Spring 2006 Issue - Alaska Report
Trade Mission to Anchorage June 28-30
Posted: October 15, 2008
Seattle Mayor Travels North
Can the Mayors of Anchorage and Seattle Help Ease the Regional Rift?
> Plus, Our Proposal for A Good First Step
Japan, Canada, China, and Taiwan rank as Washington’s four biggest trading partners. But take airplane sales out of the export mix and our number two trade partner becomes Alaska, a state that generates about $4 billion in sales for the meat-and-potato sectors of the Washington state economy.
But although our state government maintains full-time trade offices in six countries, it has no office in Alaska. And while Seattle elected officials have circled the globe for decades in pursuit of world peace and Sister City relationships, it appears that no official city government delegation has paid a formal courtesy call on our neighbors to the north for the last two decades.
That will change on June 28 when Mayor Greg Nickels will lead a Seattle trade mission to Anchorage as part of a new effort to promote better business and cultural relations between the two regions. The trip was organized under the auspices of a new Anchorage Seattle Economic Cooperation Council formed in 2004 by Nickels and Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.
“The economic and cultural ties between our two cities stretch back for decades,” Nickels said. “I’m looking forward to working with Mayor Begich to forge a new era of cooperation that will create jobs and opportunities for Seattle and Anchorage.”
Radioactive
The timing couldn’t be more challenging -- or more opportune.
U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Ted Stevens are engaged in an acrimonious battle over possible oil exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Fallout from the battle seems to grow deeper by the day and now envelopes Cantwell’s bid for re-election and her Republican challenger, Mike McGavick.
Many leading Alaskans are infuriated by their perception that “Seattle” no longer cares about Alaska and they are contributing to McGavick. Meanwhile, many in Seattle are infuriated by Alaska’s senior leadership. Seattle’s ANWR angst is so high, McGavick’s candidacy may already be doomed.
Seattle newspaper cartoonists and columnists are having field days with the controversy, led by Seattle Post Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly, a long-time Stevens-hater whose zeal for Alaskan wilderness preservation may be matched only by his contempt for anyone who disagrees with him.
The belligerent background noise aroused by ANWR in Seattle is amplified by the almost utter failure of the Seattle press to cover anything about Alaska other than ANWR. Alaska is an enormous state with all kinds of connections to our own, but if you want to read or learn anything about it, you better subscribe to one of the papers up north.
Common Ground
Can the two mayors make a difference? They think so. They struck up a friendship at a mayors’ conference a few years ago and their regional initiative grew from there. In spite of the 2,000 miles of stunning topography that separates Anchorage and Seattle, the two cities share much common ground.
“At the end of the day, politics is all about local issues,” Begich said. “There are many opportunities for our two communities to work together. We’re not separate communities really. We’re connected in many ways. We can learn from each other. As mayors, we have the capacity to bring people together.”
Common municipal challenges include the need to respond to seismic hazards that are much worse than those faced by most cities. Homeland Security is another common challenge. Nickels is a national leader on the issue of climate change and Alaskan scientists are at the forefront of that issue due to rapid warming in the Arctic.
The mayors also want to encourage better communication and potential new programs between educational institutions in their states. Research for their initiative reveals extensive interaction between college faculty members from both states on shared subjects such as seismology, climate change, volcanoes and fisheries. Greater visibility might lead to more support for these interactions and better information for public decision-makers.
The mayors are also cosponsoring an experimental intern program this year that placed four college students from Alaska and Washington in summer jobs with two Seattle-based companies that do business in both states, Manson Construction and Lynden Transport. The hope is the program might be expanded to create an ongoing stream of future business and government leaders who possess first-hand knowledge about the trade relationship and other connections that bind our two regions.
Nickels has also formed a citizen task force in Seattle to plan a 2009 centennial celebration for the Alaska Yukon Exposition that was held in 1909 at the University of Washington. The same year will mark the 50th anniversary of Alaskan statehood. The two events present a threeyear period to work on event planning and building relationships.
To help establish more specific nearterm objectives, the mayors formed a new Anchorage Seattle Economic Opportunity Council comprised of business and community representatives from each region. The council held its first meeting in January and its first act was to recommend the trade mission to Anchorage that will take place at the end of June.
Low Point?
It’s easy to assume the present marks the low point in the historic relationship between Alaska and Washington. But the true nadir probably was reached after World War II when Alaska citizens mounted a drive for statehood. The effort was chronicled by Ernest Gruening, an Alaskan territorial governor who became one of Alaska’s first US Senators. According to Gruening, the statehood drive hit a major roadblock that was erected by Seattle- based seafood and shipping companies that were worried statehood might reduce their clout in the Alaska territory.
Gruening gave much credit to Henry Jackson for helping to open the way to statehood after Jackson was elected a U.S Senator from Washington in 1952. After statehood was achieved in 1959, Jackson and Washington’s senior senator, Warren Magnuson, forged a successful partnership with the Alaskan Congressional delegation.
The partnership included Ted Stevens when he was appointed to fill a U.S. Senator vacancy for Alaska in 1969 and over the ensuing decade, Magnuson, Jackson and Stevens formed a trio that was highly successful in winning federal legislation and aid that was extremely beneficial to both Washington and Alaska.
But Magnuson left office in 1980 and Jackson died in office in 1983. Relations between the two Congressional delegations haven’t been the same since and in the fight over ANWR, Stevens often laments the loss of his old pals, “Maggie” and “Scoop.”
Yet, politics, Seattle and the state of Washington have all changed a lot since those days. Cantwell may drive many Alaskans nuts with her religious-like crusade on ANWR, but she’s singing from a hymnal that in Seattle is very widely shared.
Magnuson and Jackson are revered in Washington as Democratic icons, but the truth is neither could probably win election today to the Seattle City Council. Maggie’s robust but politically incorrect social life would have hit the front pages faster than a hurricane howling down First Avenue and Scoop’s hawkish views on defense would get him heckled from Beacon Hill to Phinney Ridge and probably barred from the City Council chamber.
Connections
Yet, the many accomplishments of Magnuson and Jackson still possess a magic glow for many who knew them and Nickels and Begich both possess ties to the “good old days” that could prove helpful to their endeavor.
Nickels worked as a Washington DC intern for Magnuson while in college. It was a life-changing experience that inspired him to leave school early and devote himself fulltime to a career in public service and politics. His admiration for Magnuson and lack of personal pretense should put him on firm footing among community leaders up north.
Alaska is a place state where many put a premium on local history and in his own way, Begich is historic. He is the first person who grew up in Anchorage to become the city’s mayor. Because Alaska is so new, all previous Anchorage mayors and many other leaders for the state were born somewhere else (Stevens was a native of Indiana).
Begich is a son of Nick Begich, an Alaskan congressman who died in an airplane crash in 1972. His father was succeeded by Don Young, who has held the Alaskan Congressional post for more than 30 years.
So, in spite of his relative youth, Begich has deep roots in Alaska and although he is a Democrat, Begich is well regarded by both Young and Stevens.
A Successful Beginning
So, where does this leave us? We have some good intentions and some hopeful connections, but where and how can the healing best begin? The moment brings to mind a comment made by Chinese President Hu Jintao during his recent trip to the Emerald City. Ju told one gathering that “a good beginning is already half the way to success.”
And what better way to jump start the process than to correct the odd anomaly that obscures the regional trade relationship?
In almost every way that counts, Washington and Alaska function like foreign markets that both profit from the exchange of exports. According to a private study conducted in 2003 by the chambers of commerce for Seattle and Tacoma, Alaskans purchase about $4 billion per year in goods from businesses in Washington.
In turn, Alaskans send us most of the oil that fuels our cars, nearly all the fish that supply our multi-billion dollar seafood sector and their state is a primary destination for the Washington tourism industry.
Because of Washington’s strategic location as the primary shipper and supplier for Alaska, we not only enjoy the fruits of these Alaska contributions to our pocketbooks and lifestyles – we also profit from Alaskan payrolls. Oil production, seafood and tourism are the leading sources of private employment in Alaska and whether Alaskans work for the public or the private sectors, when they buy food, clothes, equipment or almost anything else, the vast majority of the products arrive on ships and barges from Puget Sound, and many of the goods themselves are made in the State of Washington.
Add it all up and, according to the chambers of commerce, Alaska generates nearly $4 billion per year in financial benefit to our state – and that figure would be higher if you did the same study today. Oil and seafood prices are up since 2003 and the Alaskan economy has acquired added zip thanks to world demand for Alaskan zinc, silver and gold.
But why is it left to the chambers to keep track? If this exchange was between nations instead of states, the federal government would measure it, monitor it and a cash stream of $4 billion would no doubt generate lots and lots of additional research and analysis to figure out what makes it tick, and how it can best be maintained or improved.
But since the trade is between states, the federal government pays no attention to it and for reasons Seattle Industry can neither fathom nor divine, the state government of Washington pays no attention either. Which leaves it up to the chambers of commerce and whatever resources they can raise from their members to study a financial phenomenon that is essential to the economic health of two states.
So, here’s a modest proposal for a nice, safe way for our Congressional leaders to “make nice” while providing added value to all the people they represent.
Create an on-going, well-funded program to track the trade between Alaska and Washington.
Document everything and disseminate the results so we can all learn how the whole thing works. As the data piles up and the word gets out, it may well identify new economic opportunities that would benefit both Alaskans and Washingtonians. But even if it doesn’t do that, it is guaranteed that the data will provide the Emerald City with two extremely valuable lessons:
1) When Alaska does good, we do well, and
2) We shouldn’t wait another 20 years for the next Alaskan trade mission.
Foot Note:
Anchorage Seattle Economic Council
Anchorage representatives to the economic council are Randy Becker, president of Renown Charters and Tours; Ric Davidge, an Alaskabased business entrepreneur; Betsy Lawer, chief operating officer for First National Bank of Alaska; John Parrott, vice president and general manager in Alaska for Totem Ocean Trailer Express (TOTE); Robert Poe, CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, and Melinda Taylor, communications director for Alaska Communication Systems. Seattle representatives are Everett Billingslea, chief legal officer for Lynden Inc.; Dave Gering, executive director of the Manufacturing Industrial Council; David Glessing, vice president for GE Commercial Equipment Financing; John Iani, a partner in the law firm Van Ness Feldman; Suzanne Lagoni, a partner in Nexus Northwest, and Eric Redmond, an attorney with the law firm, Heller Ehrman.
