June 27th Odds & Ends

I hope to be out on the Glenn Highway with Vic Kohring for at least part of the time, as he waves "goodbye" to folks for three hours on Monday morning, just before he goes in to Anchorage and surrenders to Federal authorities, to be transported off to prison. It will be a quintessential Vic moment.

An editor told me earlier this evening, "it's sad, isn't it?"

I replied that it isn't. I worked in public safety for almost 13 years, and in corrections for almost seven. I sent hundreds of people back to prison when I worked for Allvest, a company that owned and operated the Cordova Center back in the 80s and 90s. The correctional systems, whether local, state or Federal, are machines. What they do to people in this country is quite complex. Vic's experience will not be sad compared to what one often sees happen. And Vic himself is possibly capable of learning from this phase of his life and using it to become a more useful, more multi-dimensional person.

He still hopes to prevail too. In an article in the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman today, Kohring said, "greeting the morning commuters is my way of expressing appreciation to the many people who have supported me over the years. I wish to say thank you and goodbye, but only for now, as I anticipate success with my appeal and returning for a new trial.”

The Federal government wasn't sterling clear in quantifying how much Vic received from Veco. It is hard sometimes to put the price on what a late night cheeseburger with Bill meant at the Juneau McDonalds during the closing days of a legislative session. But one thing that was clear in the Kohring trial was that Veco didn't just hand their money out through some sort of a philanthropic program. They clearly saw something in Kohring's makeup and his position in the legislature that got them to fork over money in ways Kohring grew to anticipate.

Sterling clear.

Less clear is the relationship with Veco during his legislative tenure of current U.S. AK-AL House candidate Ethan Berkowitz. After former Alaska governor Tony Knowles, Berkowitz was the biggest recipient of campaign contributions from Veco on the Democratic Party side of the aisle in Juneau. But how much that was is hard to find. APOC records only go back so far on their web site. And I'm unfamiliar with all the names of the Veco employees who were reimbursed for their personal contributions to politicians by the company.

As an example of how confusing other information - not from APOC - can be, I'll cite an experience I had today. The Anchorage Daily News has a story up about the Diane Benson campaign's recent endorsement by 21st Century Democrats, a progressive organization helping Democrats they feel fit their agenda. In the comments, I cited a figure for Berkowitz's Veco contributions in 2000. Somebody from the Berkowitz campaign called the ADN, claiming my figure was erroneous.

The Berkowitz campaign person was correct. I was off by $2,000. I claimed $10,000, rather than the $8,000 cited in an Associated Press article carried in the Juneau Empire back in September 2006.

The ADN got hold of me, saying my comment was being removed at the request of the Berkowitz campaign. This within minutes of my posting of the comment. Later, I spoke with the editor, telling him I had been wrong, but had posted a subsequent comment, citing the article directly. I didn't dispute the removal.

Interestingly, the ADN editor cited to me an article at odds with the Empire article. Here's what the ADN editor sent me, under the byline of Matt Volz, from the Associated Press:

Former Gov. Tony Knowles, who is the Democratic nominee again this year, is one of the few Democrats who has received contributions from VECO, and only when he was running for re-election in 1998. Knowles received $10,975 from company executives that year, according to his campaign. His running mate, House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, also received $3,000 from VECO officials in 1998 and 2000, according to APOC records. Neither plans to return the money from those past campaigns, spokeswoman Patty Ginsburg said.

Here's the relevant section of the Juneau Empire article from the next day, that I used for the $8,000 figure:

Former Gov. Tony Knowles, who is the Democratic nominee again this year, is one of the few Democrats who has received contributions from VECO, and only when he was running for re-election in 1998. Knowles received $10,975 from company executives that year, according to his campaign. His running mate, House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, received $8,000 from VECO officials in 2000. Neither plans to return the money from those past campaigns, spokeswoman Patty Ginsburg said.

I'm known for being highly critical of Ethan Berkowitz's campaign funding in this cycle. I've only brought up his past support from Veco recently. The Benson campaign, hoping to keep to the high road, has sought to talk me out of bringing this up. Their position on criticism of Berkowitz has been to stay away from anything that could hurt the party's chances from taking the AK-AL seat in November.

But this is an important issue. Let's get back to these two versions of what appears to be the same Matt Volz article. The $5,000 discrepancy could be an error, or it could be creative editing. The meat is in the difference between the ADN's version:

Berkowitz, also received $3,000 from VECO officials in 1998 and 2000, according to APOC records...

and the Empire version:

Berkowitz, received $8,000 from VECO officials in 2000...

Could they both somehow be correct? I doubt it. Where's the error?

Progressive Alaska would like to take this opportunity to invite Ethan Berkowitz or a spokesperson from the Berkowitz for U.S. Congress campaign to write a guest post at Progressive Alaska, clearing up this and other campaign finance issues.

If you have a question on campaign financing you would like Ethan's campaign to address, you can post a comment, or e-mail me at mungerniklake at gmail dot com.

Update - Saturday at 10:00 a.m: From information I'm getting at the e-mail address I posted above, it appears that the amount of $8,000.00 to Berkowitz by Veco in 2000, as published in September, 2006, may be an error. Possibly a typo, but I'm not sure yet. No e-mails or comments yet from anyone currently working on Ethan's campaign. One person did send in some of the data on Ethan's acceptance of lots of money from the cruise ship industry in the 2006 races. More on that later.

Update - Monday at 11:30 a.m: Looking through APOC figures for 2000, it appears that the Juneau Empire version of the Septmber 5-6, 2000 AP story by Matt Volz is in error. Berkowitz took less from Veco in 2000 than it alleges. I have used that figure erroneously here and at the ADN politics blog. The fact remains, though, that Berkowitz was viewed by Bill Allen and Veco in 2000 as a very useful Democrat to them in Alaska, and that when Berkowitz was questioned later about the campaign contribution, he refused to return the money.