15 Grand Buys a Lot of Those 4 by 8 Signs

Pro-marriage Anti-Gay Amendment Supporters' Signs Spring Up Like Mushrooms

So there I was, driving out along the Johansen near the Paean to Consumerist Culture, aka, the New Box Store Complex out near the Steese. And behold, there was a largish sign instructing those driving by to vote 'yes' on April 3rd. According to an email I received earlier, signs were posted by the Fred Meyer East as well as the Regency Hotel on the Steese and other locations. Apparently, those folks in a tizzy about The Gay Agenda, (you know, the one where gay folks seek to be treated fairly in the eyes of the law), ignored the rules forbidding them to post signs within a highway right of way.

I guess the $15,000 former state legislator Ralph Seekins gave the pro-amendment group is coming in handy.

This advisory vote has been actually quite educational. Among the things I've learned:

• It is legal for state legislators to use state letterhead, staff time and money to send a letter to their constituents prior to an election like this, either in support of or against a proposed constitutional amendment. They may not, however, use said resources to raise money for or against such an amendment. (So while Mike Kelly's recent letter irritated the crap out of me, he was allowed to do it.)
• While it is illegal to post signs like the aforementioned one within a highway right of way, campaigners can post such signs on private property without first getting permission from the owner of the property.
  
• There are many, many decent people in Squarebanks. I frequently refer to this place as Redneckville, but the outpouring of letters to the editor against the proposed amendment, in the News Minus of all places, has been shocking. In an entirely good way.
• Mike Kelly is even more of an ass than he has previously demonstrated. Some choice quotes from his April 1 editorial in the News Minus:

"Get to the polls on Tuesday and vote “yes” to protect Alaska’s marriages, families and children from the pretenders and their friends on the court."

"The governor, the Legislature and the people of Alaska have consistently made it clear that marriage and the benefits associated with marriage are reserved by our society for the marriage of one man and one woman. Pretty simple. Nothing new here. But several homosexual public employees and their roommates disagreed."

So, we're in the gun lap here, with the April 3rd election happening tomorrow. There's not much more that can be said about this extraordinary waste of state money engineered by Coghill and Co. other than to vote 'No.'

The Fairbanks chapter of Alaskans Together (that's the anti-amendment group) will be watching the election returns at the Blue Loon (in the People's Independent Republic of Ester) tomorrow evening after the polls close at 8 p.m.