A series of back-and-forth emails obtained by Must Read Alaska show that major D.C. lobbyists and operatives associated with the late Congressman Don Young are trying to get all former employees of Young to sign on and support Congresswoman Mary Peltola in November. The Swamp is trying to pull the Democrat over the finish line. And they’re using Peltola to get Sen. Lisa Murkowski reelected.
The emails involve well-known Alaska-focused lobbyists and politicos such as C.J. Zane, Jack Ferguson, Steve Silver, and others, and the messages were copied to dozens of former staffers for Young and a few business leaders from major Alaska corporations. From the emails, it’s clear that former Chief of Staff Alexander Ortiz, who is currently working as chief of staff for Peltola, is one person leading the charge, along with former Don Young Communication Director Zack Brown.
They are attacking Nick Begich, who was the former co-chair of the Young campaign in 2020. Instead,
Curtis J. Zane wrote:
“We’ve had a chance to talk amongst most, but not all of you, about the attached DRAFT event invitation for Rep. Mary Peltola. As you can see from the draft, several of us have agreed to go on the invite as listed participants. Anyone who wants to join the list is welcome, but we want to be very, very clear that this is strictly voluntary and there’s absolutely no harm and no foul if anyone wants to take pass for whatever reason.” C.J. Zane is managing principal at BLANKROME Government Relations LLC and lobbies for many Alaska entities, linked here.
Zane, doing heavy lifting among his lobbyist peers, is trying to get all former Young staffers to get involved in supporting the Democrat.
“And, if joining on a fund raising event is not your cup of tea, there are other ways to help out if you are so inclined. Attached is a draft letter of support, and a memo about three ways you can help, that Alex and Zack have drafted for your consideration. Again, folks can do one, two, all three, or none of these suggestions. Please let us know if you want to add your name to the invite and/or send a letter of support or do a testimonial, and if not, that’s perfectly okay! Thanks very much for your consideration,” Zane says, showing that Ortiz and Brown, Don Young staffers at the time of his death, are key to pushing Peltola.
A response from lobbyist Jack Ferguson shows he’s “all-in,” and so are some of his friends. Ferguson wrote:
“Yes you can put my name all over the place….I  held a ‘business round table’ event for Mary at the Petroleum Club this last Wednesday…..Ben Stevens attended…along with 12 other great Republicans .  (including Jim Jansen …who ‘Begich claims as his supporter) . I will attend the art gallery event  this Sunday,  Yesterday I Attended the Chugach event over at Sheri’s 12 floor.  I have another event for her on Oct. 27th which they have asked me to arrange….’Republican women who support Pro Choice.’  Joe Ralston and I are making arrangements for her to meet Col.Wilson  the new commander of JBER.   Working with Anton (her campaign manager) on suggested remarks for her speech at the AFN Convention….just bought a VIP table there.
“Think of it this way,……almost every Democratic vote that turns out is a vote for Lisa …so a High Democratic turn out is good.  But Mary can’t win without some certain number of Republicans …so they are mutually reliant on one another…and their supporters….that’s where we come in….hopefully all of the Young team….with the exception of one or two I suspect.
“Tomorrow the last ‘reporting period’ before the election will be posted…..Mary’s fund raiser guy (Jones) was working on the number this morning he thinks it is close to $3m…..Begich will be lucky if he raised 200k…unless he spends his own money which he has been reluctant to do..
“The ‘rank red’ campaign is for very partisan voters…..a good plan but not likely to produce many voters they don’t already have….the other voters for Begich are ‘default votes’…anybody but Palin.  Some say Begich has gained on Palin….I am waiting to learn more from some other polls that just came in from the field….before I believe it.
“They are still both fighting each other…..even though Palin has now joined the ‘rank red’ campaign …she used to be ‘vote one or none’ person…she still refers to him as ‘negative Nick’.
“But the new development… Peltola has the momentum and the last poll I saw has her beating  both Palin and Begich…..but still hoping that Begich is first person out. Begich just switched his position to support the ‘infrastructure money’….man the guy is slow.
“Oscar, is even taking his Spring Break from Taft to knock on doors for Mary.
“So as you can see I am all in…..as are most of my clients…..the fish guys in Seattle are having problems with her….working with [Stephanie] Moreland to educate Mary…she is a little hard over….but indicates she wants to understand more.
‘This is a good idea to put of our names on a ‘Young Legacy’ event…it sends a message.”
That email, trying to build an effort to show Peltola as Young’s legacy, is signed by Jack Ferguson and copied to dozens of lobbyists, former Young aides, and even a few Alaska business leaders, whose email addresses were all revealed on the thread, including lobbyists Richard A. Agnew of Van Ness Feldman, D. Smith of Smith Advocacy Group, Carl Marrs of Old Harbor Native Corp., Wally Burnett of Crossroad Strategies, Colin Chapman, Alexander Ortiz, Zack Brown, Katie Rachel of BLANKROME, several others at BLANKROME and Van Ness Feldman, Steve Silver, Andrew Lundquist of ConocoPhillips, Jay Sterne of Windward Strategies, Gregg Renkes of Van Ness Feldman, and many more.
The Nov. 8 general election will determine if Alaska, a majority Republican-voting state, will be represented in Congress by a Democrat. Some of the lobbyists on this email chain are ones who were involved with trying to get Josh Revak into the seat, others were working on the Tara Sweeney campaign, but neither made the case to voters during the special primary election in June. Revak came in 10th in June, and Sweeney got 3% in August.
