The Alaska Democratic Party is red-faced over having lost in Alaska Superior Court and then at the Alaska Supreme Court.
The Democrats are anguished there is a second Democrat running for Congress due to a situation created by the open primary system they defend.
It’s the “play stupid games and win stupid prizes” scenario they made, and they are now embarrassed and angry at the result. It’s someone else’s fault, they say. It’s Nick Begich’s fault.
Alaska’s hardline Democrats will now be able to choose between Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola and Democrat Eric Hafner, who is in federal prison. Voters may also choose Republican Nick Begich or Alaskan Independence Party John Waye Howe. All four will be on the congressional section of the Nov. 5 ballot.
The Democrats sued to get Hafner off the ballot. As an Antifa-style Democrat, he presents a real threat to Peltola, even though he is serving time in prison. Hafner pulls votes from Peltola’s left, and in ranked-choice voting, some Democrats may pick Hafner first to send a message.
Alaska Democrats say on their t-shirts and hoodies that they’re “NOT like Lower 48 Dems.” Indeed, Alaska Democrats are more in the Sen. Bernie Sanders camp, with a socialistic flair. In 2016, they voted for Bernie Sanders for president over Hillary Clinton. They tend to go further to the left than most Democrats in America.
Hafner may appeal to the Alaska Democrat base, as he is more of a Bernie Sanders type. What’s more, Hafner has a platform that calls for Native sovereignty and return of all land to indigenous people; it’s a platform that helped him do well in Hawaii, when he ran for office there. Peltola, on the other hand, is so timid that she won’t even endorse Kamala Harris for president, and she doesn’t show up for work.
The Democratic Party say this is all Nick Begich’s doing that their Antifa Democrat is on the ballot. In a news press release, the Democrats call Begich a long shot who has a “snowball’s chance in hell of winning.”
Then, the Democrats accuse Begich of using dirty tricks, as if he was the one who had signed up Hafner. In fact, Hafner has run in other states — it’s kind of a hobby of his to run for Congress. He ran in Oregon as a Democrat in 2018. In Hawaii, he got 44% of the vote in the primary in 2016.
But evidently Begich is not such a long shot, because the Democrats are spilling a lot of ink being mad at him. They are not attacking their second Democrat candidate who filed for office against the incumbent. It’s all Nick Begich’s fault, they say in their news release that foreshadows what their message is going to be from here until Nov. 5.
“The Alaska Democratic Party is disappointed with the Alaska Supreme Court ruling that a convicted felon who is incarcerated in New York until 2036 will remain on the ballot as a candidate for Congress despite the fact that he cannot possibly be an inhabitant of Alaska when elected or serve out a term in Washington D.C.,” the Democrats wrote, before unleashing their full fury on “longshot” Nick Begich by calling him a “loser.”
“Eric Hafner. a non-Alaskan in prison in New York for making bomb threats against elected officials, was certified by the Division of Elections on September 2nd after finishing sixth in the August primary with less than 0.5% of the votes cast. The certification came on the heels of fifth-place finisher Republican Matthew Salisbury withdrawing from the race at the last possible moment after an orchestrated effort by two—time loser Republican candidate Nick Begich.”
Polling shows Peltola and Nick Begich are now tied, 45-45. The Democrats have their own polling that shows them the same thing, which is why they are turning their venom on him.
“Begich came in a distant second to U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in the August primary and clearly knows he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.” said Executive Director Lindsay Kavanaugh, expressing the party’s deepening anxiety. “His dirty tactics don’t change the fact he’s a longshot.”
In fact, it was the Alaska Republican Party, not Nick Begich, that filed a brief to intervene in the case as an interested party. But it was the State of Alaska’s Division of Elections that was the defendant.
“Unsurprisingly, the Alaska Republican Party publicly supports the decision that a convicted felon who is running his campaign from a prison cell in New York should appear on Alaska’s ballot as a candidate for federal office.” said Mike Wenstrup, chairman of the party that has 73,000 registered voters in Alaska. “This ruling sets a dangerous precedent and is embarrassing for our state.”
Embarrassing to the state? The open primary and ranked-choice general election is proving to be that. But it’s mostly embarrassing for the Democrats, whose logic is that all that political parties need to do is have opponents arrested, and get them convicted by partisan juries to disqualify them from running for office.
It’s a playbook they have already used to injure presidential candidate Donald Trump. The fact that a Manhattan jury convicted Trump for 34 felonies for improper business documentation did not prevent Trump from continuing on as a candidate for president. The Constitution does not prohibit felons from running for office.
But the Democrats didn’t consider Hafner a real threat in June. In fact, the Democrats, through Democrat operative Jim Lottsfeldt, were spending tens of thousands of dollars on ads to get Republican Gerald Heikes more votes in the primary so he would appear on the November ballot and take votes from Nick Begich. They ignored the peril that Hafner posed to them if he moved into contention, so they never challenged his candidacy until the primary election was certified on Sept. 1.
The Alaska Supreme Court is known as a liberal body, due to the way judges are picked in the 49th state; the Alaska Bar Association has an oversized role in the process, and the lawyers who make up the bar are largely Democrat.
But even the Alaska Supreme Court did not think the Democrats had a case in their efforts to disenfranchise Hafner.
Democrats are in the “finding out” part of the “F— around and find out” scenario they created.
Notably, the Alaska Democratic Party did not publish its ‘loser, longshot, dirty tactics” statement on its own website, but rather just on social media. On the party’s own website, it fully supports the open primary system that put their own felon on the ballot.
“Ranked Choice Voting is easier than you think (and the Republicans would like you to believe),” the Democrats state on their website.
So easy, even a felon can game it from prison.
RCV may not be a very good voting method (e.g., August 2022 AK US House special election), but it at least has the ability to prevent low-vote getters like Hafner from behaving as spoilers, so Democrats shouldn’t be concerned about his presence on the ballot. Hafner will be eliminated before Peltola is, and second-choice votes for him will go to Peltola, or if they don’t go to Peltola, then those voters weren’t going to support Peltola anyway. I just can’t see how Hafner’s presence on the ballot harms Peltola.
Not sure if you are correct. If the Dems were not worried they would not be hollering so loudly (as well as taking it to court.). I think they realize their utopian dream using RCV has bitten them on the you know what.
I agree JenL. Demonrats would not be fighting this so hard unless Peltola is going to lose…which she is going to lose.
Rank ONLY Begich on the ballot. Do Not Rank Anyone Else. You want a Republican to win? Do not rank a democrat or an independent.
It seems you misunderstand how runoff systems work. There is no harm at all in ranking Begich 1st and anyone else 2nd in this election, unless you are concerned that some voters may fill out their ballot wrong when attempting to rank, and get their ballot tossed, thus their vote for Begich won’t count. All voters should rank all of the candidates, and any who don’t are reducing their political power and influence.
Here is a problem with RCV. Not all voters want to rank all candidates. The system assumes all voters will rank everyone for it to really be fair and give everyone a chance to vote for everybody. But many people will not vote for all candidates. They do not want to vote for someone they cannot support under any circumstance. Or maybe would reconsider if they knew in advance who the winning people would be in the “runoff”. So these voters are prohibited from full participation where they would be far more motivated if they really know who the final 2 contenders would be before they voted. In essence they are penalized for not playing the game being forced on them
I’ve never voted for a Democrat in the 52 years I’ve been registered to vote and I sure as hell won’t be starting now.
Ginny, I agree with Brian at least to the point of putting a name in each of the four positions. If you want to vote NBIII (1st), consider John Wayne Howe (2nd), Hafner (3rd), and put a write-in in the fourth position. This eliminates any chance that the “algorithm” used by computer system can put Peltola into a box on your ballot. Like you, I considered NBIII only; I also considered JHW (1), NBW (2), then empty. I’m to the point of believing a full ballot is the only way to ensure Dingley Dell doesn’t waste another two years in DC.
Maybe I misread this, but under RCV low vote getters like Hafner ARE spoilers. It is EXACTLY what RCV was created for. But this time it is working against the people who wanted it, not for them.
Low vote-getters CAN be spoilers under previous system, but not under RCV. Palin was a high vote-getter, thus got more first-place votes than the most-preferred candidate, Begich. Palin then faced Peltola in a runoff and lost. If Hafner were a high vote-getter, high enough to get more first-place votes than Peltola, Peltola could get eliminated causing Hafner to face Begich in a runoff, which Hafner very likely loses. Can’t imagine he would get more first-place votes than Peltola.
That sweatshirt that Alaska democrats sport “We’re NOT like the lower 48 dems” is really rich. Mary Peltola is a case in point. She votes in lockstep with the ‘lower 48 Dems’ no matter what the effect is on Alaskans. If the vote is obviously onerous to Alaskans, Mary will go AWOL or suddenly have a dental emergency that requires her elsewhere than the House floor. Alaskan democrats still cling to their affiliation with the ‘lower 48’ democrat party because they lack the moral fortitude to call them out for their moral bankruptcy. They should look to people like Tulsi Gabbard, Alan Dershowitz, and RFK Jr. They were all lifelong democrats who left the party due its profound corruption. But apparently, Alaska democrats will continue to push any issue that they feel helps them maintain power and complain bitterly when things don’t go their way. RCV is a good example of this.
You can add Trump to the list of former democrats.
Poor democrats can’t take it. We’ll join the club as we are tired of the democrats policy’s and their direction going off the cliff.
I’m just trying to figure out what “dirty tactics” Nick is employing. He has kept himself completely out of the contentions swirling around. He never put Nancy Dalstrom down and I haven’t heard him get real specific about Mary Peltola. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an election where the candidates didn’t sling mud at their opposition. It’s one of the cleanest campaigns I’ve ever witnessed. I’d say he was a true gentleman.
The RCV is the finishing touch component of an overall strategic scheme designed to enhance the ability of manipulating elections, while maintaing plausible deniability of manipulation and maintaining the illusory narrative of elections being a voter serving democratic process. Bloated voter registry rolls which generate an abundance of ballots, and an extended voting schedule with the mass use of mail in ballots are critical. Using ballot tabulaters which are connected to WiFi are essential for off site access and abillity to monitor accurate assessments in real time of voter turn out and running candidate totals of ballots that are actually voted. The precise number of additional ballots on hand that weren’t voted can then be added into the system to insure the selected candidate “wins”. The results patterned for each district to be believable. Our division of elections and Governor have had 4 years to eliminate these issues, but chose not to. Eric Hafner will siphon votes, but there are checks and balances to mitigate the final result. If Eric is determined to be a real threat by the interests vested in controlling our state, he may well meet an unfortunate, but convenient demise in prison.
Oops, didn’t think RCV could be used against them. Now it’s bad and Republicans are the ones to blame. Always the blame game.
Funny as hell. Democrats are now eating crow with their fellow convict at the crowbar hotel. There are many parables which describe Democrat behavior……..my favorite is…….he who laughs last, laughs best.
He who laughs last, thinks slowest
Democrats need to look at themselves in a mirror.
RCV was concocted by leftists, pushed and funded by leftist dark outside money, for their own gain. Now it is backfiring on them. The party of cheat for gain is so self righteous in their entitlement they believe their cheating and rigging to be fail-safe to achieve their end goals of power and control. As for Begich in the last election? If my memory serves me right he was not really a distant second as had there not been another Republican on the ticket a Republican would have won. Hence his ‘distant second’ was not accurate.
Waaaa!
If the democrats are so concerned about “felons” running for office, do something about it. Take it to their individual states legislatures and start trying to drum up support for a Constitutional amendment.
Yet they don’t. Professional courtesy?
Wonder Democrats nationwide think of Alaska Democrats saying they’re different from Lower 48 Dems. They should ask.
RCV is a crooked enough game that even convicts can play while in prison.
Alaska Dems, the Hades they aren’t…
Alaska Dummyrats are only good for one thing – crab bait.
👍
I think I’ll donate again to Mr. Begich
If the Alaska Democrats have problems with felons why did they hire and executive director that drinks and drives and a communications director that is a felon who can’t even vote?
NBIII
the congressman for me.
Let’s see… Decisions decisions… One Democrat who is in prison… or the other one… who SHOULD BE?!!!
Oh, but they are exactly like L48 demo-trash. Marxist enemies of the Republic.
Sounds like someone doesn’t like being seen in the enemy camp.
I’ve been letting all my left-leaning aquaintances know that smart voters are going with Hafner.
Let’s Go Hafner!
Sounds like Arizona is also having a problem with the RCV. Seems that their petition has many people signing it at least 5 times on different sheets. Got to cheat to win. Maybe in time all our representatives will be running from jails and then we won’t have to put them there. Much simpler to keep an eye on, should have thought of that idea long ago.
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