The North Slope had little or nothing to do with the Republican Party until Jacob Adams and Oliver Leavitt started cozying up to Frank Murkowski.  Well, guess which native corporation managed to become a billion-dollar company mainly off of 8a contracts?  And their people?  ASRC used to distribute dividends twice a year - a big dividend in December and a smaller one in April.  They switched to quarterly dividends because too many shareholders were squandering those big checks on alcohol and drugs and similar frivolities.  Here in Fairbanks, we have ASRC shareholders who continue to do exactly that while living hand-to-mouth the rest of the time.