NOW SAY YOU'RE SORRY

The Yes on 2 people, the folks behind the initiative to legalize
marijuana, are suing Lieutenant Governor Loren Leman, who oversees the
Alaska Division of Elections. Yes on 2 claims Leman's staff interfered
with the election process when it wrote an opposition statement to
Proposition 2, then got an Anchorage doctor to sign his name to the
statement. As we reported last week, the opposition statement shows up
in the Official Election Pamphlet, which voters use to educate
themselves on the issues.

Critics claim Leman and his staff showed their bias by allowing the
statement to be published in the Official Election Pamphlet. Some have
even suggested that Leman himself was dishonest to reporters when
first asked what role he had in writing the statement.

In its complaint, Yes on 2 says it wants Leman to write another
statement - this time admitting that he and his staff were wrong for
what they did. Yes on 2 wants Leman to post the admission on the
Division of Elections' website, as well as distribute it to voters on
November 2.

Yes on 2 could have asked Leman for a personal apology, but that might
have been pushing it. After all, it took the Anchorage Press filing a
request under the Freedom of Information Act to determine that Leman
and his chief of staff, Annette Kreitzer, ghost-wrote the anti-pot
statement. Kreitzer said last week that she wrote the anti-pot
statement, but maintains she did nothing wrong.

Flashlight can only imagine how hard it must be to say you're sorry
after misleading hundreds of thousands of Alaskan voters.