4 Special Coverage

Democratic Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola won’t say who she’s voting for this November after President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris.

At a Zoom news conference with Alaska reporters Tuesday morning, Peltola said she’s “keeping an open mind.”

“Looking at this presidential race, my position is whoever the president is, that is the person that I am interested in working with to help Alaska move forward,” Peltola said. “Whether that president is Donald Trump, or if that president happens to be Kamala Harris … there will be a lot of common ground. There will be a lot of things that we collectively agree on.”

Peltola was asked twice, directly, whether she would vote for Harris or Donald Trump. During the news conference, Peltola said her vote for president would depend on the candidates’ stances on energy issues.

“While I really appreciate her stance on women’s reproductive rights, Social Security, voting rights and a host of other things, as the representative for Alaska, my number one job is looking at our economy and our energy situation and which, you know, which of the two candidates will be better in terms of our energy portfolio,” Peltola said. “That is an honest answer. I am not being coy.”

After this article was published, Peltola said on social media she would not vote for Trump.

“I’m not voting for Trump & I’m not endorsing anyone else either. The media won’t allow us to engage in nuanced conversation because it doesn’t sell clicks. I won’t vote for a candidate who’s not pro-choice. I can’t ask Alaskans to vote for a candidate who’s not pro-energy,” she said.

Peltola is facing a tough reelection battle against two Republican challengers: Alaska Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, a favorite of establishment Republicans and Donald Trump, and Nick Begich III, endorsed by the campaign arm of the conservative anti-establishment House Freedom Caucus. The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign group, launched its first television ad targeting Peltola on Tuesday.

Peltola also suggested Harris’ choice of a running mate could influence her decision in November.

“I would love it if she chose a pro-choice Republican, so we could get away from some of the inflammatory partisanship that we’ve seen,” she said.

Peltola told CNN earlier on Tuesday that “as a human being, I do support her,” referring to Harris, but stopped short of endorsing her.

Republicans have decried actions by the Biden administration aimed at restricting oil and gas development in Alaska. In April, the administration said it would impose new restrictions on oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Peltola also walked back her reported endorsement of Biden in 2023, shortly after Biden launched his reelection campaign.

“I have not ever officially endorsed anyone,” she said Tuesday.

She told the Anchorage Daily News at the time that his support for the Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska had earned her vote, saying “President Biden has impressed me with his support for Willow and his commitment to civil, constructive discussions.”

“I’ll support him as long as he continues to include Alaskans in those discussions,” Peltola said at the time.

But Peltola said Tuesday that the Biden administration failed to live up to that commitment.

“So many things have transpired in the last year, most notably the 68 different ways that the administration has moved to shut down Alaska’s economy,” referring to a frequent refrain of her Alaska delegation colleague, Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan.

But Peltola, a Democrat running for reelection in a state Donald Trump carried by 10 percentage points in 2020, downplayed the significance of any endorsement she might make, saying Alaska would not be competitive in the presidential election.

“I just think in a state as small as Alaska, we all tend to know each other, and I don’t think that endorsements carry the same weight that they do in, in a lot of other places,” she said. “And I also just feel really strongly that in a state where there’s over 60% of our voters who are independent, nonpartisan and undeclared, it’s really important to stay away from, really, you know, entrenched partisanship.”

Peltola also said Biden had aged markedly since the last time the two interacted in September 2023, shortly after her husband, Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., died in a plane crash.

“I think that, just like kids have growth spurts, I think that we have age spurts,” she said Tuesday. “It was very apparent there had been quite a bit of aging that has gone on in recent months.”

Peltola commended Biden’s long career in public office.

“It reminds me a lot of the lifetime commitment that Ted Stevens gave to Alaska, the lifetime commitment that Don Young gave to Alaska, and I really appreciate his commitment to public service,” she said.

Editor’s note: We’ve updated this story and headline after Peltola clarified she won’t vote for Trump in a statement on social media Tuesday afternoon.

An Anchorage Superior Court judge on Friday disqualified 27 signature books filled out by Alaskans hoping to repeal Alaska’s ranked-choice voting system, leaving it unclear whether the issue has enough support to advance to a November vote.

The Alaska Division of Elections must recount the signature totals by Wednesday, Judge Christina Rankin said in a 95-page order analyzing allegations that signature-gatherers violated state law while gathering support for the repeal measure.

State law requires petitioners to obtain a certain number of signatures statewide, but even though the disqualified signature books contain nearly 3,000 signatures, there isn’t any danger of missing that threshold.

What’s uncertain is whether the disqualified signatures will cause supporters to miss a separate mandatory threshold that requires a certain number of signatures from at least 30 of 40 state House district.

Before the ruling, backers had sufficient signatures in 34 districts. Former Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson represented repeal supporters in the case and said that by his preliminary count, backers will lose only one district when the new count takes place.

“We are still very much in the ballot,” he said by text on Friday.

Regardless of next week’s count, an appeal to the Alaska Supreme Court is expected.

Three plaintiffs sued the Alaska Division of Elections in April, alleging that signature books were left unattended, were erroneously certified, and that the division made mistakes in the approval process.

Petition backers intervened in the case on behalf of the state, and Rankin issued a preliminary order in June that favored those who support the repeal initiative.

That order didn’t resolve all outstanding issues in the case, and Rankin conducted a six-day trial to hear testimony about signature gatherers’ behavior.

“At most, the evidence presented demonstrated limited instances of circulators signing affidavits for booklets they did not circulate, sharing booklets amongst multiple circulators, and leaving petition booklets unmonitored,” she wrote in Friday’s order.

Given that Alaska law and the state constitution strongly favors the rights of Alaskans to conduct ballot initiatives, she disqualified only 27 of the 640 petition booklets submitted to the Alaska Division of Elections.

In some cases, she accepted booklets that were certified by people whose actions caused other booklets to be ruled out of order.

Her decision said in part, “because each petition booklet is individually certified, the Court finds that it would be inappropriate to disqualify all booklets from those circulators in toto. Moreover, none of the alleged misconduct rises to the level that other courts have found warrants disqualification of all booklets from single circulators.”

Attorney Scott Kendall wrote the 2020 ballot measure that installed Alaska’s current voting system and represented plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

By text message on Friday, he thanked the court for its work and said the 27 booklets contained nearly 3,000 signatures.

“Clearly, there were serious issues in this signature drive,” he said. “The Division of Elections still needs to perform an official analysis … and then all parties will need to consider their appeal options.”

Clarkson, representing repeal supporters, said by text message that on a preliminary basis, “the decision looks mostly favorable to us. We won on a lot of issues and on a lot of books they challenged.”

The final word will come from the Division of Elections, “but my bet is we are fine.”

Former Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation CEO Angela Rodell is running for Juneau mayor. 

Monday at 4:30 p.m. was the deadline to get on the ballot for Juneau’s Oct. 1 municipal election. Rodell is running against current Mayor Beth Weldon. 

Rodell filed her paperwork with the Juneau Clerk’s office around 3 p.m. She says her leadership experience and background in finance can help Juneau overcome economic challenges. 

“It feels like we have a lot of big issues right now, and taxes have continued to increase, the valuations — they’re just up and up and up,” she said. 

Rodell has lived in Juneau for over a decade. She led the Permanent Fund Corporation from 2015 to 2021, when the fund’s board of trustees voted to remove her from the role. 

She also served on the Juneau Airport Board for six years and was previously a revenue commissioner for the state. She’s currently the chair of Launch Alaska, a nonprofit tech company based in Anchorage. 

“It was time to get off the bench, as they say, and get back. And I just really want to help move this community forward,” she said. 

Weldon is in her second term as Juneau’s mayor. She’s a retired division chief with Capital City Fire/Rescue and owns Glacier Auto Parts. 

Aside from the mayor’s race, two other Juneau Assembly seats and three school board seats are on the ballot. All seats are for three-year terms. Five candidates had filed to run in District 2 as of Monday afternoon, and at least one had filed in District 1. Candidates must live in the district they’re running to represent. 

In District 1, former Alaska Office of Budget Management Director Neil Steininger and Connor Ulmer were listed as candidates as of 5 p.m. Monday. In District 2, Emily Mesch, Nathaniel “Nano” Brooks, Maureen Hall, Dorene Lorenz and Mary Marks had all been certified. 

At least four people filed to run for school board. Current board members Elizabeth “Ebett” Siddon and Will Muldoon filed to run again. Jenny Thomas, Amber Frommherz, Michelle Stuart Morgan and Jeff Redmond also filed to run. 

More last-minute candidates may be added as the clerk’s office works to certify them on the city website. Candidates have until Friday to withdraw their names if they no longer wish to run.

Write-in candidates have until Sept. 24 to file their candidacy with the clerk’s office. They won’t appear on the ballot, but they will show up on the city’s online candidate list. 

Just hours after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, Alaska Democratic Party leaders moved quickly to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president. They also commended Biden for his endorsement of Harris.

State Sen. Bill Wielechowski, one of the Legislature’s senior Democrats, said Biden had hoped to recover from his poor debate performance — but in the end did what he thought was best for the country.

“This is really unchartered territory, and it takes a lot of courage, quite frankly,” Wielechowski said. “I give Joe Biden a tremendous, tremendous amount of support for what he did. I’m so impressed, because you don’t see it that often. You very rarely see it in politics.”

Wielechowski says he will support Harris’s nomination, because it opens the door to a new generation of leadership. He also believes it sets the stage for women to play a key role in defeating the Republican nominee, former president Donald Trump.

“I think this could be a real watershed moment in our country. We’ve never had a female president before. And I think there’s a very good chance that could happen this time around,” Wielechowski said. “And I’ve heard a lot of people say that there could be a female vice president selected as well.”

State Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, said she had hoped Biden would stay in the race. But she believes that of all the potential replacements, the vice president is the most prepared.

“I don’t think this is a surprise for her, because as vice president if something happens, you know, if something happens to the president, you’re next in line. Period,” Gray Jackson said. “She didn’t wake up, going, ‘Oh my goodness.’ But she’s going to work hard, and she’s going to have a lot of folks working hard to make this happen.”

As a prominent Black politician, Gray-Jackson she’s tired of hearing about how the country isn’t ready for a woman to be president, let alone a Black woman. But she predicts those arguments are not going to work this time around.

Another Black lawmaker, state Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, will be going to Chicago as a delegate and a member of the convention’s standing rules committee.

Tobin said that although it will be an open convention in which other candidates can compete for the nomination, she believes Harris has the momentum.

She calls Biden’s decision to bow out of the race profound.

“His decision to support and endorse Kamala is such a bold and significant step in our nation, and leaves me in awe,” Tobin said. “There is just a beauty in recognizing that it’s time to make space, instead of taking space.”

Gray-Jackson and Wielechowski are also delegates to the national convention in Chicago this August.

The chairman of the Alaska Democratic Party, Mike Wenstrup, said in a statement that he believes Harris is the most capable of carrying on Biden’s legacy.

Wenstrup credited Biden and Harris for large infrastructure investments and policies that have benefited Alaska.

The chairman of the Alaska Republican Party also weighed in. In a statement, Carmela Warfield said Biden’s decision to end his campaign for president only confirms the party’s suspicion that he is unfit for office.

Warfield also said it doesn’t make any difference who becomes the Democratic nominee, because the candidate will advance the same “disastrous” policies championed by Biden.

In some Alaska races, Republican candidates have pledged to withdraw from the general election in November if they do not receive the top votes among fellow party members in the primary.

The most high-profile pledge was made by Nick Begich III, who is running for Alaska’s single U.S. House seat. Begich publicly pledged in April to withdraw from the race if he is bested by another Republican in the primary election. Josh Walton, Begich’s campaign manager, confirmed last week that Begich still plans to abide by his pledge.

Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom is another prominent Republican running for the U.S. House seat, which was won by Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola in 2022. Earlier this month, Dahlstrom said she will not drop out of the race if she places behind Begich in the primary. Her press team confirmed last week that her position has not changed.

Similar pledges were signed by some Republican candidates in two state legislative races in Anchorage.

Both of these pledges were written by Trevor Jepsen, who is the chief of staff to Rep. Tom McKay, R-Anchorage, and also consults part-time for campaigns. For Jepsen, the pledges are a way to “circumvent ranked choice voting” by treating the open primary like one under the old system.

In 2020, Alaskans voted to establish ranked choice voting in the state. Since then, Alaska has become nationally recognized for the system, drawing both praise and criticism.

Alaska’s ranked choice voting system is used in the general election, but not in the primary. The primary is open to all candidates, regardless of party, with voters choosing one.

The top four vote-getters in the primary advance to the general election. Then, in the general election, voters can rank up to four candidates. After the votes are counted, if a candidate receives the majority of first-place rankings, they are the winner.

However, if there is not a majority, the lowest-ranked candidate is booted from the count and their votes are reassigned to the voters’ next preference. This process repeats until there is a winner.

Right now, Jepsen is making what he described as a “main push” for candidates to commit to the pledge in Senate District H and House District 9 in Anchorage. According to Jepsen, Republican candidates in those districts risk losing because both races have multiple Republican candidates running against a member of another party.

“We can’t win that Senate seat with two Republicans in the race. The numbers don’t work out. It’s not possible,” he said. “And that district nine seat, we would have three Republicans going to the general. Even though that’s technically a Republican seat, you know, they split the vote, exhausted ballots.”

“Exhausted ballots” is a term for ballots that are not included in the final ranked choice count because the voter ranked only candidates who were already eliminated.

In Senate District H, which stretches from Ted Stevens International Airport to Campbell Lake, McKay and Liz Vazquez are the two Republican candidates on the ballot, as well as incumbent Democratic Sen. Matt Claman, D-Anchorage.

McKay signed the pledge to withdraw. Vazquez has been given the pledge but not yet signed it, and did not respond to an interview request.

According to McKay, he signed the pledge because he felt “like we could win that seat if it’s one-on-one” in the general election.

For McKay, the pledge eliminates the “complexity” created by voters with exhausted ballots. “When their ballot is exhausted, then they don’t get a second bite at the apple,” said McKay.

Meanwhile, in House District 9, which covers the Anchorage Hillside, Girdwood and Whittier, three Republicans are running against one independent. Two of those Republicans, Lucy Bauer and Brandy Pennington, have both signed the pledge.

Pennington proposed the pledge to the other candidates. The pledge was written by Jepsen, who is currently working on her campaign.

Bauer and Pennington did not respond to requests for comment.

Lee Ellis, the president of Midnight Sun Brewing Co. and the district’s third Republican candidate, was the lone Republican holdout on signing the pledge. Ellis described the pledge as an “ill-conceived effort” that ignored the voting history of the district.

Ellis said his campaign research shows that a significant percentage of House District 9 voters ranked their choices when voting in 2022. His choice to not sign the pledge, he said, is “about historical behavior.”

And while Ellis is more favorable toward open primaries, and less favorable toward ranked choice voting, he said he spoke with a number of campaign experts who advised him not to sign the pledge.

Ellis suggested that the candidates sit down after the primary election and “decide what the best pathway forward was,” but because the pledge was non-negotiable, he chose not to sign.

Anchorage attorney Scott Kendall was a key author on the 2020 ballot measure that launched ranked choice voting. While Kendall declined to comment on a specific race or pledge, he said that pledges such as these harm the party that is signing them.

The pledges rely too strongly, he said, on the assumption that Alaskans will always vote along party lines. “We’re a small state, people know each other. People know other people’s reputations. So this idea that you can drop out and just sort of give all of your support to another candidate seems very flawed to me,” Kendall said.

Ranked choice voting is praised for reflecting the complexities of voter identification, especially in Alaska, which has the highest share of independent voters in the country. In 2022, the first time that Alaskan voters used nonpartisan open primaries, more than half of voters split the ticket, meaning that they didn’t vote strictly along party lines.

Another issue with pledges, Kendall said, was their reliance on results from primary elections. Voter participation in primary elections is consistently lower than general elections, meaning that a candidate who receives a low number of votes in a primary could still prove very popular in the general election, when a larger group of people are voting, said Kendall.

“By taking one of your horses out of the running as a Republican Party, you’re lessening the chance the Republican Party will win,” Kendall said.

A proposed ballot measure seeks to repeal ranked choice voting. If approved by voters in November, in future elections, voters would choose only one candidate in the general election, instead of ranking multiple candidates. The state’s open primary system would also be eliminated, and political parties would be able to limit who can vote and who can run in primaries.

A group of Alaskans is circulating petitions this summer to restore state campaign finance limits.

Citizens Against Money in Politics says its ballot initiative will give citizens the same power as large corporations and unions.

Alaska had set up campaign finance limits in the past, but three years ago the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck them down as unconstitutional.

Jus Tavcar, a volunteer coordinator with CAMP, said most Alaskans want some form of limits.

“We’ve capped the contributions twice. And most recently it was in 2006, when we also had a volunteer-driven ballot initiative, which passed overwhelmingly with 73%,” Tavcar said.

Proponents of large contributions say paying for advertising is protected under the First Amendment. But critics claim that candidates who receive the money are beholden to their donors, not the people they represent.

The 9th Circuit’s decision in Thompson v. Hebdon struck down a $500-per-year contribution limit on Alaska legislative races, saying it restricted free speech. The court provided a road map to reconfigure campaign limits so they are adjusted for inflation, but the state Legislature didn’t do that. So, candidates today can now receive unlimited direct donations from anyone, even outside of Alaska. That happened in the 2022 governor’s race, when some wealthy donors gave more than $100,000 apiece to candidates.

“At Citizens Against Money in Politics, we believe that equating money to speech is a dangerous precedent because it leaves everyday citizens who are not wealthy, who are just regular folks, without a fair opportunity to participate in a democratic process,” Tavcar said.

Tavcar said the initiative would limit contributions to $2,000 per election cycle for an individual candidate’s campaign, or $5,000 a year to a political party.

“The initiative updates the prior limits to be in line with inflation, and then the caps will be automatically adjusted every 10 years so they remain constitutional and they will move from per campaign limits instead of per year limit,” he said.

The initiative will not affect contributions by super PACs and independent expenditure groups. Each of those are defined separately under the law and are protected by the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.

Backers of the Alaska initiative say it will promote better government and accountability to Alaskan voters. They are trying to collect 27,000 signatures across the state.

The three sponsors of the initiative are state Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage; former Alaska attorney general and Juneau mayor Bruce Botelho; and Fairbanks business owner and Iditarod racer David Monson.

Backers of the Alaska initiative say it will promote better government and accountability to Alaska voters. They are trying to collect 27,000 signatures across the state to get the initiative on the ballot in 2026, at the earliest.

The three sponsors of the initiative are state Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage; former Alaska attorney general and Juneau mayor Bruce Botelho; and Fairbanks business owner and Iditarod racer David Monson.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the earliest date the initiative could take effect. It could be on the ballot as early as 2026.