Obviously, Anchorage Assemblywoman Sheila Selkregg is not a Communist, per se. But one can easily understand how some conservatives could have gotten that idea during a meeting of the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday November 3rd, 2009. Media stories on this issue from KTUU Channel 2, the Anchorage Daily News, the Anchorage Daily Planet, and Alaska Dispatch.
The subject of discussion was Mayor Dan Sullivan's proposed six-year fiscal plan, a long range general overview of the city's priorities. Without extending the common courtesy of prior consultation with the mayor's office, Assemblywoman Sheila Selkregg, who is considered part of the "Socialist Six" majority on the 11-person assembly, offered several amendments to the plan, one under the heading of "Social Equity." Direct link to KTUU news video HERE.
A second related KTUU video is directly accessible HERE.
Red flag! Red flag! Assemblyman Bill Starr, a conservative Assembly member from Eagle River, immediately reacted. "This Selkregg manifesto now speaks to words such as social equity," Starr said. Then afterwards, Starr continued, "It speaks to several platforms that are solidly entrenched in the communist planks. One of them is sort of leveling of ... moving toward a classless society".
Bang! The brouhaha was on! Dr. Selkregg immediately fired back, saying "If you think that makes me a communist, I think that what I'll have to say to you, is that you sound a lot like a McCarthy person, I mean for goodness sakes". Older liberals frequently like to throw out charges of "McCarthyism" at conservatives to deflect criticism. But Selkregg later explained herself further, saying that her amendments weren't related to communism at all. "When we make our decisions, there's a sense of fairness and we don't make decisions that result in poor people or middle class people paying a lot to the benefit of people who are very wealthy," she said.
But Starr stood by his characterization. "I do (stand by what I said). I think it's a fair analogy. I think the role of government is what we're analyzing at this point and where we move into the social program needs, how we provide that social equity, that's not our job," Starr said. Nevertheless, the Assembly passed Selkregg's amendments by a 6-5 vote, split along ideological lines (the Socialist Six voted as a bloc).
