Constitutional Convention

by Willy Keppel

Should you vote for a constitutional convention? Yes, absolutely! Alaska is ranked as the corruptest legislature in America. We’re the only State that hasn’t outlawed the use of the binding caucus.

The beauty of our Constitution is that the Alaska framers in the 1950’s recognized that politicians would probably take advantage of the system somewhere in the future. They wrote in a clause for a mandatory vote every ten years on whether or not the PEOPLE wanted to review the constitution. They saw the need to allow the PEOPLE to decide if politicians were out of control, knowing politicians would never admit to having grown too fat, comfortable and authoritarian.

These very framers had the advantage of writing the 49th, State Constitution. They were able to actually look at where history had repeated itself in positive or negative ways in the last 175 years since America declared Independence from our original nemesis, the King of England.

Now fast forward to today and you have the equivalent of the King’s Red Coated army marching against us again. This new Army calls itself “Save the Constitution”. This is a political PAC, organized to sell FEAR.

Make no mistake, this is a highly organized Army of former and current politicians, executives of big business and the cream of the crop of the Non-profits CEO’s. All of these folks have a proven penchant for corrupt political practices like enforcing or supporting the Binding Caucus in the Legislature, PFD Theft and creative accounting methods for our State Finance. IT’S NO SMALL WONDER THEY WANT TO SAVE THE CONSTITION IN IT’S CURRENT FORM!!!

When you review the list of sponsors on this Political PAC, you’ll find the names synonymous with the corruption in our State today. These people are spending MILLIONS of dollars SELLING FEAR, when in reality they’re selling BUSINESS AS USUAL.

The radios and TVs are loaded with the fearmongering messages meant to scare you into voting for business as usual in the Legislature. When in reality the only thing this fearmongering campaign is meant to do is stop the PEOPLE from reasserting their rights to control their own Government. King George thought he could tax without representation, which is exactly what’s going on today with a flat tax on your PFD.

This is a highly discriminatory form of tax. It unfairly affects the lowest income individuals and areas. Rural Alaska is doubly hard hit by this regressive flat tax. Western Alaska is the two poorest Legislative Districts in the State. The population is largely Native Alaskans with a yearly household income below the poverty line.

Save The Constitution is also making the assertion that the Con Con (constitutional convention) won’t be representative of the districts, which is a lie. Your Delegate to the Con Con will be elected by people in your Legislative District. Odds are your Con Con Delegate will look a lot politically like the people you send to Juneau.

If the new LT. Governor picks a date for the convention during the Legislative session, a Legislator would have to resign their seat in the Legislature to go as a Con Con Delegate.

Yes, it’s true a lot of different agenda items can come up for review at the Convention. Great! Publicly identifying specific areas of concern doesn’t guarantee that they will actually be assigned to a committee for consideration. No matter what actually makes it to committee, doesn’t mean it’s going to get the votes to move forward for consideration by the full assembly. Actually, getting a up or down vote, is going to be just as difficult as getting a concurrence vote for the yearly State Budget in the Legislature.

Now we’re to the point with a Constitutional Amendment that the opponents of the Con Con want you to forget… No matter what amendments get passed and forwarded to the Alaskan Residents, WILL NOT COUNT WITHOUT THE CONSENT AT THE BALLOT BOX BY ALL ALASKAN VOTERS.

The Alaskan Voters ARE THE BAR that the Delegates have to clear, to have done their job. Bear in mind these Delegates aren’t going to be subjected to public scrutiny or lobbyist influence, like the Legislature. They will be cloistered, similar to a Grand Jury. Which leads to just another reason the “Save the Constitution” group fears the Con Con, there’ll be no lobbying.

Vote YES to the Constitutional Convention. Put the Legislature on notice that we the PEOPLE are the State and the Legislature is subservient to we the PEOPLE.

Willy Keppel is a resident of Quinhagak and a YK-Delta resident for 35 years. He is a candidate for Senate Seat S, Veterans Party. You can reach him at PO BOX 8, Quinhagak, 99655 or email him at [email protected].

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