By JUDY ELEDGE
Recently several decisions made by Republicans in the Republican Party, Alaska State Senate and U.S. Congress have led me to this question. Who are we?
As many of you are aware, I have known Craig Campbell for many years and respect him greatly. I just don’t agree on his recent assumption about why we should remove and pause the party censure.
I have served on the Republican State Central Committee since 2003, first as chair of two different districts and since 2008 as president of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club.
I was out of state for the December meeting and therefore wish to address Craig Campbell’s large assumption in Must Read Alaska, where he stated that since both Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen.-elect Kelly Merrick won their seats, and other Republicans lost theirs, the censures passed earlier were ineffective. (The censure against Murkowski had been overwhelmingly approved by the SCC with Craig’s vote in support).
Craig Campbell is respected by many in the party, myself, included. So, when he makes these statements, he has much influence. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. Believing this to be a rather large assumption, I would like to see Craig’s data supporting his statement.
After discussion with some very good data people in and out of Alaska, they would say the censures had very little effect either way. People further stated most of what the SCC does is really only noticed by a small “informed” group of Republicans. They assured me that such a small group would not affect whether Lisa Murkowski or Kelly Merrick won or lost.
As I remember, the camel that broke most everyone’s back in the Republican leadership of the4 party was Lisa Murkowski’s vote to not confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and then voting to impeach Donald Trump, a sitting Republican president.
Then, in the November 2022 election, she endorsed the democrat in the U.S. congressional race. No one believes her censure would have changed that. It seems she just needed those rural votes because of a Democrat in her own race.
Kelly Merrick’s censure came from within her own district, when during last session she joined a coalition with Democrats and left many of her fellow Republicans in the minority.
So, below are my assumptions of why Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Merrick won and why other Republicans may have lost. I have tried to base my assumptions on facts and data when possible.
#1 Ranked Choice Voting
Everyone knows that Sen. Lisa Murkowski was behind the ranked choice voting initiative. She knew there was no way she would make it through a Republican primary again, when for the first time since 2010 she had a strong candidate as an opponent. She knew she couldn’t do another write-in, so why not just change the whole voting system in Alaska? Legislating by petition is rather easy here if you have the money. It didn’t seem to matter to her what affect it might have on other Republican races.
So, with millions of outside dark-money, it passed. This would allow her a way to avoid a Republican primary and get all her Democrat votes to count. Big assumption? I’ll say it has better odds than the theory that being censured caused Republican losses.
#2 Redistricting
Every 10 years we go through redistricting. Once again, the Democrats beat the hell out of the Republican Party in getting people to testify. Yes, we had three Republicans on the board, but they were not always unified on votes. Several of us did everything we could to get people to testify. I alone testified five times. Day after day we sat and heard many Democrats testify about their chosen maps. Republicans usually had around 2-3 people. We thank those district chairs that did help and wonder where the rest were.
With Republicans not united on the Republican House Districts, the Democrat map won. In the Senate pairings, we did somewhat better, but once those pairings were passed out of committee, the Democrats sued. Of course, the Alaska courts sided with the Democrats and their Senate pairings were accepted. This left many of our strong Republican districts at risk for flipping.
It was rather obvious, some Republican candidates joined with the Democrats to win their Senate seats. Is it possible that Kelly Merrick being married to a union boss, and Cathy Giessel holding a fundraiser with Democrat Matt Claman had more to do with their winning with the help of Democrat money than one of them being censured?
#3 Get out the vote
If as was stated by Craig Campbell, this was the largest ever voter turn-out effort by the GOP, then it failed. This election was the lowest voter turnout ever in the state.
Maybe the Party needs to take a closer look at its efforts and analyze why it didn’t work. Exactly what efforts were made by the party on behalf of Senate Candidate Kelly Tshibaka? Could it be the dismal losses of the past six years under the current RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel? When she was elected, Republicans held the presidency, Senate and House. The results in the November election tell me we need to look at a new direction for our party.
#4 Outside Money
Conservative Republican candidates who lost were fighting huge amounts of outside money. In the Alaska Senate race, Kelly Tshibaka had $9 million spent against her by Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Senate leadership to ensure Sen. Lisa Murkowski won. His commercials against Tshibaka were relentless, and some of the dirtiest anyone has ever heard.
I wonder what would have happened had he spent $9 million to defeat Lisa Murkowski? Are we to believe actions like this do not make the average conservative voter disgusted with the party and maybe not show up to polls?
Many of us are proud of Kelly Tshibaka’s percentage of votes after millions were spent to defeat her. I have heard some say we lost money when we censured Murkowski. Exactly what money are they talking about? Puppet money?
In some of our state races the same was happening. Sen. Mia Costello had millions of outside monies spent against her to elect Democrat Matt Claman.
A large LGBT outside group sent funds to four LGBT candidates in Alaska, and three of them won. I am sure other national Democrat money was being put in many of our races to ensure Republican lost.
Since the censure “removal” several more disturbing things have happened in our party both in AK and nationally.
- 11 Republicans were elected to the AK Senate. That formed a Republican majority but instead eight of those 11 decided they didn’t really like conservative Republicans and instead formed with Democrats for a Democrat led coalition, with the most powerful committee chairs being held mostly by Democrats.
- Recently Congress had 12 Republican senators, and a whopping 39 Republican congressmen, vote for the so-called Respect for Marriage Act. It was legislation not really needed, but pushed by the LGBT movement. This now puts all religious groups at risk for lengthy lawsuits. Both of our US Senators voted for it.
- The US Senate, including 18 Republicans, just voted for the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, one of which we just re-elected.
In closing, this leads me back to my original question in the headline: “Who are we?” Many of us believe we are our party platform. Is it wrong to expect the same from those we elect? Is not a censure letting an elected official know we don’t like their actions against our platform? Is it not a way to hold them accountable?
We, as a party, spend many hours writing our platform at state conventions. Should we not ask candidates to read and support them after the convention?
I am one that believes we stand for something, or we stand for nothing at all. Did many of our voters just stay home on Election Day because they don’t see Republicans standing for anything? Are we just words but not action? These would be my assumptions. I hope I have convinced you my assumptions are worth considering.
Judy Eledge is the chair of the Anchorage Republican Women’s Club and a longtime activist in the Republican Party of Alaska.
