Politics

The purpose of Tuesday’s primary election is to narrow each field to four candidates. But few races have more than four to start with.

One is the state Senate race in Eagle River, at the northern edge of Anchorage, where the incumbent, Republican Sen. Kelly Merrick is under attack for her willingness to work across the aisle.

Republican Jared Goecker, who’s running a well-funded campaign to challenge Merrick from the right, is hoping that plays to his advantage in a community where Donald Trump won roughly 60% of the vote in 2020.

“When you’re voting 90% of the time with (Democratic Anchorage Sen.) Forrest Dunbar, and you’re saying you’re a conservative, that’s not conservative,” Goecker said while canvassing supporters ahead of the primary in a get-out-the-vote push in Eagle River this week. “That’s not even, like, moderate Republican — that’s left of center at that point.”

For the last two years, Merrick has been part of the bipartisan Senate majority, which includes 17 of the state’s 20 senators: eight Republicans and nine Democrats. The caucus has governed with a focus on down-the-middle policies, and it’s often been at odds with the conservative-led state House and Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy.

Goecker was an appointee in former Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson’s human resources department, and before that, he negotiated contracts with labor unions on behalf of the Dunleavy administration. He pitches himself as much more aligned with the governor.

Take the Permanent Fund dividend — Goecker said he prefers a 50-50 split of the state’s annual 5% draw from the Permanent Fund to go directly to Alaskans, just as Dunleavy has supported. Also like Dunleavy, he opposes a return to a defined benefit, pension-style retirement system for state employees, which he called “unaffordable and unsustainable.”

Or consider the fight over education funding: This year, the House and Senate passed a bill that would have boosted the base student allocation, the biggest part of the state’s funding formula for public schools, by wide margins. But they failed by a single vote to override a veto from Dunleavy.

Goecker wouldn’t say how he would have voted if he’d been in the Senate at the time, but he said it never would have come to that.

“We would have had a Republican Senate that’s working with the governor, actually negotiating with the governor to figure out what those priorities are, instead of passing something without knowing if the governor is going to sign it or not,” he said.

A spokesperson for Dunleavy declined to say whether the governor had a preferred candidate in the race, citing state ethics rules.

Goecker, whose brother Josiah was shot and killed last year, said he was also interested in tightening bail requirements and speeding up court proceedings.

“There’s such a terrible bottleneck in our criminal justice system that’s really making it hard for us to put bad guys away and keep bad guys away,” he said.

Merrick defends her work across the aisle

In an interview at her home, Merrick defended her work with colleagues from both parties.

Before her election to the Alaska Senate, Merrick spent four years in the state House. Merrick spent her first two years in the minority, and she “was not able to get a lot done” in that position, she said. That influenced her decision to join the emerging bipartisan majority caucus after her November 2022 election to the Senate, she said.

“You have to be in the majority if you’re going to deliver,” she said.

Merrick has taken some positions contrary to Dunleavy’s. She voted for the education bill twice. She supports a defined benefit retirement plan, citing a fiscal analysis of the bill that found it would save the state money and improve employee retention. (Competing fiscal analyses of the bill have come to mixed conclusions on the cost of returning to a pension-style plan.) Merrick also supported using 25%, rather than 50% of the annual drawdown on the Permanent Fund for dividends while on the Senate Finance Committee.

But Merrick said there were plenty of ways she did work closely with the Dunleavy administration. She points out that she was with the governor on legislation addressing the state’s natural gas crunch and a wide-ranging crime bill.

“When I’ve talked to people that said, ‘Oh, you work with Democrats,’ I ask, ‘What policy did I support that you disagree with?’” she said.

While she often voted alongside Democrats in the Senate, Merrick said she worked with her colleagues to lend her conservative point of view to legislative debates before they reached a final vote. Most of her constituents, she said, want basic government services, not partisan hits.

“I think that there might be sort of a fringe group of folks that want a legislator that’s going to go down to Juneau and throw bombs and, you know, keep things from happening,” she said. “But I think the majority of people want results.”

Merrick said she hopes that’s a message that appeals to voters more than the call for adherence to Republican unity.

Other Republican candidates oppose bipartisan majority caucus

Of the three Republicans challenging Merrick, Goecker has a sizable lead in fundraising. But he’s not alone in making Merrick’s willingness to work across the aisle a key issue.

Former state Rep. Sharon Jackson, who served two years in the House after Dunleavy appointed her to fill a vacancy, said she’d only join a majority led by conservatives similar to what exists in the state House.

“I will be loyal to the Republicans,” she said in an interview at a Chugiak coffee shop and bakery. “I will not turn my back on them, no matter what.”

Jackson said her focus is on improving Alaska’s economy, including by making the state into a destination for those seeking treatment through regenerative medicine, which she said includes unconventional therapies like platelet-rich plasma infusions and sessions in high-pressure hyperbaric chambers.

“That would really be a major boost,” she said.

Former Rep. Ken McCarty, who succeeded Jackson in the House, said he, too, would only join a coalition if it were led by Republicans.

“Being able to look at moderate issues, but conservative-led, yes,” he said in an interview at a bustling cafe in Eagle River.

Like Jackson, McCarty said he would seek to use his time in the Legislature to improve the state’s economy. The state’s infrastructure needs an upgrade, he said, from a western extension of the Alaska Railroad in the Interior to port development in Point MacKenzie and Seward.

“There’s places in the world that want to buy our resources, and if we can’t move it out of the state, then we’re failing ourselves,” he said.

Lone Democrat in race faces questions over legitimacy

Newly registered Democrat Lee Hammermeister is the only candidate aside from Merrick who said he would join a bipartisan coalition similar to what currently exists in the Senate. He cast himself as a moderate.

“Ideally, I’d like for everyone to be able to work on common ground legislation, and be able to find legislation that can meet all of our needs, and be able to make the sacrifices necessary for that to happen,” he said in an interview at an Eagle River real estate office.

But his campaign has had trouble getting off the ground, struggled to fundraise, and is facing questions over its legitimacy. The Alaska Beacon reported that Hammermeister co-hosted a fundraiser for conservative Eagle River Republican Rep. Jamie Allard in 2023, and that the president of a progressive group had accused him of being a “fake Democrat” seeking to siphon votes from Merrick.

Hammermeister said he was frustrated by the accusation and by the Alaska Democratic Party’s decision not to support his candidacy. He said he’s been reaching out to local Democrats and “trying to establish contact with the party for weeks and weeks,” to no avail.

“If the Alaska Democrat Party has abandoned the Democrat voters of this district, that means that I’m the last thing standing in the way of four Republicans getting into that seat,” Hammermeister said.

Ahead of Alaska’s Aug. 20 primary election, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola continues to hold a fundraising advantage against her 11 competitors, new filings with the Federal Elections Commission show.

As of July 31, Peltola’s campaign had $2.8 million in cash on hand, compared to $317,617 held by Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and $172,548 held by fellow Republican challenger Nick Begich.

No other candidate reported holding any cash on hand.

Under Alaska’s election system, the four top vote-getters in the August primary — regardless of party — advance to the general election in November.

In the November election, if one candidate has more than half the votes, they win on the first count. If no one has more than half the votes, ranked choice voting is used to determine the winner.

In 2022, Peltola twice defeated Begich, former Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and all other competitors.

This year, Begich has pledged to withdraw from the election if he finishes behind Dahlstrom in the primary, which he has said is aimed at consolidating support behind one Republican. Dahlstrom has not made a similar pledge, nor have other candidates, who would replace any withdrawn candidate.

Fundraising success is strongly correlated with electoral victory.

In 2022, almost 94% of U.S. House candidates who spent the most money on their race went on to win the election, according to statistics kept by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In this election cycle, Peltola’s campaign has reported raising more than $7.5 million. Begich’s campaign has raised almost $983,000, and Dahlstrom’s campaign has raised over $912,000.

Dahlstrom has secured the endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but local Republican Party officials have generally endorsed Begich. The state party has thus far declined to pick a preferred candidate.

Alaska’s House race will be one of the hardest fought races in the country, according to a national group dedicated to getting Republicans elected into the U.S. House of Representatives.

It’s for that reason the National Republican Congressional Committee launched its first television ads in the general election cycle in Alaska before any other state, according to a news release.

The television ad labels incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, a “devout Biden enabler” who would “betray Alaskans to back Biden.” It includes Peltola saying: “I think Biden’s mental acuity is very, very on.”

NRCC Spokesperson Ben Petersen criticized her for working with President Biden.

“Republicans are charging full speed ahead to win Alaska’s House seat, stop the liberal attacks on Alaska and ensure conservative leadership in Congress. Instead of standing up to Biden, Mary Peltola has praised him and pandered to the Biden agenda that’s hurting Alaska from economic sanctions to the fentanyl and border crisis,” he said in an email.

Peltola is one of five Democrats representing House districts that voted for Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election.

One non-partisan political analysis shows that Alaska ranks as the reddest district occupied by a Democrat.

In a news conference on Tuesday morning Peltola reiterated her commitment to teamwork rather than attacking opponents.

“I’ll always be committed to having a positive campaign. I think it’s really important. I think the climate that we’re in is very toxic and we’re tired of the toxicity,” she said.

“I am confident that Alaskans and Alaskan voters will see through that baloney, the lies that will be perpetuated in commercials throughout the campaign cycle.”

The 30-second ad does not endorse or mention a Republican candidate. Twelve candidates are vying for the seat, including Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom and Nick Begich, both Republicans.

So far, reports from the Federal Elections Commission show Peltola’s campaign has raised more money than her Republican challengers.

Peltola said she plans to work with whichever candidate is elected president.

“I’m overtly choosing governing over politicking,” she said. “I still have six months, we all have six months to get as much done as we can.”

She said Biden made some choices that were not in Alaska’s best interest, but praised his lifetime commitment to public service. She said Biden was “very on point” about 10 months ago when they last spoke; Biden called in September to offer his condolences after her husband, Eugene Peltola, Jr., died.

“He does seem a lot older than he was 10 months ago,” she said, adding that the effects of aging can advance quickly and that she was surprised by his recent debate performance.

“It’s a very sad realization when you see elders becoming very, very geriatric,” she said.

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.”

Alaska’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of Joe Biden’s announcement Sunday that he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race.

Party officials met Sunday evening and coalesced behind Harris, according to a news release from the Alaska Democratic Party.

State Rep. Andy Josephson, D-Anchorage, one of 20 voting delegates, said the news was bittersweet — Josephson said he’s proud of Biden’s record, but said Harris has a better shot to “reinvigorate the Obama coalition” and defeat Donald Trump.

“I think Kamala Harris will do a better job of making the argument and presenting the case against Donald Trump, and the fact that the Trump campaign clearly wanted to run against Joe Biden tells me everything I need to know about what they fear in Kamala Harris,” Josephson said by phone.

He said the decision to endorse Harris was unanimous among those who attended the Sunday evening meeting.

Delegate Ron Meehan commended Biden’s decision to step aside.

“I know that that decision was one that was incredibly difficult for President Biden to make, but one that further demonstrates his commitment to the country above all else — to doing what’s right,” he said in a phone call.

Meehan said he was optimistic that Harris could run on the Biden administration’s policy record, pointing to investments in infrastructure and the fight against climate change.

“Vice President Harris has a proven record of delivering for America’s working families and protecting our fundamental freedoms. She has demonstrated her ability to lead our country with strength, compassion, and dignity as Attorney General, Senator, and Vice President,” state Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, another Alaska delegate to the DNC, said in a prepared statement. “I am proud to stand by her as the Democratic nominee for president.”

Fellow delegate Mike Davis said some floated waiting a day or two before moving to endorse Harris, but he said the consensus was for quick action.

“I think that the people felt like, hey, this needs to happen now,” Davis said in a phone interview. “It’s important that she knows from the get-go that she has the support of [the] Alaska delegation, and so that was the prevailing argument versus, let’s wait a day here.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a social media post that she “respect[s] President Biden’s decision to act in the best interest of the country by stepping aside in the 2024 presidential election.” The other two members of Alaska’s congressional delegation, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola, had yet to comment on the news as of midday Monday.

Democrats around the country have rallied behind Harris, including some who had been floated as possible competitors. State Democratic parties in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kentucky, among others, also endorsed Harris shortly after Biden’s announcement.

“Vice President Harris will carry on the legacy of President Biden with unprecedented investments in Alaska and our people,” Alaska Democratic Party Chair Mike Wenstrup said in a statement. “She is well-poised to earn the nomination and to win in November.”