees with more than seven years of service. If the leave was used creatively a employee could take almost two months off at taxpayer expense every year.
None of this is intended to slam borough workers, but only to challenge the very idea that Wilson is offering more than empty rhetoric when she claims to be a champion of lower cost government. The contracts Wilson voted for do not expire until June of 2012. Wilson would not be able to touch the pay or benefits of these workers in the three budgets she would be responsible for if she were elected to a three year term. To be fair, Hopkins also voted for these generous contracts, but he has never claimed to be a fiscal conservative like Wilson. The union contracts supported by Wilson are with the FNSBA Local 6125, APEA/AFT (AFL-CIO) and the Laborers Union 942 through Resolutions 2009-19 and 2009-20.
These contracts are legally binding so there is no way property taxpayers will see the fiscally conservative government that Wilson has promised.
Your church anti union bias just ran out of steam when you said they
BOTH voted for it!!
The contracts that HOPKINS and Wilson BOTH voted for do not expire until June of 2012.
If Hopkins is elected the taxpayers will be paying him TWICE!
Does this mean he can retire TWICE if he is elected?
Comments about wages and benefits on the DNM site seem to assume that no one makes more than $35000 a year. Maybe this site will clear a few things up-- http://www.labor.state.ak.us/research/wa...
Skilled people make decent wages and benefits and even if they work for the taxpayer. By the way I don't and never have.
I like Tammie less and less every time I hear about her. She's virtually unemployed, aside from earning about six grand from her rental income(these must be some properties to be rented for $500 between them!).
This is sad, because non of them hold a real job here at the moment! Having rental properties in a different state is not the same as in Fairbanks. Being mostly retired is not the situation most young folks in Fairbanks are in, they are looking for real jobs. Providing real jobs here is one of the most important things a mayor could do, so if they can't figure out how to make it work here for themselves, how will they help us? Maybe they are both going after the position so they have full time income and a career job.
I think someone with some kind of administrative or management experience would be preferable for Mayor, however, the fact that Hopkins has been raising campaign cash in Anchorage stinks.
In my opinion, Hopkins' political instincts are very liberal-university-elitist-Esteritic, whereas, Wilson's are more authentically, Fairbanksan-Foxian-NorthPolean-CrippleCreekian-HotSpringite.
Go Luke!
Prospector, what about Illinoisian?
This Fairbanksian thinks Luke is plenty Fairbanksian himself, but has serious doubts about Tammie.
Star Trails
Since you seem to like continuing to bring my husband into your negative discussions let me set the record straight - when Garry was on the Borough Assembly he was the ONLY one to vote against the union contracts, let me repeat that- the ONLY one. You are very good at trying to throw things at people that you seem to know nothing about, but unfortunately there are some out there that believe you and that is too bad, because the conservatives truly missed their opportunity to vote for someone who knows this community and would have represented their views well, and DID represent their views well when he was on the assembly. Now we are left with two candidates who I am having a hard time identifying with. By the way, you can also thank my husband, because up until his tenure when he insisted the Borough start putting voting records online so people could look them up, they weren't. YOU seem to take pleasure in belittling and smearing good people, and all of the people you listed were and are good, honest people who served their constituents well!
The candidates we are left with are two idealogues and it is now the voters turn to discern which one will be more to the middle, because a path down the hard right or the hard left will leave this Borough in a mess. The stimulus funds may be a good place to look at the next voting record and then each candidate's reason for voting the way they did. Did they vote that way because it was good for the community or because their base - hard right or hard left would be pleased. See if you can discern that - because it is the community good that matters, not pleasing your fringe base. My husband may have lost the election, but the whole reason we are in a run-off is because neither of the other candidates attracted enough of the middle voters to be declared a winner and the next Mayor needs to attract that middle.
Here's to the power of the middle!!
Diane
If you owned a family business that provided a broad range of services and grossed 100+ million a year would you hire either of these people to run it? Would you even interview them for the position? I'm sorry but being a social or fiscal conservative politicaly does not qualify you for the job. Even if you love wood stoves. I just can not get my head around how Tammie Wilson is up for this challenge. If you are running Jillian Square or Wedgewood ok your a property manager. If you collect rents on a couple of units then I would call that a stretch. Hell I do that.
As for Mr. Hopkins, what exactly is a maintainance super? Was he in charge of the University's power plant? Water, sewer, roads, buildings, grounds, the farm? That could be a good sized job with a pretty good budget and staff. But was it? I'm thinking not. The University is like a small city and managing the maintainance there is pretty challenging. I'm thinking Luke was most likely at a foreman level. Basically I have to say none of the above. I'll write in Mark Hamilton. He's honest and conservative and probably don't want the job. But if elected I bet he would serve.
Because Hopkins sucks a lot of money out of the PERS system he is financially more responsible? Only Obama math works with that logic.
The state pays $100,000 a year for retirement to a JANITOR!
I like robir8's idea. Let's write-in Mark Hamilton.
Thanks for the reminder Diane that these typically nasty comments are about real people. To me it is sad these anonynmous angry folks, whoever they really are-- though a cowardly minority, are so lacking in civic virtue of any sort.
NativeSon you'll also notice that the NewsMiner generally taints stories toward Hopkins as well. For instance, in a previous article, instead of saying that there was a divide between the candidates on property rights and restrictions, the NewsMiner chose to use the term “junk” and effectively wash down the views that Wilson holds. I find it somewhat entertaining to read the paper and look for these opinions masquerading as unbiased journalism. I think it’s pretty clear that the NewsMiner staff who have true influence on what is published are probably voting for Hopkins.
I will be voting (again) for Tammie because I think her vision of what local government should be more closely aligns with my own that that of Hopkins. Luckily, we are all entitled to our opinions.
robir8,
Tammie's goal is to shrink that budget, so it should be easier to manage :)
We don't need much of what we are paying for. A good part of the borough budget is made up just by paying those people to run taxrolls, assess property, collect taxes, etc. It's self fulfilling government.
Time to shrink.
Diane please explain your comment that both Hopkins and Wilson are idealogues. What's your definition of an idealogue?
I keep asking myself why this is the best we can offer the voters of the Borough. I'm no fan of Hopkins but the more I'm learning about Wilson the more this junkyard trailer living, virtually unemployed woman scares the heck out of me. I'm sorry, but the last time we had a mayor who "needed" the job was Mayor Hayes and we all know how that worked out. The last D I voted for was Tony Knowles for Gov. in the 90's but i may have to hold my nose and do this again. Somebody please tell me something good about Wilson that uses facts and something she's actually done and not her vague supposed philisophical underpinnings.
Robir8 has a very good point: I wouldn't hire either of these people to manage a small operation, let alone a $100M operation with dozens of departments and hundreds of employees.
Go Luke! I only vote for experienced, intelligent, and non-divisive candidates.
go away luke, u are part of the same old,same old...
Diane,
I believe the Assembly will naturally keep an "ideologue" in check. It's whether or not you wish government to grow, then, is the question.
The Wilson campaign will publish the bulk of current policy advisors. After you see the list, then you can decide what degree of pragmatism exists. I believe you will have a good impression.
Alaskaman100 you are confused. Jim Hayes was mayor of the city, not the borough, and he certainly didn't "need" the money, what with his church salary and what he was skimming from federal grants.
APOC reports don't list a person's net wealth. Either one of them could have a million dollars in the bank for all you know.
If Tammie Wilson would forgo her salary as Mayor I would vote for her. The lack of experience is too large of an issue for me to vote for her. I like the idea of writing in Mark Hamilton.
So...how's Wilson's not being a wage slave a strike against her? She owns property and makes a living from rentals. Something sinister and scary about someone making their way on their own?
What an elitist, living the American dream. How dare she!
Ridiculous, people.
POO, that's right. The janitor is making a decent retirement. Call out the troops! Retirement is for the executive class only!
Now, there's an elitist.
robir8- almost missed a point there about interviewing. Thank you.
Folks, again, these people are looking for a job in public service. Let's call it what it is, and stop inflating who and what they are. They're not leading anything, they're not officiating anything, they're going to be... PUBLIC SERVANTS!
Along this same line of reasoning, time to do away with the concept of "campaigning". This isn't a war. When you and I go to a job interview, do you think we make points by "campaigning"? No, you interview with your future boss... in this case, the people of the borough. And if you don't stand by the principles you claim during the interview, you're going to find yourself looking for another job immediately!
"I raised all this money!" "I voted for something, then changed my mind when it threatened my position!" "I believe I should just make decisions without my boss's approval!"
In an interview, I'd throw this kind of selfish individual out.
Vote Wilson.
Did they report their eBay earnings?
Big march on Washington yesterday, and as usual, the mainstream media ignored it. I suspect, however, that many of the people who post here were present. Perhaps they could offer their observations.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/nat...
Skokd - The janitor is making a decent retirement.
_________________
He is getting $65K a year plus benefits. When will folks like you in the public sector realize this is not sustainable? At some point the State of Alaska will default on PER/TERS obligations (as the rest of the country is doing now).
I don't like either one of them, but Luke seems to be more in the middle on issues...I'll be voting for him.
Rvk2008
I appreciate that the Wilson campaign is going to publish its advisors and I hope the Hopkins' campaign does the same. As many of the bloggers are starting to point out, this is a job and we are the interviewers. In a job interview questions get asked to determine the best applicant for the job and the applicant's answers are crucial to the decision making process.
Thank you for your willingness to address some concerns. It is sincerely appreciated.
Diane
"Hopkins, a semi-retired University of Alaska Fairbanks maintenance superintendent, claimed earnings of $64,978 in 2008 through part-time work and a state pension...That part-time position paid $17,455 last year."
64,978 - 17,455 = $47,523 from the state pension. Think people.
Regarding union contracts, those benefits are far, far, far beyond what ordinary folks can afford! "Yes union members do live better because they live off us!"
As for being stuck with them, we are not stuck because the burro is a sovereign political body!
NO burro assembly can bind any future assembly to ANYTHING.
Now you know why the unions are backing Luke... IT IS the money! And they are looking for a pay back!
-----
Regarding income, from taxpayers.
Luke's family looks to be double dipping a $65,000 retirement pension, while working at UAF with a $17,000 part time job, and his wife working for FNA a total of $110,000.
I would just as soon spread the wealth around! And vote to give Tammie the $90,000 mayor's paycheck.
One other thing, Tammie will not be negotiating wage / benefit supplements and additions to the benefit of her campaign contributers.
:)))))))
-------Today, I plan to vote early!
we could have bad weather soon!
Remember NOV 3 Burro Run off day.
thinkfirst - you forgot the benefits. At leaast an additional $20,000 per year. You need to change your name because you obviously do not think first....
It's a $47K pension Hopkins is drawing. And he worked for thirty years to earn it.
Also, if Tammie's rentals only bring in $6K annually, what does that say about her property management skills?
Amen Terrance.
How can anyone support a person that has never had a job in the real economy? UAF is not a real job!!!
Henry - 20 years of retirement at $65K a year (including benefits) is $1.3 million. Good luck getting that in the private sector. The party is going to be over soon for PER/TERS
Not confused ATV - When Hayes was city mayor he worked as an investigator for the State of Alaska. The job payed little. People who worked with Hayes noted that he also worked little but was untouchable. This was why Hayes wanted to transform the city to a strong mayor form of government, allowing him to retire from the state and then work full time at a much higher salary as mayor.
All the skimming and stealing happened after he retired and was a full time pastor.
graybeard41: "How can anyone support a person that has never had a job in the real economy? UAF is not a real job!!!"
As a UAF employee, I take exception to your insulting statement. (I don't mean that I'm replying to you or being offended in my official capacity, merely that I have a position at the university.)
More to my point, I could ask, "How could a person who has never worked in government expect to administer a public agency?" or, "What about working in the private sector gives somebody worthwhile experience to hold political office?"
Generally and broadly speaking, I would prefer my public administrators to have had experience working for the kinds of bodies (i.e., public) they oversee. Why would you want otherwise?
The only reason there is a run off in this election is because special interest groups floated candidates they knew would never be elected in order for a run off to occur.
Tammie is a guest on KFAR right now!
Call her with your questions....458-8255
Luke was supposse to be on the air for the 2nd half hour.
HE CANCELED!!!! Guess he doesn't want to talk and be held accountable!
1AFox. You are right as rain, no one in the private sector get the kind of generous benefits Wilson has voted for. What many of us are trying to reconcile is her stated positions and her past deeds. This is about honesty. She voted for those contracts only a handful of months ago and has not said anything publicly about her involvement with these contracts. Why? Is it because her deeds, not her words, show that she really is not able to be frugal with our money when it really counts? I dunno, I can't read minds. Wilson reads these comments and she certainly could answer these questions, your questions, but where is she?
Also, the views here are not those of my church, only a few of us old grandma types with a little too much time on our hands. We will have more to write about in coming days.
(This comment was removed by the Newsminer.com staff. Please see our User Agreement for further information.)
Power of O do you actually know the benefits in a pension equate to $20,000? It doesn't really matter, he spent his career working for the University, something bigger than himself (public higher education), and he earned a living and raised a family. I don't understand how you can criticize a man for doing that. Gripe about PERS/TERS but Luke was doing what was best for himself and his family.
Hopefully Wilson will learn that you hold your friends tight but your enemies even tighter. Hopkins has no interest in the conservatives in this community, he was nothing more than trying throw them a bone to get some of their vote after his plastic bag error by appearing on local talk show. Hopkins is nothing more than a plant for the good old boys club. Even a real Democrat would see that he doesn't even re[present them. He represents the good old boys who are trying to make self profit from the government funding projects that private business should be doing. Obama Chicago politics at play right here in this borough and his name is Luke Hopkins. Want this community to become a small version of Chicago and a continuance of Whitaker, Vote for Hopkins.
Retirement is something you earn from many years of work service.
UAF retirement is earned for many years of service to the University.
Isn't this the American dream? Why are people dissing Luke for
taking his earned retirement? Or for serving the state and
the educational community by working at UAF?
Gripe about PERS/TERS but Luke was doing what was best for himself and his family
_________________________
The Union Mantra...say it enough times and you can rationalize it. Ironic that is private taxpayers (in the case of FNSB) that have to pay the Cadilac retirement plans of Borough employees without having any retirement of their own. I will trade the performance of my 401K over the past few years with the insane defined benefit plans of state/borough employees.
What we need here is a good old-fashioned debate. Even a series of debates. There's still time...
POTO, graybeard41, (especially) FreeDarfur, and others repeatedly assert their conspiracy theories as though they were facts. Not only are they are far from factual, they are suggestive of minds unable to distinguish fact from fantasy.
ArcticWriter- Remember you are hearing from a few fringe extreme types that will never support any form of government, higher education, unions, and the like. Some are whining that they can't afford pensions that exist in the public sector that they don't have for themselves.
You make your own luck, if somebody wants some financial security in the form of a pension, then choose a career path that will accomplish your goals. If you have no education from the "Evil University", than go ahead and keep job hopping for $14/hour. (or less)?
Luke is a self made man, he has worked hard, has secured and earned a pension just like me, and should be commended for taking care of his family and not becoming a burden on society. He will pay taxes on his pension, further helping the economy. A few here already know exactly how Luke plans to operate as Mayor, and have virtually accused him of corruption before even taking office. Your views are not being taken seriously by many. The last vote was quite close, the next one won't be so close. The voters will make the right choice and vote Luke Hopkins.
A person's work history speaks volumes:
"LUKE HAS THE EXPERIENCE A MAYOR NEEDS
Employment:
Thirty year career at University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1974 - 2004
- Luke started as a carpenter, then moved into management in the mid 1980's
- Five years in charge of maintenance keeping the doors open at UAF campuses from Fairbanks to Dillingham and Seward, from Kotzebue to Fort Yukon.
- Directed Operations for a staff of approximately 100 union and non-union individuals, including hiring, resolving grievances and meeting OSHA safety standards
- Responsible for building and spending annual budgets in the millions of dollars
- Five years as Facility Planner coordinating with engineers, architects, trades, contractors and UAF departments to meet changing campus needs
- President of the UAF Support Staff Council
- Member of UAF Master Planning Committee, the campus advisory/planning committee reporting to the UAF Chancellor
- North Campus Manager, balancing research, education and recreation interests on 1100 acres of UAF campus"
http://www.lukehopkinsformayor.com/about...
"Tammie Wilson was raised working in her grandparent's appliance store and learned hardwork and accounting the old fashioned way. Married 26 years to a journeyman millwright and proud mother of four grown children: UAF alumni, heavy equipment mechanic, Lowes Lumber Associate, and laborer at Fairbanks Truss Company. Tammie holds a bachelor of Science in Education, Illinois State University.
Tammie worked as a:
Small business owner
Teacher
Property manager
Store manager"
http://tammiewilson.org/bio.php
Hopkins is the front man for the Port Authority, plain and simple.
The only question is will Native Son or Poo be the first to zero in on this: "Responsible for building and spending annual budgets in the millions of dollars"? Ooops - beat you to it.
Darf - Well, he's the secretary of the board... is that the same thing as the "front man"? What is your issue?
"I will trade the performance of my 401K over the past few years with the insane defined benefit plans of state/borough employees."
good point Power of O, so you would have done just what Luke did, I would too. Maybe you should find an employer who values your contribution enough to compensate you with a reliable retirement.
Why someone who's only experience has been the make-believe world of UAF is considered to be more qualified than someone who has real world experience is beyond me.
thinkfirst - The PER/TERS system has a deficit of BILLIONS of dollars. Its not sustainable. Do you understand what that means?
Its not about whether Luke or you have a great deal.
Its fictional....it cannot last.
This is excatly the problem with put a liberal into the mayors seat. He thinks the solution would be for the state/local goverment to bail it out.
That cannont happen. The state WILL default on PERS/TERS.
Neither one of them has the experience needed to run the Borough. Let's hope that those Borough employees that can orient and assist the new Mayor hang around to help.
I voted for Sarah for governor because the thought of Tony Knowles again made me shudder. That's precisely the reason I'll be voting for Tammie this time.
We just can't afford to have someone as liberal as Hopkins in there. Remember who wanted the Morris Thompson center to be exempt from property taxes so the rest of us could take up the slack!
Poo - "...the make-believe world of UAF" As someone who probably never attended the university, I wonder how you arrived at that assessment of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks? It's kinda like running your grandparent's appliance story, only way bigger...
Give it a rest, no Mayor has run this borough. There are 6 special assistants to the Mayor and Department heads who run the borough. beginning to wonder if you people have any knowledge of the history of this borough government. Do you even know what classification this borough is?
hobbes - I have graduate engineering degrees. How about you?
I spent too much time in graduate school understanding how university's "work"
Money isn't everything. What each candidate brings to the job is what matters. Do they have the civic background to deal with governmental issues and laws? Palin was a prime example of a mayor that knew nothing about the job she held. Campaign promises are full of hot air. Without a background/knowledge of everything the job requires, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Question both every chance you get.
I have multiple degrees and I understand how universities work. Sadly, their standards are abysmal. Hopkins was staff, not faculty, and probably didn't need to know much beyond reading a schedule to push a broom. Wilson's education degree might not have amounted to much either.
It's pretty obvious that Hopkins picked a horse to ride and stayed on as long as he could. The union worked for him because a mutual back-scratching society takes care of its own. Good for him. But that hurts the rest of us when the union tries to get us to finance their exclusive club.
The motto of the Hopkins union supporters:
"He might be a weasel, but he's OUR weasel."
Tammie on the other hand is more of a free spirit. I trust her a lot more.
vote for the person that won't flip flop their decisions, like say....hmmmmm Luke and the ridiculous five cent bag tax.
So this is what Ms. Wilson and her so called supporters think????
University Jobs aren't real jobs?
University Degrees aren't real degrees?
University Students are not being taught?
University payroll doesn't support Fairbanks?
How 'bout other Jobs at Eielson, Ft. Wainwright, The City, The Borough, The State, Troopers, Firefighters, and the Borough, How about all the Federal positions. If you worked for any of these jobs consider yourself ashamed cause if you support Tammie or have any public pension you are a total phony!
And how about the biggest "Most Important" Government job of all THE VET. Are they all freeloading bums?
LUKE HOPKINS JUST CANCELED OUT FOR A DEBATE WITH TAMMIE WILSON ON KFAR
So Tammie will be on for 2 full hours (4-6pm on KFAR tomorrow) and you can call in and ask questions....458-8255
Luke thought he "wouldn't get a fair shake" on a call-in radio show!
WHY IS LUKE SO SCARED AND WHAT IS HE TRYING TO HIDE?
dianehutchison- I've enjoyed your normally thoughful coments but you have a real big blind spot to your pals. The people you call "honest" weren't. Your husband had his well documented ethics problems and censure, your former boss was inidcted on mulitple felonies for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of free gifts from the oil industry and not disclosing them. Too bad DOJ dropped the ball, but there would not have been the indictments in the first place if Ted hadn't taken all that graft.
April_Showers = Star_Trails
Diane Hutchison:
I do give you credit for posting under your real name and defending your husband. Takes guts. Maybe you should have run for office. Here's the problem as I see it..............with Obama in office, Democrats and liberals are feeling all too empowered to keep running roughshod on our economy and advancing an insane agenda. This local election is about conservatives getting fired-up again and ready to do battle with the mentally ill lefties in this community. Had Garry not been so wishy-washy and taken a bit more conservative position on issues, he might have won. But his failure to deliver an ideological viewpoint will not work in the present time. He should have seen this one coming and stepped-up, or chosen his race more wisely. Taking the middle road shows weakness and indecision. That's why TAMMIE is still in this. It's not about the lady herself................its about the backbone that she has and the Conservatives that she has fired-up...............and the willingness to stand up to Luke's Loonies. GO TAMMIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ps. Why doesn't your husband show some backbone and support TAMMIE?
Poo - I meant that I didn't think that you attended UAF, because we who did wouldn't denigrate it the way you do. I earned my MFA at UAF; it was a great experience for me, and I support the university to this day. I earned my MBA in two years at a much larger university, where I was just one of thousands in my class. I much preferred the more intimate small school setting and affordability of UAF. I know that thousands of local kids would have had no chance at higher education were it not for our proximity and access to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
I must say that I'm surprised to learn that you have an advanced degree - you're one of the group who consistently criticizes university "elites". I had you pegged as an anti-intellectual for your rants on the university and it's "useless professors", your contempt for the public school system, and your cheerleading for the populists, most notably the "free spirited" Ms. Wilson.
So now I'm curious; why the condescension for the university?
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DMN - "Luke thought he "wouldn't get a fair shake" on a call-in radio show!"
Are those Luke's words or yours?
In any event, I can't think of any occasion when I would go on the Michael Duke's Show... We have NOTHING in common.
hobbes - UAF is a Tier 4 university with a 1st class budget. Perhaps things would be different if Alaska had a large enough population to allow for competition. Alaskan students only choice is to UAF or go out of state. Most kids don't really have a choice as they don't have the finances to go out of state.
Nearly every university has a liberal slant. UAF is particularily bad. The hypocristy of UAF employees in fighting against the development of Alaskan's resources while at the same time demainding more state funds is unbelievable.
Why someone who's only experience has been the make-believe world of newsminer.com is considered to be more qualified than someone who has real world experience is beyond me.
I am curious as to how this became such a heated PARTY race. But thank god the population of the FDNM isn't representative of the Fairbanks population as a whole. Most people in Fairbanks voted more Moderate, and that is a good thing.
I also wonder what this "Insane Liberal Agenda" that is being pushed in Fairbanks is...I guess my orders are a little late coming down from the evil headquarters of Fairbanks...
Vote for experience.
Vote for the politically savvy with a silken tongue, which has an escape clause for every point of view. Vote for the slick subtle influence bought and peddled by interests outside the North Star Borough. Vote for the candidates with manicured lawns from neighborhoods that could be a Seattle upscale transplant. Vote for the one who is polished and refined, one who has a greater vision and understanding than so many common narrow-minded resident clinging to their stoves and plastic bags with their dirty laboring hands. Vote for the one who can help increase funding and expand the financial resources of our poor needy University.
Don’t vote for Tammie
dobieman, why don't you have the stones to use your real name? And why are you so obsessed with this? Can't be good for you.
Manicured lawn?! Hahah- neighbors? This picture you paint is very cute Lin, but it's total BS- if you knew anything about Luke, you'd realize that. How about down a 1/4 mile dirt road out off of Murphy Dome road? You'll recognize it by the HUGE STACKS OF FIREWOOD Luke cuts himself!
Luke represents the union (LABORING) community, much to the terror of everyone. Tammie's husband is in the Millwrights' Union- I wonder if that makes her a union-lover?
Here's an idea people: if you going to make personal attacks someone, they need to be at the very least remotely true, otherwise you just sound like an idiot, and discredit anything useful you might be adding to the conversation.
Or wait, maybe don't...
I can't really comment on the cost comparison between UAF and any other Tier 4 school without looking at some numbers from both in areas like faculty compensation and physical plant costs, but off the top of my head, I'd have to say that to compare UAF costs with those of a school like Northern Arizona University, a Tier 4 in Flagstaff, you'd find salaries and operating costs considerably lower in Flagstaff. The cost of living in Fairbanks is naturally higher here, so salaries, to be competitive and retentive, would be higher, and power generation for heat and lights would be much higher here than there. That's just two areas of great disparity, don't you agree? Plus, I'm willing to bet that UAF's scientific research programs would outstrip those of most Tier 4's.
You've piqued my interest - I'll do a little research on that and get back to you at some point, all right?
Here's a link to an interesting premise on "The Liberal Skew in Higher Education", by Judge Richard Posner.
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archiv...
gypsyforlife-
O.K., you’re right, I stand corrected and I concede I was extremely presumptuous, I take it all back except "the politically savvy with a silken tongue, which has an escape clause for every point of view. Vote for the slick subtle influence bought and peddled by interests outside the North Star Borough." Look at the funding sources.
The Natural Sciences at UAF receives more grants 'per capita' than any other 'tier-4' University.
Oh, and my mother-in-law was just helping out at KUAC ; she sat next to and chatted with a certain Tammie Wilson, who was volunteering to answer phones as well.
According to my mother-in-law Tammie was very nice, funny, and spoke nothing but praises for both UAF and Public Radio- maybe she's not the Rabid Republican the FDNM trolls make her out to be!
Paul A. -- "Generally and broadly speaking, I would prefer my public administrators to have had experience working for the kinds of bodies (i.e., public) they oversee. Why would you want otherwise?"
I think that career bureaucrats who run for public office cause involuntary revulsion amongst many of us in the private sector. Most have no clue as to how to create wealth and make a new buck.
Thank you for being civil, Lin! It's rare on this board. :) I didn't mean to sound so hostile, but it gets my dander up- especially when people go into personal attacks on each other.
He is savvy, I'll give you that, but the majority of his funding was from right here in Fairbanks, with a few exceptions of family members and friends out of state. I think the same goes for Tammie- she has funding coming from Illinois- where she used to live.
Gypsy, I hate to disappoint you but MANY registered & 'rabid' republicans support & even work at UAF. I might have to agree with you on NPR, but KUAC Alaska 1 tv is a favorite in several conservative homes I know of & many of us financially support it as well. The particular profile you are addressing isn't a good one.
Princess: Quit trying to smash stereotypes. Such efforts on your part will only complicate the thought processes of others.
Northern Arizona
FY10 budget - $134 million
Enrollement - 22,500 students
Faculuty - 809
Avg. gpa of freshman 3.4
University of Alaska
FY10 Budget - $323 million
Enrollement - Around 30,000 for all campuses
Faculty - over 1,000 at UAF alone!!
Have you ever been to Flagstaff? I would say cost of living overall is comparable to Fairbanks. Housing is much higher than Fairbanks. I know I have been looking at houses in Flagstaff. Also information for NAU is MUCH easier to find online!!!!!
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AKWLDCAT - And the genius that you are supporting is a college dropout janitor?
Republicans supporting Hopkins share his liberal values. No surprise there.
POO - Perhaps. But he can conduct the analysis.
Tammie, by all accounts, can't. And I've heard that straight from current assembly members and borough employees.
Plus, my ears and eyes can see her incompetence for what it is.
And I have to echo akprincess72's view. Alaska One is one of my favorite stations. Fox News is the other.
Tammie, by all accounts, can't. And I've heard that straight from current assembly members and borough employees.
_____________________
And you really think that is an unbiased view?
The thing about Tammy is that she understands that she has weaknesses and has a lot to learn. Hopkins will continue the Whitaker pattern of combining ignorance and with arrogance. Very dangerous.
I've never met Mr Hopkins, but I'm sure his mental faculties are just fine. He seems rather charming & articulate. I have worked with Tammie on a few community events, each time she was intelligent, engaged & well spoken. She handled all the different personalities of our group very well (she was tasked to be the group leader) & she was great at facilitating discussions. She was also very good at finding real solutions form the ideas. I enjoyed working with her & if asked will readily do so again
Tame Kitty, I don't think people are slow to defend her at all. I think more likely people realize arguing with you would be a colossal waste of time.
Sorry TAC, I'll work on staying where I'm pigeon-holed for the greater good of the readership.
(Geez, I'm even in the Public Television survey group though!) =D
Wow, princess. You are, literally, the first person I've ever heard say that. Check her youtube videos and see if you can translate what she's trying to say.
Tammie is being surpressed by her campaign. Rightfully so. Her rambling answers at the forums were beyond embarassing.
Poo - Yes, I have been to Flagstaff, and while homes are more expensive, most other living expenses are not.
Here are a couple of "cost-of-living calculators" - I presumed an income amount of 50K, and a move from Fairbanks to Flagstaff. Check it out - the energy prices in particular:
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savi...
Here's another comparison:
http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-c...
This one only featured Anchorage as a city in Alaska, but is still worth looking at:
http://www.cityrating.com/costofliving.a...
The figures you provided for the two schools are inadequate for comparison - as I said, I'll look into it and cite my sources for you when I do. I'm working tonight, tho, and have to get back at it. Thanks for your interest - nice to talk to you, rather than our usual sniping :}
"Fox News is the other."
What a surprise there. You do know that in 2003 they fought for, and won in court, the right to broadcast stories that they knew to be untrue don't you? The fact that they went to that effort casts doubt on everything they broadcast.
I'm still undecided on this election. Luke has a better resume, but I've met Tammy and she is an pleasant, honest, bright, enthusiastic woman.
PREDICTABILITY..............when the wacky Libs are losing.......they ALWAYS resort to name calling ..........and, they try to make their enemies appear .............DUMB. Same ol tactic everytime. It only can mean one thing..........Luke is losing and TAMMIE is winning. ATTENTION Liberal name-callers (including you at the Newsminus).........GO BACK TO YOUR ANTI DEPRESSENTS and seek PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING. Your kids aren't safe with you in the house.
bigfut, who are you talking to? No one is name calling - except you. This seems like a pretty civilized discussion. What enemies? And that last thing - harsh, dude.
DrKaren, could you please tell me where you obtained the information about Fox News? I've always wondered how they can present false information without getting in trouble.
AKWLDCAT, aka dobieman, aka elephantwhatever, keep talking. You are the best spokesman Tammie has. And after the election, seek help.
Krissy - I am onboard with that same question and more. I have spent only a few minutes of my life watching Fox news and during those few minutes saw numerous things that I thought were illegal because they were known to be brainwashing techniques. Garbage journalism of the worst kind. I see its effect on our country, my country, like poison. Its like a media Mad Cow Disease and should be treated accordingly.
DRKaren, Krissy, sosorry - Damn you saw through the Fox smokescreen. Most of us aren't that bright. You should consider a job for Team Obama. They are doing a GREAT job and exposing Fox for what it is. If they could just make those ratings go down.....
just rember that university employees are eating at the public trough and if you want someone getting into your pocket book deeper and if you want wood burning outlawed and wood police coming around and checking on your method of heating along with more intrusive goverment as well as paying a retired professor another large salary please vote for luke. another goverment employee.
"eating at the public trough"???? Oh good gravy!!!
Again, a lot of people have publicly funded jobs, it's okay, they are needed jobs. Some departments actually self-support & everything on the hill isn't evil. People of ALL ideologies & political slants work at the U, it isn't some big cyborg of liberalism, conservatives work there too. "eating at the public trough", sheesh... I work for my paycheck.
akprincess72 - I thnink you are more the exception than the rule at UAF. Still I am glad there are folks at UAF like you that show some common sense.
Power_of_the_O - I'm sorry that you don't see anything wrong with the way the news is presented at Fox News. It's pretty simple, and you seemed like a smart guy to me, but let me tell you how I began to feel that I was being manipulated.
When I first began to seriously watch news programs, I tuned in to Fox News, but when they relentlessly attacked Democrats only, I had to ask myself, "Are these people biased?"
When Rupert Murdoch hired Roger Ailes, a Republican political strategist for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and former producer of the "Rush Limbaugh" show, as the news network's chairman and chief executive, I thought, "Uh oh - this could be bad."
When Karl Rove was hired as a Fox News contributer, I thought, "Hey... He's definately not unbiased."
When Bush's press secretary, Scott McClellen, admitted on "Hardball" that "the Bush White House routinely gave talking points to Fox News commentators in order to influence discourse and content", it became clear to me that Fox was actively engaging in the propaganda business.
But when I started reading about Rupert Murdoch and his media holdings around the world, but especially in the US... I began to worry that this guy was not only gaining a monopoly in media holdings, but given the fact that his newspapers and networks are blatantly broadcasting only one side of the news, he could eventually wind up CONTROLLING THE NEWS that you all listen to and think is "fair and balanced".
But worse, for all the damage Murdoch inflicts on the psyche of the American people, constantly creating chaos and conflict, he's a tax cheat:
"The article points to the difficulties of finding out about the specifics of News Corporations’ tax affairs because of the company’s complex corporate structure. In its latest accounts, the group lists roughly 800 subsidiaries, including some 60 incorporated in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles and the British Virgin Islands, where the secrecy laws are as attractive as the climate”.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/54/t...
So, you pay taxes, I pay taxes - but not Fox News? And you say their ratings are high? Do real patriots support businesses that cheat on their taxes? I guess they do.
How did an article about financial disclosures become a slam-fest on the university? Is this race between two individuals, or a referendum on the U?
krissy - I share your concern about News Corp. and Mr. Murdoch's many media holdings, and your frustration over his tax evasion. But even more egregious than those obvious things is his subversive hold on a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised, and has decided to target the current administration rather than the past one, which forced a radical change in Democratic policies simply to "clean up" and manage the damage inflicted by the Bush administration. Had Obama been elected during a more financially stable period in American history, he may have enjoyed a much less traumatic first 10 months. But he had to play "bad cop" to Bush's "good cop", and he became the target for conservatives looking for someone to blame. Murdoch and Ailes were more than pleased to serve Obama's head on a silver platter to all takers.
But my hope is that when (not if, but when) Obama succeeds in stopping the blood flow from the financial fiasco begun by the Republican-sponsored deregulation of the banking services industry, and when he calms down the war hawks on the other side and pulls out of the wars he didn't start in the middle east, moderates on the other side will realize that they've been fooled, and the ranters at Fox will be silenced.
First someone has to step up to the plate and say that what is really going on is war: that propagandizing and brainwashing the American people is only the criminal face of the criminals that are robbing our country. The attacks an Obama are a carefully planned daily truck bomb carried out in a carefully coordinated fashion, every day, every day. Why? It is simple why, he was elected to put a stop to the enormous rip off that is taking billions of dollars straight into the hands of a very few master criminals.
People like Power of O work for them. Every day they do their little piece of action. There are many who are simply conservatives trying like hell to hang on to an America that was I am not aimed at them. The Power of O type that is a different kettle of fish. They are part of the attack structure and doing a job.
1AkFox, Elyse Guttenberg has retired from FNA. She worked there 7 years.
Luke Voted for the BAG TAX
Before he voted against it...
sosorry, I totally agree about this being a war on Obama. And Fox News is leading the attack just as if they were soldiers on the front lines. Fox has always been "right leaning", but now they're not even pretending to be impartial observers of the news. They create the "news". It's sickening. But when you try to tell someone who listens to any of that stuff - the news or so-called entertainment shows - they accuse you of being an "Obamabot" or whatever - it's insanity.
Both Ailes, as the chairman, and Rove, as a contributor, were actually Republican operatives (they call them "strategists) - it's obvious that they STILL ARE.
And I think I know what you mean the people you called "simply conservatives" - they're really the victims in this thing. They're the ones who supported Bush, believing him to be a evangelical Christian who could do no wrong - and that pretense was all Rove's doing, too, but that's another story. But the ones that make me angry are the ones like POO, who are intelligent enough to know better but push the agenda anyway. Sickening.
(rolling eyes, again.)
Why do you people hate on government employees and union people. They are hard working people just like you they pay taxes the same as you. I bet you don't complain when they spend money at your places of business or pay for services as a customer where you work. Maybe you would prefer that government employees and union member boycott the companies that advertise on your far right wing radio stations and fox networks.
You know my id here is really a company issued log on. I am really thinking abour terrance cole's imperative to use real names. I'm thinking about coming out. How about you guys? I do this for enertainment not noteriaty. So what do ya think regulars? Brave enough?
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