Conservatives take active approach — New organization starts planning early to sweep 2012 municipal elections

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Christine Hutchison speaks at an organizational meeting Saturday at Froso’s in Soldotna to found a Kenai Peninsula chapter of the Conservative Patriots Group.

Redoubt Reporter

Incumbent representatives beware. There’s a new political organization in town, and one of its primary goals is to support a move to conservativism, starting with getting the current “liberals” out of office.

An organizational meeting for a Kenai Peninsula chapter of the Conservative Patriots Group drew about 40 people to Froso’s in Soldotna on Saturday afternoon. Founders and officers of the Wasilla-based organization, Jennie and Frank Bettine and Amy Thomas, were in attendance to tell the crowd about the organization, its mission, structure and activities, and to help get a local chapter off the ground.

Jennie Bettine said CPG was founded 2.5 years ago, born out of concern and frustration for the direction of the country.

“We can no longer sit back and just talk and complain. We have to do something, and this is what we’re doing. Thomas Jefferson said it best, ‘The good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army.’ And that’s who we are. That’s why the Conservative Patriots Group is here. We are ready to correct the way this country has been led astray,” she said.

Bettine described CPG as an independent advocacy organization, “committed to electing conservative candidates, advancing conservative ideas, promoting traditional American values and advocating for responsible resource development. We also support our military totally,” she said.

It’s a nonpartisan group, she clarified, open to anyone who supports the group’s 10 principles of conservativism:

• “Conservatives believe in the written Rule of Law as expressed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by the founding fathers and reject the idea of a living Constitution;
• “Conservatives believe that government is best which governs least;
• “Conservatives believe in the individual right to life, liberty, and property;
• “Conservatives believe in the sanctity of the individual from conception, that families are the basic units of society, and that antifamily policies should be ended.
• “Conservatives believe our freedoms and rights are God-given natural rights, not given by the government;
• “Conservatives have compassion for the poor and oppose policies, such as socialism, that cause or extend poverty;
• “Conservatives believe in free and fair trade of goods and services;
• “Conservatives believe in a strong military and have a great respect for those who have put their lives in peril to protect others;
• “Conservatives believe in public policy that encourages advancement based solely on ability and achievement; and
• “Conservatives believe English should be the common language for the United States.”

“If we could find a Libertarian, a Democrat, or anybody that agrees with our 10 principles, we would get behind them,” Bettine said. “We just haven’t found any that agree with our 10 principles. It doesn’t matter what party you’re with if you’re a conservative.”

“We started not because we want to start another party,” Frank Bettine said. “If you look at the Republican platform, they have a great platform, the problem is nobody follows it. We see our job as the Conservative Patriots Group is to find those legislators, find those officials that will follow that platform and put those people into office so we can go back to the traditional American values.”

The CPG has found plenty of candidates to support, listing several Fish and Game advisory board, assembly and school board candidates in Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough that the group has helped win at least a primary, if not general election race. The group also celebrates its work in supporting U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller’s 2010 primary win over incumbent Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

“Before we formed this organization in 2009 we had (in the Mat-Su Borough) a very liberal assembly and we had a very liberal school board. We have completely reversed that. It wasn’t all our doing, but we either helped or helped serve as a catalyst to get that done, and we’re very proud of our record,” Frank Bettine said.

The group doesn’t contribute directly to candidates’ campaigns. Rather, CPG uses its financial and man-hour resources to operate a separate advocacy campaign in support of the group’s selected candidates and issues, Frank Bettine said. The group raises money through selling memberships — from $20 for individuals up to $480 per year. It also lists business sponsors on its website and accepts donations.

“I want you to be able to support us with your money, because that’s what it takes against the machine that we’re fighting against. And it also takes your time. So I’d really like you, in your hearts, to look at your budget and tell us what your liberty is worth. … We decided (President Barack) Obama wanted change, well, what we need is your change,” said Amy Thomas, CPG events director.

The CPG is organized as a for-profit corporation, in order to avoid the constraints that come with nonprofit status.

“You’re very restricted as to what you can do politically when you become a nonprofit corporation. You’re very limited on how you can spend your money, you lose your nonprofit status almost immediately if you get involved in politics, so we said, ‘Hey, we don’t want any kind of strings attached to what we’re doing here,’” Frank Bettine said.

As a corporation, the organization does have to pay taxes on some of its income. Bettine said that no one in the organization is paid, and that the CPG Corp. issued one share of stock that is owned by the corporation, so that any money CPG makes goes back into the corporation. And people buying memberships — since a membership is classed as a product, rather than a donation — don’t have to report that expenditure to the Alaska Public Offices Commission.

“The corporation structure provides us with the most protection for our members, as far as the anonymity of our members, and gives us the most freedom with the APOC,” he said.

Large donations do have to be reported to APOC, but there is no limit on the amount of the donations. Bettine credited the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, establishing that corporations are entitled to unlimited independent spending for political purposes, as another reason for the for-profit corporate structure, rather than a nonprofit or political action committee.

“That ruling gave us the ability to have a voice in the political process,” he said. “As a corporation and an independent advocacy group we can accept unlimited contributions into the corporation. You can’t do that in a PAC, you’re limited to the amount of money that can flow into the PAC from any individual. There are no limitations, other than if you give us a big contribution we have to report it to the APOC, but it doesn’t limit the amount of contribution.”

Jennie Bettine interjected that the CPG is waiting for that first $1 million donation to come along. She also said that any contribution — monetary or in volunteer time — is useful.

“I want to say to my grandchildren and my children, I tried. I did the very best I could to change what I didn’t do in years past. It’s not just Obama’s fault, it’s not just the Legislature’s fault, it’s our fault for not getting involved,” she said.

Dissatisfaction with national politics was cited as a main reason for the founding of the CPG.

“I have a special love in my heart for this organization,” Thomas said. “I became a citizen of the United Sates two years ago, and I’m very proud about that, although I lived here for 45 years and nothing motivated me. I will have to thank Barack Obama for one thing, it was like a board in the side of the head, ‘It’s time to do something.’”

For Kenai Peninsula attendees to the meeting, local and statewide issues were listed as primary concerns. Christine Hutchison, who volunteered to serve as the chair of the communications committee for the Kenai Peninsula CPG chapter, said she got involved in politics in the 2011 borough mayor’s race. She was disappointed in Mayor Mike Navarre’s election, and incensed to realize that some municipal seats weren’t even contested.

“I will not tolerate an uncontested ballot election again, if I have to go door to door to find that person so that there is not somebody running unopposed. That is a travesty to our electoral process,” she said. “These are not rocket scientists that are representing us, and I know I don’t see any other rocket scientists in here so we’re all on the same level with these people and we only need to step up, and we’ve got a whole room of people backing you.”

Wayne Ogle, chair of the peninsula CPG’s events committee, said he’s become

Wayne Ogle speaks about his motivation for getting involved in the Conservative Patriots Group. He has volunteered to be the events coordinator for the peninsula chapter of the group.

frustrated with politics at the national, state and local level, especially experiencing it as he has in previous public sector work, such as his previous position as public works director for the city of Kenai.

“Like Christine says, if you have a situation where there are two open seats on the Kenai City Council that are unchallenged, that’s disgraceful. … There’s just too much at stake to let something like that go. And that’s the reason why I got off my couch and got involved with this particular group. Inch by inch, I think we can make a difference. Stuff’s going on in the school board that would probably make your hair catch on fire, and it just goes on blasé. Things go on in the assembly and city council meetings where a lot of money is spent, your taxes are going up, and maybe it just isn’t what they should be doing,” he said.

Jack Brown is serving as chair of the peninsula CPG’s resource development

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Jack Brown, chair of the resources committee of a fledgling peninsula chapter of the Conservative Patriots Group, takes a quick poll of the crowd. About 40 people turned out for the meeting Saturday.

committee. He specifically noted his outrage at the state Department of Natural Resource’s decision to create a Special-Use Area covering the mouth of the Kasilof River, and the borough assembly’s decision to enact setbacks around anadromous streams in the borough, and to allocate funding to the Kenai Watershed Forum to do anadromous stream remediation projects.

“We’re seeing so many problems with any resource development here at all. I mean, if I was a greenie, I would be happy. I would be saying, ‘We stopped everything.’ How in the heck are we going to live?” Brown said.

Debbie Brown, coordinator for the peninsula’s CPG, was particularly motivated to help start a local chapter of the CPG after neither she nor Fred Sturman were elected in the 2011 borough mayor’s race.

“We have an opportunity for all of us across the state to help each other win these elections. Conservatives — something is wrong, we should have won that race. We have to do more to bring each other together. We have to work on things, we have to figure out a solution so we’re not imagining that this is a slam dunk,” she said.

Jennie Bettine said that the priorities of the overall CPG and the local chapters are determined by its members, who will have opportunities to suggest, discuss and vote for the candidates and issues they would like to support. Local chapters can determine their own priorities, she said.

Several topics were suggested in the meeting. Kelly Wolf, a former Kenai Peninsula state legislator, expressed concern about Central Peninsula Hospital. Kenai Peninsula Borough School District contract negotiations also were mentioned.

Sturman rallied for meeting attendees to take advantage of the unique opportunity brought about by redistricting that will come with the 2012 elections on the statewide and borough level.

“Do you guys realize what is going to happen in this next election? We have nine school board members and we have nine assembly people, as far as I know from the last report, that has to re-run. We could have nine new conservative school board members and nine new conservative borough assembly people. We wouldn’t have the problems we have at the hospital. We wouldn’t have the problems we have today with the fish stream (“anadromous,” Debbie Brown clarified). Yeah, that. I can’t say that thing,” Sturman chuckled.

“But I’m just telling you, this should be the goal of this group today, right here, is put nine new school board and nine new assembly people in, and we will solve 60 to 70 percent of our problems on the Kenai Peninsula today. And don’t forget we need to change a few at the cities, and we’ll make the biggest difference. My philosophy has always been, I can’t clean up the neighbor’s backyard until I clean up my own. We can’t clean up Juneau, we can’t clean up Washington, D.C., until we clean up the Kenai Peninsula and the cities on the Kenai Peninsula,” he said.

The meeting finished up with an “issues survey” for attendees to suggest what priorities they would like the local CPG to have. The results were as follows, ranked from one to eight:

“Referendum to repeal KPB ordinance pertaining to anadromous streams; judicial conduct; resource development; initiative to change the borough classification to eliminate certain powers and responsibilities; select and endorse qualified, conservative candidates; initiative to elect KPBSD superintendent of schools; hospital monopoly; and TSA / violations of civil liberty.”

For more information on the CPG, visit www.conservativepatriotsgroup.org.