Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 10:54 AM
To: 'mead.treadwell@alaska.gov'
Cc: 'sean.parnell@alaska.gov'
Subject: Tell the Romney campaign to stop misusing Alaska's official title of Lieutenant Governor
Dear
Please consider this email as a call for you to notify the GOP Mitt Romney campaign to stop using Alaska’s official title of Lieutenant Governor when they use you as an endorsement for their campaign in their attempt to bolster Romney. The most recent instance is in their Feb. 9th press release.
(http://mittromney.com/news/press/2012/02/mitt-romney-announces-alaska-steering-committee)
Absent a public notice from you to the Romney campaign re: the misuse of Alaska’s official Lieutenant Governor title for unofficial purposes related to Romney’s partisan political campaign, it would be clear that you approve the use of official state resources for national partisan political campaign purposes and consent towards a predictable return to the 2008 presidential campaign debacle when Sarah Palin, her Chief of Staff and Attorney General let the GOP McCain/Palin campaign hijack the Gov’s, Lt. Gov’s, and Attorney General’s offices and positions for nefarious political purposes and interests. The misuses and abuses of official public titles, positions and offices is being paid attention to by many people, even as you, Sean Parnell and others apparently pay no attention to them.
It’s agreed that, Mead Treadwell, the citizen, maintains rights to support and endorse any candidate. But, the title you hold, the title of Lieutenant Governor, does not solely belong to you to do as you, or others, will. That title ultimately belongs to the people of Alaska and ought to represent and benefit ALL Alaskans’ and Alaska’s public interests, and not solely your personal partisan political interests. It is to be used for official state purposes through the normal performance of official duties. Therefore, please tell the Romney campaign to stop using Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor title for unofficial partisan political purposes.
Along with oversight and enforcement of the proper use of Alaska’s official state seal, the Lieutenant Governor is also charged with overseeing elections in Alaska. The Office of the Governor’s Division of Elections mission is ‘To conduct impartial, secure and accurate elections.’ Why would the Office of the Governor, by continuing to let the GOP Romney campaign misuse our official Lieutenant Governor title, want to discount that most significant and important charge and responsibility, and inject unnecessary, preventable and avoidable bias and doubt to the integrity of Alaska’s electoral process? Alaska’s elections ought to be run beyond reproach. But, by continuing to let the GOP Romney campaign hijack Alaska’s esteemed, honorable and noble title of Lieutenant Governor for Romney’s personal, partisan, political, presidential primary campaign purposes, Alaska’s 2012 elections, both the primary and the general, are compromised by statements attributed to you by the Romney campaign.
Also, the Executive Branch Ethics Act forbids the use of state resources for partisan political purposes. (Sec. 39.52.120: Misuse of official position) The title of Lieutenant Governor is an official state resource. Partisan political purposes is defined as having the intent to differentially benefit or harm a candidate or potential candidate for elective office; or political party or group; but does not include having the intent to benefit the public interest at large through the normal performance of official duties. Naturally, the Romney GOP national primary presidential campaign’s intent is to harm other GOP candidates and other partisan political groups in order to win their elections. And, the Lieutenant Governor’s duties do not include endorsements of national presidential primary candidates. The Romney campaign is misusing the title of Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor to prop up their candidate for their personal partisan political campaign purposes interests. Tell them to stop misusing the title of Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor, by public notice, so that henceforth, people are aware that Alaska’s public officers, official titles, positions and offices can’t be misrepresented for anyone’s partisan political purposes and interests.
Mead, you took an oath of office to uphold the laws of Alaska upon being sworn in as Lieutenant Governor, which includes the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. That trumps any loyalty or allegiance to other organizations’ rules, including the ones of the Alaska Republican Party. Your oath was to represent ALL Alaskans. That includes democrats, independents, libertarians, and everyone else in between, even ones who aren’t even registered to vote, and not just republicans. Tell the Romney campaign to stop using Alaska’s official Lieutenant Governor title because that title belongs to ALL Alaskans, not just ones inclined to vote in the primary and general elections for Romney, or any other Republican on the ballot.
I call on you to abide by the oath you took last year. Protect and defend Alaska’s title of Lieutenant Governor, like you would your official duty to preserve and safeguard Alaska’s official state seal, by publicly telling the GOP Romney campaign to stop using Alaska’s title of Lieutenant Governor when they use you as an endorsement to their personal, partisan, political, GOP presidential primary campaign purposes and interests. Send a strong message to the Romney campaign that just because other states allow this practice doesn’t make it right. Nip this ‘use-of title-and-position-for-unofficial purposes’ thing in the bud, before we have a recurrence of the 2008 presidential campaign fiasco - when the GOP presidential campaign ran roughshod over our Gov’s, Lt. Gov’s, and Attorney General’s offices and positions, and high-jacked the Executive Branch of Alaska’s government.
Remember - Silence is consent.
Sincerely,
Andrée McLeod
3 comments:
Alternate Headline:
Looney Bird goes Wacko
this girl has some serious problems and needs help.
Andr'ee is trying to make politics a clean and honest
enterprise. She has an almost impossible task but I
admire her determination. She does need help - our
help to rein in the loony element that seems to thrive
in Ak government.
Andrée McLeod is an admirable woman and citizen. She sticks her neck out to do what all of us Should do but we don't, and that is to ensure an honest, democratically run, representative system of government. Such a government is of benefit to All citizens on all sides of the political spectrum, hence only fools think less of a person who doggedly pursues that lofty goal.
Since the Republicans in this state don't give a fig whether we have a just and honest government, perhaps the democrats and progressives could stop spending so much of their energies on their hatred of Sarah Palin (as deserved as it might be, she isn't even here anymore) and instead focus on lending official and organized support to Andrée McLeod's campaigns to clean up our state government. Because no matter what one lone person draws our attention to or what efforts she makes, she can be ignored if officials do not hear from many others that they are paying attention and demanding the same. Heck, in Alaska, state officials don't even feel the need to answer letters from constituents!
It probably won't happen, though, because it is always a tiny minority who make the effort to make real change happen even if it means alienating the powers who could make their lives miserable. The majority prefer to just talk about it, risking little and making half-hearted efforts if any at all. That's just how humans are.
Thank you Ms. McLeod for being one of that tiny minority, doing what you can to benefit all of us.
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