The Alaska Republican Party governing rules were designed to be responsive to a regular primary system, one that allows Republicans or non-aligned voters to choose the Republican ballot, and doesn’t allow Democrats to cross over and distort a Republican outcome.
With Ballot Measure 2 in effect for the first time, voters from any party or no party at all can vote for the Republicans, robbing the party of being able to self-determine its nominees to the general election. All of Alaska voters get to now say who the Republican nominees are.
That means the party’s pre-primary endorsements for Kelly Tshibaka for U.S. Senate and Mike Dunleavy for governor essentially expire Aug. 16, and Republican voters won’t determine who on their team goes to the November ballot.
Pre-primary endorsements have been important to the party because the rules prohibit party subdivisions from spending campaign time and treasure on those who didn’t get the endorsement of the State Central Committee. But there are no party rules for post-primary endorsements because the party hasn’t adapted to the new reality. In that new reality, more than one Republican can proceed to the general election.
Under the new voting scheme created by Ballot Measure 2, it’s likely that Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Tshibaka, both Republicans, will be among the final four to proceed to the November Ranked Choice Voting method created by Ballot Measure 2 in 2020.
Three Republican districts have requested the party change its rules in Article 1, Section 4 to allow the party State Central Committee to do a post-primary endorsement of candidates, and take back some portion of authority to the party that was robbed from it by Ballot Measure 2.
The matter went from the districts to the State Central Committee, then the party’s Rules Committee, and finally to the State Executive Committee, which tabled the matter until the party’s convention, April 21-23 in Fairbanks.
At that convention, it’s normal for the party’s rules to be adjusted. The adjusted rules would could put sideboards on who can call themselves a Republican on the General Election ballot. If so, that could trigger a lawsuit between the party and Murkowski, and the party would have to defend its right to say who is an actual member of the party, in terms of being the actual Republican nominee.
The State Central Committee may have an intense debate over this proposed rule change later this month, which would be aimed at preventing Sen. Murkowski from being able to fly under the Republican banner. In 2021, the party sanctioned her, censured her, and asked her to actually leave the party. The State Central Committee’s vote against Murkowski, due to her actions against President Donald Trump, did not have an effect; she remains a registered Republican today and, as the incumbent, is running hard to beat Tshibaka, who is endorsed by the Republican Party.
