Not to take the spotlight off the sweet, back-scratching contracts former Senator Mark Begich seems to be scooping up, peddling his well-worn Beltway-Alaska connections, but can we talk about Suzanne Fleek-Green for a moment?

In case you missed it, Suzanne Fleek-Green is now chief of staff to Mayor LaFrance. On paper, that’s a perfectly legal job. Every mayor has a right-hand operator. But just look at the resume: former state director for Senator Begich, former chief of staff to disgraced former Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, a Biden appointee to Lake Clark National Park, and now embedded in LaFrance’s administration. There is no doubt this is a well-connected insider with deep roots in the progressive power structure that runs Anchorage.

But here’s the kicker: she also sits on the Board of Directors of Chugach Electric Association. This is the very company now locked in a public policy brawl over the future of the Eklutna Hydroelectric Project. You read that right: while serving on the Chugach board,  which is actively defending the project from being dismantled, she’s simultaneously serving as the top staffer to a mayor whose administration is working to shut it down.

How is this not a conflict of interest?

Take a step back and you’ll see this is part of a much broader pattern. Anchorage politics has become an incestuous clique of connected insiders, Begich cronies, Biden appointees, Berkowitz-era leftists, swapping jobs, lining up contracts, and making sure their network stays in power.

In what version of public ethics can one person sit on both sides of the negotiating table? Imagine a corporate executive serving on a competitor’s board while steering decisions at city hall. Heads would roll in the private sector. But in Anchorage’s tangled political swamp, this passes for “business as usual.”

And let’s be clear: the fight over Eklutna is not a minor technical matter. This is about control of the most reliable, affordable base-load renewable energy in Southcentral Alaska. Eklutna Dam and Power Plant are critical infrastructure. It delivers clean hydroelectricity to tens of thousands of homes. The attack on this project is not about “fish habitat.” It is about the Left’s Green New Deal fantasy of tearing out dams, driving up energy costs, and replacing reliable power with boutique, expensive experiments that benefit a tiny elite while working Alaskans foot the bill.

LaFrance’s administration has been actively siding with federal agencies and environmental activist groups that want Eklutna destroyed. Meanwhile, Chugach Electric, supposedly operating in the interest of its member-owners, is trying to protect the project. And yet sitting right at the center of both? Suzanne Fleek-Green. I repeat a bit more directly to those who came up here from the lower 48, “This is the dictionary definition of conflict of interest.”

But why stop there? Take a step back and you’ll see this is part of a much broader pattern. Anchorage politics has become an incestuous clique of connected insiders, Begich cronies, Biden appointees, Berkowitz-era leftists, swapping jobs, lining up contracts, and making sure their network stays in power. Meanwhile, average citizens, taxpayers, ratepayers, homeowners, are left in the cold.

Soon it won’t just be a fight to reclaim a power plant or fix an election – it will be a fight to save Anchorage from economic collapse.

Just look at how Begich himself is now raking in city contracts. His firm won lucrative deals under former Mayor Bronson’s administration, and somehow, these deals keep flowing no matter who is in power. This is not a left vs. right issue. It’s about entrenched insiders cashing in while citizens pay the price.

It is no accident that many of these same players also champion Ranked Choice Voting. The voting system is designed to keep the insider network safe from grassroots challengers. RCV has proven to be a firewall that preserves Anchorage’s status quo, protecting the club from electoral accountability.

And here is the deeper problem: if this swamp is not drained now, the consequences will soon be permanent. Every contract steered to an insider firm, every Green New Deal policy forced through the Assembly, every assault on reliable energy like Eklutna, every bureaucratic barrier added to the books – all of this builds an irreversible momentum. Soon it won’t just be a fight to reclaim a power plant or fix an election – it will be a fight to save Anchorage from economic collapse.

This is why conservatives, independents, and every Alaskan who values good government must wake up – fast. The 2026 and 2028 elections are not just about new faces. They are about taking back Anchorage and Alaska from an entrenched political machine.

It begins with calling out conflicts of interest like this one – loudly and often. It begins by demanding accountability from boards like Chugach Electric. It begins with rooting out the insider game that protects Begich contracts and Fleek-Green dual roles. And above all, it begins with unified action to restore real ethics, real transparency, and real accountability in public service.

Because if we don’t, the lights will go out, and not just at Eklutna.

The views expressed here are those of the author.

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