By ALEX GIMARC
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” – Often misattributed to Albert Einstein. It was more accurately attributed to Rita Mae Brown in Sudden Death, 1983, and a Knoxville, TN newspaper article in 1981. Earlier versions can be traced back a century. It is an increasingly popular phrase.
Why should we care about this today? Well, Phil Izon and the 907/Honest guys are back at another bite of the apple, cranking up yet another repeal of Ranked Choice Voting. He made the announcement in an e-mail sent Nov 29. It is a call for sponsors for signature gathering to float another ballot initiative. Last time around, they had 182 sponsors. He thinks they can get 300 – 500 next time around. Signature gathering will be timed to make the 2026 ballot.
Why is this an exercise in insanity? Because signature gathering for this issue is easy. Actually winning the campaign to pass the initiative is hard, especially an issue that is about as close to a 50 – 50% voter split statewide as you can get.
RCV was originally passed in 2020, winning a 3,781-vote victory (50.55% of the total vote, 174,032). Votes against were 49.45%, 170,251. Final results this time were much closer, with repeal failing by 737 votes.
The money spent in passing and defending RCV is the real problem. When it was passed in 2020, its backers raised and spent over $6.8 million. Opponents responded with nearly $0.6 million. They were outspent over 10:1. This time around, defenders of RCV raised and spent a whopping $14.6 million. Supporters of repeal were far behind at $0.5 million, being outspent 28:1. The vast majority of money spent passing and defending RCV was and continues to be Outside money.
The pro-RCV side crushed the anti-RCV side with spending in two elections. Does Mr. Izon believe the results in 2026 would be any different? If so, why?
The good news is that the anti-RCV has demonstrated that they can raise half a million dollars for a statewide campaign. That money is wasted in fighting multi-million-dollar flood of pro-RCV outside money in any statewide campaign. How could it be spent better?
One way would be to elect a Legislature and governor supportive of RCV repeal. For example, if that money were used to remove Republican legislators from office who simply can’t wait to cross the aisle and form “bipartisan” caucuses, we can actually form Republican led caucuses.
In the House, this would be voting out ringleaders like Louise Stutes and Chuck Kopp. In the Senate, this would be Cathy Giessel, Gary Stevens, Bert Stedman and Kelly Merrick. 2026 is also a gubernatorial year, so we need a supportive Republican governor for RCV repeal.
We’ve tried fighting RCV twice with the same results: Close losses at the ballot box after getting outspent 10 – 30:1 in Outside money. What makes repeal crowd think a third time will be the charm? Nothing that I can see from here. Perhaps I am missing something.
If what you are doing isn’t working, it’s time to do something else.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
