A YouTube ad by the leftist RepresentUs group stars Sen. Cathy Giessel, who was elected because of ranked-choice voting, and Sen. Matt Claman, both extolling the benefits of the new system that went into action in Alaska elections in 2022, turning the U.S. House seat Democrat, and handing Democrat control over in the State Senate.
Giessel says in the ad how she very much expected bipartisan leadership of the Senate after ranked-choice voting was passed by voters in 2020. The measure, Ballot Measure 2, was paid for by dark money groups outside the state that use Alaska as a petrie dish or experiments to drive liberal public policy. The Arabella Fund, New Venture Fund, Tides Foundation, and others are some of these dark-money groups that have an oversized influence on public policy in Alaska. They are groups few have ever heard of — just like the RepresentUs group, which gets funding from the Tides Foundation.
In the Alaska Senate, the Republican majority gave over control to minority Democrats after the 2022 election, awarding them powerful committee chairmanships, moving their priority bills, and blocking legislation Democrats opposed.
Only three members of the Senate were excluded from that majority — Robb Myers of North Pole, Shelley Hughes of Mat-Su, and Mike Shower of Wasilla. Their minority is so small it doesn’t even qualify as a minority in technical terms. They are completely shut out of the process by the 85% majority, the largest in the country, according to Claman.
That’s something Giessel supports. She said when Claman was in the House and she was in the Senate, “there was a lot of cross-pollination,” and “there were bills that we worked together on.”
Giessel said people are so committed to this caucus “for the first time in a number of years.”
The last time there was a “bipartisan working group,” as it was called in the Senate, was in 2010, when all 10 Democrats and six Republicans created the caucus, led by Sen. Gary Stevens, Sen. Bert Stedman, Sen. Lyman Hoffman and the late Sen. Johnny Ellis.
Hoffman that year lauded the Bipartisan Working Group, saying it would pay back everything that had been borrowed out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve.
“This year, we hope to do something that would have seemed impossible ten years ago,” said, who was co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as he is in 2024. “After twenty years of borrowing from it, we think we can fully repay the state’s constitutional savings account. Saving, not borrowing – this is a very tangible sign of our fiscal responsibility.”
Back then the balance of the fund was $9 billion. Today, the balance is $2.79 billion. The bipartisan promise was not exactly kept.
This year, Senators Stevens, Stedman, and Hoffman are part of the new bipartisan majority caucus, and Giessel, thrown out by her constituents for being too liberal in 2020, but returned to the Senate after ranked-choice voting came into play in 2022, quickly joined in what is a nine-Democrat, eight-Republican leadership group that is raiding Alaskans’ Permanent Fund dividends in order to balance the budget.
Giessel calls this a “balanced budget that actually had a surplus.”
According to InfluenceWatch.org, the RepresentUs group gets funding from the Atlantic Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Park Foundation, Tides Foundation, and Bohemian Foundation.
To get a sense of how RepresentUs aligns with leftist values, funder Atlantic Foundation also has made grants to the media group most associated with the leftist The Nation publication. The Park Foundation works to destroy natural gas as an energy source, and has made grants to Greenpeace and the pirate environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Tides Foundation is best described as fake nonprofit that launders away the paper trail between its grants and the original donor.
RepresentUs has targeted Alaska, Colorado, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Georgia, Minnesota, and Utah to expand and protect ranked-choice voting. It is also actively working to dismantle the Electoral College and replace it with a national popular vote, which would strip the lightly populated states like Alaska of their representation.
In Seattle, RepresentUs worked to advance and protect the use of “democracy vouchers,” which requires the city’s taxpayers to pay for political campaigns against their will. Since the new law passed in 2015, taxpayers in Seattle now must pay for the campaigns of people with whom they do not necessarily align. In 2023, taxpayers paid $2.4 million to 30 campaigns for city council.
Once a reliable vote for conservatives, Giessel now works to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, put unaffordable pension plans into place for public employees, and allow counselors in schools to refer children to “identity clinics” where they can get gender transition help, without telling their parents. She even is voting against strengthening the laws that protect the unborn.
The Democrats and liberals are outplaying and outthinking the conservatives. I hope the new leader of the Alaska Republican Party can turn the ship around. We are sinking fast.
As McGrath has noted, conservatives are getting out thought and out “played!”
The real revelation is this, Republicans need leaders and not run-of-the-mill, self-righteous, political-evangelists or street operatives who’ve developed a knack for milking party dummies. Retire Giessel, but don’t be played as just an easy mark by somebody who says that he’ll be in it for you or you’ll be back to bellyache again!
Sounds like Begich.
Oh yeah, he shoots a gun in his political ads – he must be reaaaalllly conservative.
Bipartisanship? The rumor I heard was that Senators Shower, Myers & Hughes were excluded from the “bipartisan” train because a number of Senators could not stomach being in the same room with them. Then when they would not submit to the Senator Stevens led binding caucus that was the final straw.
We need more Senators like Shower, Hughes & Myers not less.
Spot on Dave!
RCV needs to die, it doesn’t serve the best interests of Alaska and Alaskans, it’s only purpose is to manipulate elections.
This election cycle is the last opportunity to rid the State of RCV. If it stays, in less than five years, Alaska will be the reddest state in the West. Oil will not flow, natural gas will stop, mining will cease, fishing will be cut to the bone, EV’s will be mandated and restrictions on firearms and ammo will come about. It will be a liberal dream state. Then they’ll go after the military bases. Look at Washington state if you don’t believe me.
Don’t trust your republican friends to save this state. They are just another flavor of tropical punch. Just look at the AIDEA or PF. Or the salmon stocks on the Yukon, Kusko and Kenai. The Republican Guv and his administration have literally made things worse, carrying on the tradition established by Palin and Walker.
Serving Party Hacks & Special Interests while failing to serve all Alaskans is causing the Republican Party to collapse. Chris is right, your party is not the majority, undeclared/unaffiliated are, your party needs to produce better candidates.
“Alaska will be the reddest state in the West.” ? Try the bluest state.
I think he means the reddest state in West as in it will be “in the red” without any income producing industries? oil, gas, mining, fishing, etc.
I think you meant to say(?) … “Alaska will be the bluest state in the West.”
Why would you limit options for any Alaskan to run? To serve? To REPRESENT? Killing the open primary only allows the rich, pretty, and politically connected to carrying on spending and regulating us to death.
It forces a battle between the lesser of two evils established by the two smallest electorate parties. Why would Alaskans want 12% (d) and 23% (r) to determine who the 59% must vote for?
There are more Independents in Alaska than Republicans or Democrats. This is why it was supported very convincingly when voted on.
Nope.
Overwhelmingly, “independents” vote Democrat.
“LIAR!!!!!”😡
It’s the only way she can hold on to her seat and that’s all she cares about.
Not only does she look like Murkowski’s twin sister she uses the exact same shister lawyer tactic to eat out of the royalty’s feeding trough.
Her Murkowski look comes from “cross pollinating” with RINO’S.
Liberals working together with more liberals is NOT bipartisanship. That’s called hegemony.
After rank choice is gone, we may finally have more conservatives in office and force some real bipartisanship on that liar.
Blatant lies or at best delusion. The ‘caucus’ is leftist and it was RCV that put so many leftist leaning into the legislature. Of course two leftists are going to extol the ‘virtues’. It is the only way they can get elected and keep power and control. Bipartisan? You mean democrats and ‘faux’ republicans who are actually closet democrats pretending to be republicans. Nothing bipartisan about that.
Suzanne THANK YOU for a much needed article; and for calling out Sen. Geissel as the leftist she is! Not for the people of alaska at all. RCV will be thrown out!
Don’t forget the PM radio host who furiously pimped this stupidly as a way to elect more conservatives.
Yup.
He is the epitome of the RINO UniParty scum that infects this State and our country.
Geissel is an immoral legislator who will do ANYTHING to stay in power. Hence, she loves Ranked Choice Voting, love spending The People’s Permanent Fund Dividend AND gets paid to do what she does. How idiotic is that, Alaskans?! Hopefully RCV will be gone this year! And so will she and Claman be from our legislative body.
Ranked Choice Cheating is unconstitutional and must be repealed!
Giessel has no philosophy to hang onto. A RINO midget who dreams of being cross-pollinated by lefty Democrats. Something is wrong with her mind. The district got rid of her once. They need to do it again. ASAP.
She was a control freak when I used to date her back in the day.
Rick,
Any elaboration would be welcome here, unless of course, it has a Stormy Daniels type of intimate detail. That could be frightening.
LOL.
Julia, I couldn’t perform a move of my own.
Let’s just say it was a very controlling experience.
Rick,
EWWW. She looks like a dominator.
A legislator dominatrix.
Zero interest in any bipartisanship.
Either the illiberal authoritarians of today’s modern left, or the Rino conservatives who want to do the same things only at a slower pace.
She looks like your typical loonie liberal.
Whew! There’s too much BS in that Giessel/ Claman lovefest video to cover without writing a book.
Evil is cunning cruel & wants to bring all down with him. Once you are stuck on the evil juice remember all JESUS taught it is easy for 2 to go to the pit together murkowski & geisel. SUZANNE YOU ALWAYS STAND FOR THE RIGHT THING MA’AM CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR INTEGRITY TO WE THE PEOPLE. IF YOUR A MOTHER IMAGINE YOUR KIDS KNOW YOU TOOK MUST READ & MADE A STAND THANK YOU MUST READ. Oath breakers trade craft exposed.
RCV isn’t the issue. Poor candidates are. The house seat would have most likely become repub (Don was a rino). However lack of humility of both repub candidates enabled Ms Mary to win.
Going backwards to the private political party gatekeeper strategy eliminates opportunity and options for the single largest voting bloc…. undeclared or unaffiliated Alaskan voters.
Poor candidates is certainly an issue, but so is RCV. Just because RCV presents a choice between crap and more crap does not mean it is not a problem.
I can’t believe that so many Alaskans were dumb enough to buy into that garbage especially when it was financed by our blood enemies.
Most voters are not educated and easily brainwashed.
RCV “passed” at the absolute last second. It was going to fail right up until the last moment that absentee ballots were eligible for counting, and suddenly, there was a surge in Yes votes on BM 2.
Weird, if you as me.
Steve,
It is important we remember that MIKE PORCARO shilled for Ranked Choice Voting when he made advertisements that promoted it and used them on his program. I cannot “forgive” him for deciding on money over principal AND I cannot stand to listen to his radio drivel daily on KENI radio.
GS
With ranked-choice voting, some ballots are counted once while other ballots are counted twice. The truth is that ballots are not treated equally. Although this perversion is written into a statute, it is fundamentally undemocratic.
Some ballots are counted up to four times.
You are correct. I was keeping my explanation as simple as possible. Unfortunately, until is is repealed or litigated again, we will have to live with the reality that Alaska’s judges are too stupid to recognize that handling some ballots differently than other ballots is a violation of the principle of equal protection of the law. As noted, just because it was possible to write a statute setting out the RCV process does not make it constitutional.
All the kisses Giessel is blowing to far left ideology liberal Claman tells you everything you need to know about her. His assembly record tells you what a leftist authoritarian dictator he is. Both of their voting records, spending habits, taking the PFD for their programs and bureaucracy and legislation proposals further show their nature, plantation overseer, we know better than you what to spend the PFD on and we get to decide mentality as well. Stop voting for these people. The legislative majority is Not working for your best interest, only their own. They are ganging up on Alaskans, and Not for the better.
Rank choice Voting Is RANK! it stinks and we need to get rid of it. One Person one vote no second place trophies. This is another Scheme to confuse the ballots and install Democrats. They will spend Millions to defend it. Watch and see where the money Comes from and ask yourself are these people the ones you want to associate with? Lisa RINO Murkowski and George Soros. No It is clearly not in our best interest!
Robb Myers is from North Pole, not Fairbanks.
Bipartisanship with leftists amounts to nothing more than the deliberate erosion of the law’s protection of your natural rights and liberty. Ranked choice voting enables it. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to celebrate either except to mislead the unwise and enslave those who desire to be free – or other unimaginable and worse alternatives.
To the leftist bipartisanship means the leftist gets what they want.
Giessel reminds me of nurse Ratchet. Evil snake eyes, pinched chin and lips, and cold-blooded. Someone should check into her nurse charting to see how many patients snuck out of the hospital.
I snuck out………for good.
Hahahaha …
🤣
Truth about the elections and rcv? Not out of Giessel’s mouth. Repeal RCV and remove Giessel!
alaskansforhonestelections.com
We know everything about who RCV benefits by taking a look at who is defending it. Want more Cathy, Claman and the uniparty Senate? Defeat the repeal. Want less of that foolishness? Vote to repeal. Easy peasy. Cheers –
Why should Peoples Imperial State Senator Giessel feel the need to rely on such an easily corruptible election scheme to keep her job?
.
Could it be that state income and sales taxes and a communist Chinese-owned gasline are closer than voters think, and ungrateful voters can cause a lot of damage if allowed to vote in open, honest elections?
.
No? Why’s all the chatter suddenly bubbling up about some sort of Cook Inlet natural gas supply crisis? What’s behind the constantly simmering rhetoric about the education industry’s dire financial crisis?
.
What’s the appeal of “bipartisanship” with human beings whose purpose in life is forcing institutionalized illiteracy on children, killing babies, sexually targeting children, giving money to America’s enemy, destroying Alaska’s economy, spending Alaska into oblivion, corrupting elections, corrupting every aspect of state and local government to their advantage, plus (fill in the blank)?
.
Sad state of affairs when Cathy wants something, the rule of thumb seems be that the opposite thing is usually better for productive residents, no?
Kicking minority Republicans to the curb, not even letting them serve on standing committees, is not being inclusive.
Zeroing out capital spending in minority districts, tells far more than this feel good, bravo, sierra commercial
Giessel is the poster child for just how the founders of our erstwhile great country were so inspired. Frequent elections and term limits. New blood is essential to democracy, while long serving stale politicians kills a republic! Throw Giessel out ASAP!!!
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