Whose the heavywight in this match?

ITS BAUER v. BEGICH OVER AN ETHICS CHARGE DIRECTED AT FIRST LADY DEBORAH BONITO'S BUSINESS: Itching for a fight with Mayor Mark Begich over road bonds, Assemblyman Paul Bauer took on the Mayor this afternoon by filing ethics charges against the popular incumbent with the city's Board of Ethics. Sprayed over the Anchorage media like a red pesticide on a windy day, Bauer's press release "contends the Mayor has been pushing the Downtown Improvement plan with the E Street project, a major portion and priority of the plan that runs right along his wife's gift shop business on 5th and E St." The mayor's wife, Deborah Bonito, operates the Kobuk gift shop at the corner of 5th and E streets in the downtown area.

Bauer's press release states he disagrees with an action earlier this year to include the Strawberry Road project in the road bond package, an action Bauer unsucessfully fought when the assembly approved the spring ballot proposals. Bauer also disagrees with spending road bond money for the E Street Corridor project and cites the need in another assembly district "for improvements for year-round residents". Bringing the mayor's wife, Deborah Bonito, into his tiff over road bonds, however, breaks new ground for Anchorage politics: never before has an assembly member targeted the mayor's wife in an ethics complaint two weeks before an election, with the apparent intent of killing the road bond package.

Mr. Bauer may have overlooked Anchorage Municpial Code section 1.15.070(K) which requires that complaints with the Board of Ethics remain confidential until the Board first reviews the charge to determine if further action is warrented. According to the code, "No person shall knowingly disclose to another person, or otherwise make public in violation of this chapter the contents of a notification of potential violation filed with the board . . . " Whether he consuted with a lawyer before distirbuting his release and an ethics charges against Begich is unknown.

According to Bauer's press release, his ethics complaint was filed with the Board of Ethics on Tuesday, and he has requested a "ruling" from the board. His complaint is now pending before the board.