By Zack Gottshall
Leadership is not measured by how well conflict is avoided, but by whether responsibility is embraced when it is most uncomfortable. In 2025, the Alaska Republican Party has failed that test— not because its grassroots have been silent, but because its leadership has been unwilling to act.
Across Alaska, multiple House District Committees have exercised their authority under Party rules to demand accountability from elected Republicans whose actions have diverged from the Party’s platform and stated principles. These actions were not impulsive or emotional. They were formal, deliberate actions taken through established district processes.
In 2025, House District Committees have taken formal action involving specific elected officials, including U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, State Senator Cathy Giessel, State Senator Kelly Merrick, and State Representative Chuck Kopp, just to name a few.
Yet time and again, Alaska Republican Party leadership has failed to act decisively or meaningfully on these calls.
This failure is not benign. It is consequential.
House District Committees are not advisory bodies. They form the foundation and majority of the State Central Committee, which serves as the governing body of the Party between state conventions. When district committees act, they are expressing the will of the grassroots — the very authority from which Party leadership derives its legitimacy. Ignoring that will is not leadership. It is abdication.
More troubling still, repeated inaction by those entrusted with Party leadership now threatens to undermine the Party’s ability to enforce accountability in the future. When leadership publicly discourages sanctions, minimizes censure efforts, or argues that certain elected officials may be “needed” for future legislative purposes, it signals that enforcement of Party standards is optional. Acting politicians can reasonably argue that the Party, through its leadership, chose not to enforce its own rules. That argument grows stronger each time district actions are sidelined or ignored.
The cost of this failure is no longer theoretical.
This is not an abstract risk. It has real and lasting consequences. Sen. Rob Yundt may ultimately avoid discipline not because the concerns lack merit, but because historical precedent now favors inaction. When Party leadership repeatedly declines to enforce its own rules, it creates a record future respondents can point to and say, “This is how the Party operates.” The signal sent to voters is devastatingly clear: the Alaska Republican Party does not care who uses the “R” after their name once elected. Each time leadership backs down, more voters disengage, more trust is lost, and more Republicans walk away— not because they reject the platform, but because they no longer believe the Party will defend it.
Selective or inconsistent enforcement erodes credibility. It weakens the Party’s moral authority and invites claims of favoritism, political convenience, or retaliation. A Party that will not enforce its own standards cannot credibly demand adherence to them.
Leadership that refuses to act boldly in defense of Party principles does not preserve unity; it hollows it out. Courage is not cruelty. Accountability is not division. A Party that chooses political convenience over integrity ceases to be a principled institution and becomes a personality-driven organization.
Equally troubling is the growing confusion about the role of Party leadership itself. Party leaders are stewards of the Party’s values and platform. They are not meant to use the Party as a political shield, a networking vehicle, or a platform for self-promotion. Stewardship requires humility, restraint, and a willingness to place the institution above individual ambition.
When leadership elevates optics, access, or future political calculations over enforcement of the Republican platform, it inverts its role. The Party exists to advance Republican principles, not to advance the standing of those temporarily entrusted with leadership titles.
Failure to act decisively and boldly reflects a lack of courage. And courage is not optional in leadership. It is essential.
If the Alaska Republican Party is to remain a serious, values-driven institution, it must recommit to enforcing its own rules without fear or favoritism. That means honoring the authority of House District Committees, respecting the governing structure of the State Central Committee, and acting decisively when accountability is required.
Cowardice dressed up as pragmatism is still cowardice. And leadership without courage is not leadership at all.
Zack Gottshall is a retired U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, former Vice Chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, a Commissioner on the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, and a small business owner in Anchorage, Alaska.
At last. Somebody who gets it.
The decade long clown show masquerading as leadership is exactly why the democrats run this state, regardless of the letters behind the person. Alaskas best, most effective democrats are all Republican.
Exactly, I will never donate to the spineless GOP, and it because of the lack of leadership in our state. I’m thinking we need to create a real conservative party without the current people.
Oh please, these little problems you’ve mentioned are nothing in comparison to the massive crimes against us, Indigenous private landowning Alaskans who this state psyoped, ponzied, and attempted to mass murder. This is Ukralaska.
Where do you think you’d be if Russia would have stayed in Alaska? Stalin was not very accommodating to indigenous peoples or those who disagreed with him. What if Imperial Japan would have been allowed to conquer and occupy Alaska? Check with those victims of South Pacific island nations who suffered under Japanese occupation. Your thoughts may change.
Thank you for the courage and work to put this in writing! Very well put together and strongly done.
Many in the Republican party leadership of the state, are just drunk or on drugs and lazy. Unable to find other meaningful employment. Oh, and of course, they love the power. And there’s a fair amount of outright corruption as well. It’s a big old club, and we are not in it. Until the capital is moved out of that town and we get some people of character in office… nothing will change.
What makes GOP-AK weak and useless is their lack of accountability. There is no vetting. Prime example to this are the murkowski’s. Frank was in the senate for year, then decides to run for governor. Frank hands off his senate seat to Lisa. Frank did some real dumb things like buy a lear jet and leave parked in the army guard hangar (thereby pushing out one of two UH-60 helicopters). The jet sat there, always booked for just Frank to fly on it. It sat there long enough for mice to call it home. Lisa did her own dumb things like siding with democrats 80-90% of the time. When Palin ran against Frank, GOP-AK offered zero support to Palin. In the last month of the election, GOP-AK realized that backing Frank was a bad choice. They threw their support to Palin as the last resort. Back to Lisa, GOP-AK backed her even though they knew she was a RINO. GOP-AK has been a ceegar smoking, shady used car sales man for years. Always telling us “This is the best we can come up with!” and expecting us to accept it. No, I’m not accepting it. No, I’m not handing over any cash to GOP-AK because I can’t trust them. I used to be AIP, until GOP-AK decided registered AIP voters could not vote in republican primarys. The best choice was to register as “undecided” instead of republican. Registering republican meant I was going to get shaken down every year for money and constant polls. Undecided- very few calls for polls or money.
When they did not fully censure lisa murky, it was over for US!
Kick out the rinos and stop the funding these miscreants.
You are losing US with this stagnation, we need action and communication to these RINOs.
I am willing to bet many of the issues in our political leech class of people revolves around scandals related to Epstein. Seems like a whole lot of leeches in suits and ties are under some kind of blackmail bondage and they are given orders to actively destroy our nation “or else”, while at the same time profiting off the destruction.
Let us all refrain from calling them public servants and instead name them justly, the parasitic class.
Remember, the same people who write the laws that imprison the impoverished are the same who hold themselves above the same laws all while telling to lowly peasants that “no one is above the law”.
But hey, thats just a theory, a conspiracy theory! Thanks for reading!
Same whining, ‘nother year… Zack, what did YOU do, to help unseat RINOs? If we could just get the whining tru-cons to actually help us, I think we could turn the tide of AKGOP decline. We can start with a return to the platform of 2022 – strongly conservative – and find ways to amend Party rules so censure actually has some teeth. Meanwhile, the only weapon we have is to primary and elect conservatives – AND WE’RE NOT DOING IT. Who of these readers wants to run against Cathy Giessel? Bert Stedman? Louise Stutes? or even Lisa Murkowski? What is the winning formula? I agree that something needs to be done Zack, but I challenge you to rise up and get to work instead of pointing out the same issues without a path to solving them.
We voted at two different times to move the capital to the mainland. We the people voted and nothing has been done to make it happen. The citizens of Alaska have no access to our governing bodies but the Lobbyists sure do. The first sign of progress in this state is to move the capital to the mainland where citizens can access those involved with government power. The excuse is there is no budget for it. Why not? Pray that integrity and good character return to those who are responsible for governing and making decisions that affect all of us.