Termination dust is on the peaks of the Chugach mountains behind Anchorage. Winter will be here before we know it. It was a fairly slow week in Alaska politics. No new candidates filed to run for the Legislature or governor. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bernadette Wilson announced that she will withdraw from the race if she’s not the top Republican vote getter in the August primary. A new Department of Interior decision does not bode well for the Native Village of Eklutna’s casino in Birchwood. And a major Chugach Electric outage in Downtown Anchorage – that remains unexplained – knocked out the power for hundreds of homes for more than eight hours on Saturday night and Sunday morning. 

A friendly message and reminder to all our readers. The Landmine is made possible by myself and a team of awesome Alaskans. I have been covering the legislative session in Juneau for the last seven years and returned from Juneau in May. I will be heading back this January. If you enjoy the content we provide, please consider making a one time or recurring monthly donation. You can click here to donate. We have a system that makes it super easy. We would really appreciate it. And thanks to everyone who has been supportive. 

Week in Review

Bernadette Wilson announced she will drop out of the governor’s race if she, and her running mate Senator Mike Shower (R – Wasilla), aren’t the top vote getters in next year’s August primary. She says she asked the nine other Republican candidates to make the same pledge, though none so far have said if they will or won’t. More Republican candidates are sure to get in between now and June 1, the filing deadline. But others, when they realize they don’t have a chance, will try and make a play to be someone else’s running mate or get some kind of position in the administration of one of the favorites. 

A memo from Department of Interior (DOI) Deputy Secretary Katherine MacGregor, based on an a new legal opinion from the DOI solicitor, is bad news for the Native Village of Eklutna’s casino in Birchwood. The casino, bankrolled by Vegas based Marnell Gaming, hastily opened days before Donald Trump was inaugurated in January. They rushed to get things setup late at night on the Friday before the inauguration because they were worried this would happen. 

Since 1993, the DOI held that there are Indian tribes in Alaska, though they had no governmental jurisdiction over allotments. That changed in 2024 under former President Joe Biden’s administration when then-DOI solicitor Bob Anderson – who has ties to Alaska – issued a new decision. This is important because the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act says that for gaming to occur on allotments, the tribe must have governmental jurisdiction. Under Anderson’s decision, certain gaming was technically possible on allotments in Alaska. This is why the Native Village of Eklutna and Marnell rushed to get the casino open before Trump took office again.

There are already two legal challenges against the casino, one from several homeowners nearby and one from the State of Alaska. But now it’s likely the Native Village of Eklutna is going to have to file a lawsuit of their own to try and argue they can remain open. Because they are already operating (which is why they rushed to open before Trump took office) it will be harder to shut them down rather than to stop them from opening in the first place. This is sure to get very loose.  

Still can’t believe anyone thought it was a good idea to give John Hendrix an award. This guy consistently bullies those won’t give him what he wants, demands large tax breaks and royalty reductions from the state, is being sued by his partners for not paying money he owes them, and is attempting to undermine the gasline because it would end the leverage he holds over the state due to his Cook Inlet leases. He also bought Furie out of bankruptcy with information he likely learned when he was former Governor Bill Walker’s oil and gas advisor. He left that position in May 2018 and made the offer to buy Furie in December 2019, with the help of a $7.5 million AIDEA loan. Only in Alaska does this guy get an award. 

Walmart’s global media team reached out to me saying they have no plans to close the A Street store. But when I followed up to ask why local store officials would tell the Anchorage Police Department they are considering closing (due to chronic vagrancy and theft), they just repeated there are no plans to close the store. 

This Week’s Loose Unit 

This week’s designee was due to a late development. This week’s Loose Unit is Chugach Electric, with an honorable mention for the Anchorage Police Department (APD). On Saturday (9/27/2025) evening, something happened in Downtown Anchorage. I received multiple reports of explosions (probably fuses blowing in transformers), power lines on the ground, a large police presence, and cars backed up from 15th and Minnesota back to Northern Lights. It sounds like five transformers blew.

According to Chugach Electric, 770 customers were impacted. All Chugach Electric did was make a series of posts on Facebook, but never said what caused the major outage. We know it was not weather related or due to a car accident. It took over eight hours to restore power, and some customers still did not have power this afternoon. Several electricians I spoke with said while it’s possible five transformers could blow due to an animal, it is very unlikely. We all deserve to know what happened.   

And APD, who had a major presence at the scene, has not said a word about it on their Facebook page. Were they there just to help with traffic or were they responding to potential sabotage or a crazy vagrant? We have no idea. They did have time to post about the annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event though… 

If you have a nomination for this week’s Loose Unit, or if you have any political news, stories or gossip (or any old pics of politicians or public officials) please email me at jeff@alaskalandmine.com.