Republicans push pipeline propaganda

The gas pipeline garbage ad, paid for by Interior Republicans, a group chaired by former school board member April Smith, is dishonest and inaccurate. Appearing in a season of stupid ads created with AI, it is unbelievably stupid.

Cynthia Henry, the GOP national committeewoman, is a deputy treasurer and co-chair of the group, along with GOP activist Fred Vreeman. Smith is the treasurer. They are responsible for this propaganda, but their names are missing.

The version of the attack ad that appeared in the Daily News-Miner Sunday has a “paid for by” disclaimer that blurred and difficult to read, at least in the electronic version of the newspaper.

April Smith posted the ad on Facebook August 13. One of the two comments on it was from Don Thompson, the husband of Republican House candidate Barbara Haney.

Haney’s husband claimed that the three Democratic legislators in the ad are “Communists with intentional ambition to end these United States of America.”

It should go without saying, but Sen. Scott Kawasaki and Reps. Maxine Dibert and Ashley Carrick are not Communists. And they do not want to end the U.S.A.

It is also a lie to claim that they oppose a gas pipeline. Kawasaki is part of a Senate group pushing for real disclosure of the secret deals made with Glenfarne, while Dibert and Carrick worked hard on this project and helped get the spur line into different versions of the bill.

Smith is also an officer of the Republican Women of Fairbanks, formerly the Fairbanks Republican Women, which also spread this propaganda on Facebook. There was a second ad that falsely claimed Kawasaki, Dibert and Carrick are responsible for forcing Alaska families to choose between eating and heating.

The attack ads spread by Fairbanks Republican groups are dishonest, inaccurate and stupid.

The Legislature did not kill the pipeline project. It delayed action on a bill to create a new tax structure that is supposed to last for decades.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s mishandling of the subject is a key reason why the debate will have to resume early next year when there is a new governor.

The empty GOP propaganda equates killing the bill with killing the pipeline. Those who make that claim have not been paying attention.

Some of those not paying attention were in the room on November 29, 2025 when Gov. Mike Dunleavy spoke at a Republican fundraiser for Frank Tomaszewski and said the state didn’t have to do anything more to get the Alaska LNG project going.

“The next two months are going to be some of the most exciting months in Alaska’s history,” Dunleavy said that day. “I’m not making that up. I wouldn’t stick my neck out to say something stupid.”

“So December a updated economic study of the pipe will be done. I talk with Glenfarne every week. I talk with the president and his people often. Everyone is excited about where this pipeline is gonna go. In terms of it’s gonna happen.”

“And then FID, what they call final investment decision, will be January. Spoken to them again yesterday, they see nothing standing in the way. So when February, or when January comes, you’re probably gonna see an announcement before the end of January that they’re gonna start to order pipe. And it’ll be here by August of this next year,” said Dunleavy. “So you will have gas.”

So on November 28, 2025 Glenfarne told Dulneavy that all systems were go. It would soon spend hundreds of millions of its own money to buy pipe and get everything in place. That didn’t happen. Dunleavy has never said what went wrong, other than mumbling about “calculations.”

This is August and no pipe has been ordered. It appears that Dunleavy did stick his neck out and said something stupid.

If the largest project in history lives or dies based on whether the Legislature acts on anything now or in six or nine months, there is no doubt the project is not going forward at all.

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