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April 2006

Vol. 11, No. 14 Week of April 02, 2006

Arctic Power won’t get all ANWR money

Alaska House earmarks $3.7M for lobbying, with $3 million for Pac/West Communications, $750,000 for Arctic Power

Matt Volz

Associated Press Writer

The Alaska House on March 27 approved spending $3.7 million to lobby Congress for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

State representatives added the money to a supplemental spending bill nearly a week after U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said this is a must-pass year for ANWR drilling. If ANWR fails to pass Congress this year, the oil companies may withdraw their support, Stevens told the Legislature.

Of the appropriation, which also must be approved by the Senate, $3 million would go to Pac/West Communications, a public-relations firm from Wilsonville, Ore.

The other $750,000 would go to Arctic Power, which has been the state’s ANWR lobbyist in the past but whose spending has been called into question by Stevens and other lawmakers.

In Alaska, the great majority of politicians regardless of political party support opening the refuge to drilling. The estimated 10 billion barrels of oil beneath the tundra east of Prudhoe Bay is seen by nearly all as a way to slow the decline of oil production in the state, upon which the state treasury is greatly dependent.

$3M for public-relations campaigns

House Finance Co-Chairman Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, said Pac/West would use the $3 million to wage public-relations campaigns within the districts of certain congressmen who have voted against ANWR in the past.

“That’s a number that they thought they could do a decent job targeting 20 to 30 congressional districts. However they figured the number, I can’t tell you,” Chenault said after the vote.

Paul Phillips, president and chief executive of the public-relations firm, said the company would first identify both Republican and Democratic congressmen’s districts to target. Then, a campaign would be based around the idea that ANWR would ease the nation’s dependence on foreign sources of energy and also help relieve national security concerns around energy.

“This is social marketing with a distinctly political side because it’s a vote in Congress,” he said.

Phillips said he’ll have to wait and see whether such a campaign can work this year, the timeline Stevens said was necessary.

“Is it enough time? It is the time we have available,” Phillips said. “Given what we have, it is the opportunity and we will make the most of it.”

Pac/West has worked in Alaska

Democratic legislators say Pac/West has a reputation for supporting conservative causes, which is not the way to persuade Democratic congressmen to change their votes. They called for another appropriation to a public-relations firm with Democratic ties.

“If we’re going to be successful in Washington, we’re going to have to reach out to both sides of the aisle,” said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks.

Phillips said his firm is not partisan and has represented groups who lean both left and right politically.

Pac/West has been active in Alaska and Pacific Northwest politics. This year, the firm is working with the NorthWest Cruise Ship Association to defeat an Alaska ballot initiative for a $50-per-passenger cruise ship tax.

The firm in 2004 campaigned against an Alaska ballot initiative to ban bear-baiting in the state. Phillips also managed the campaign of an Oregon ballot initiative to limit attorney’s fees in medical malpractice lawsuits that year.

The $750,000 appropriation for Arctic Power is a reduction from the $1.1 million the group originally requested.

Arctic Power has received nearly $11 million from the state since 1992, including $1.8 million last year.

Stevens said he’s soured on Arctic Power

Stevens said he had soured on Arctic Power because they did not consult with Alaska’s congressional delegation on their planning and spending. Stevens gave his blessing earlier in March for the group to receive state money as long as guidelines are laid down as to how the group spends it.

The House’s appropriation to Arctic Power includes the provision that no more than 5 percent can be spent on administrative costs, and both Arctic Power and Pac/West must coordinate with the congressional delegation and Gov. Frank Murkowski’s Washington office.

Jerry Hood, an Arctic Power lobbyist, said without the full $1.1 million requested, Arctic Power won’t have the ability to use the full strength of its plans. He declined to discuss what those plans were.

“We’re not going to send a roadmap to the opposition as to how we are going to succeed this year,” he said.

Hood said Pac/West is a good group, but he hasn’t spoken with congressional leaders about whether the two would be expected to coordinate their lobbying.

“But if it isn’t a coordinated effort, and doesn’t have coordination with the delegation, it has the potential of doing more harm than good,” Hood said.





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