MORE TROUBLE FOR LEMAN

Ghostwriting Ballot Statement Is One More Mark Against Him

Lt. Gov. Loren Leman just doesn't get it. He doesn't seem to
understand that his only real job under the Alaska Constitution is to
oversee state elections with complete integrity. Instead, he keeps
using and abusing elections processes like a political hack on the
stump.

The latest example of the lieutenant governor's excesses? In producing
the official state election pamphlet, his office surreptitiously wrote
most of the statement that appears in opposition to Ballot Measure
2.

This was not a case where staff ran amok while the boss wasn't
watching. Mr. Leman's chief of staff, Annette Kreitzer, told the Daily
News that her boss clearly wanted Dr. Charles M. Herndon to be the
person who wrote the statement against taxing and regulating
marijuana. Lt. Gov. Leman rejected a request by former federal
prosecutor Wev Shea to produce the statement in opposition. When Mr.
Shea suggested two other possible authors, Lt. Gov. Leman declined to
contact them. He insisted on Dr. Herndon.

The problem, according to Ms. Kreitzer, was that Dr. Herndon wouldn't
commit to doing the job. Ms. Kreitzer prepared a suitable argument,
and Lt. Gov. Leman forwarded it to Dr. Herndon.

In an e-mail, to Lt. Gov. Leman wrote Dr. Herndon, "Thank you for
considering my request for you to sign this statement, revise it, or
write a statement of your own. ... Please call me at 269-7460 or
e-mail your answer today if possible." With slight modifications, the
text from Mr. Leman's e-mail is the language that appeared under Dr.
Herndon's name in the voter pamphlet, arguing against Measure 2.

Ms. Kreitzer was unrepentant. She just cut and pasted easily available
information from the FBI Web site, she said in an interview. The
material was not specifically prepared for Dr. Herndon; it was for
whoever would have agreed to write it.

The notion that the state's top election official should not be
ghostwriting statements on either side of a ballot measure didn't
register at all. What Lt. Gov. Leman has done is equivalent to a judge
feeding legal arguments to one side in a pending case. It makes
Alaskans wonder in what other ways Mr. Leman might use his office to
tip the election scales.

Lt. Gov. Leman's underhanded ballot measure advocacy is hardly the
first time his bias has influenced his official election duties. His
record includes four courtroom defeats in handling the U.S. Senate
special election initiative, which he personally opposes. And it
includes unnecessary and prejudicial rewording in the description of
two other initiatives that will appear on November's ballot.

Alaska's Constitution entrusts the lieutenant governor with the job of
making sure elections are conducted honestly, fairly and with complete
neutrality. It does not envision the lieutenant governor ghostwriting
advocacy statements for one side or another in any election fight.

No other lieutenant governor in Alaska's history has come close to Mr.
Leman's record of using his authority over elections to tilt things
the way he wants. Lt. Gov. Leman has repeatedly failed to do his job
with the integrity and objectivity Alaskans have a right to expect.

BOTTOM LINE: Lt. Gov. Leman has added another sorry chapter to his
record of mishandling election duties.