The first candidate forum of the election season for Alaska’s congressional seat took place in Fairbanks on Saturday at the Alaska Republican Convention. It featured five top Republican candidates vying for the seat vacated by the late Congressman Don Young.
Republican candidate Nick Begich, who has been endorsed by the Republicans’ State Central Committee, came under attack by candidates Tara Sweeney and Josh Revak. Revak criticized Begich for creating jobs overseas; Begich is a businessman with business interests in Alaska, nationally, and abroad. Sweeney criticized Begich for having run a campaign against the late Congressman Don Young.
The crowd was largely supportive of Begich, who received several robust applauses. Revak was applauded for his service to the country in the military.
Sarah Palin opened her remarks by making up with the party after her critical statements to the mainstream media the day before. She thanked people in the room for having supported her in her run for Wasilla City Council, as Wasilla mayor, for governor, on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, and as a vice presidential candidate. The day prior, she had slammed the party as a “good old boys network” and said she would not seek and endorsement from such a party.
Begich won applause by starting his remarks by telling the audience of several hundred that he did not consider them a “good old boys network.” That brought loud cheers, and was widely seen as a rebuke at Palin’s complaints about the grassroots activists from the day before.
Sweeney started her remarks by criticizing the leadership of the Alaska Republican Party for having voted for an endorsement of Begich at the State Central Committee meeting before the convention had heard from all candidates. She said it was unfair. Begich’s campaign had spent the effort asking for an endorsement, while no other candidate on the panel had actually asked for an endorsement.
When asked if transgender athletes should be able to compete in women’s sports, Sweeney said that transgenders are humans and need to be treated with compassion as they deal with their gender identity issues. She equivocated on the actual question, which brought boos from the audience. Later, Must Read Alaska asked her to expand on her thoughts and she said that as a former rugby player, she would not want to have to compete against bigger, stronger men.
Sweeney also received murmurs from the crowd when she criticized Begich for having run against Don Young when he was alive.
Coghill reminded the audience that ranked choice voting means that the campaigns by the Republican candidates need to be thinking in terms of it being a team sport. But the shots taken by some of the candidates made it clear that they are seeking to differentiate themselves from the other GOP candidates.
Moderator Campbell asked each candidate who they would vote for as their second choice on a ranked choice ballot, and why. Palin said she would vote for Coghill or Revak. Begich said he would vote for Coghill. Sweeney said Coghill, and it was unclear who Revak said he would vote for but it seemed to be Coghill, while Coghill said he couldn’t answer the question because he thought all of the others were good.
For Congress, there are two elections currently under way: The first is to find a temporary placeholder for Alaska’s only congressional seat until January, when the next one will be sworn in. For the special election to replace Don Young temporarily, the mail-in ballots will be in the mail to qualified Alaska voters — all 586,318 of them — by the Division of Elections. That ballot has 48 candidates on it. The primary election ends June 11 and the top four vote-getters will appear on the special general election on Aug. 16.
Aug. 16 is also the same day that the regular primary election will be held for all state legislative seats but one, for Congress, and for Alaska’s Senate seat now served by Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
For that primary election, some who are on the special election ballot may appear again, while new names may be added to that race; the final date to register for the congressional race is June 1.
