By KELLY TSHIBAKA
When 49-year Congressman Don Young passed away on March 18, he left a hole the size of the Yukon in the fabric of Alaska. With his unvarnished way of expressing himself and the legacy he left in the halls of Congress, he was one of a kind and Alaskan through and through.
Alaska has depended on Don Young’s leadership in the House of Representatives since 1973, but now thanks to Lisa Murkowski, we will be without any representation at all until mid-August.
For the next five months, there will be no member of the House from Alaska because of “Ballot Measure 2,” which was a complete restructuring of our elections systems passed narrowly by voter referendum in 2020. The scheme mandates an open, all-party primary in which voters choose one candidate, with the top four vote-getters advancing to a general election. In that general election, voters have the option of ranking the four remaining candidates, and a winner will be declared following a complicated process that reallocates votes from candidates who are eliminated during the tabulation.
Because of statutory timelines and the time needed for printing and distributing ballots, it’s clear that Alaska will have no member of the House until mid-August. Ballot Measure 2 replaced the existing process that called for a single all-party election. Under that method, if a candidate received 50 percent plus one vote, Alaska would have had a new representative in mid-June – fully two months earlier than we will have one now.
Ballot Measure 2 is widely accepted to have been put in place as an incumbent-protection plan for Lisa Murkowski, who would certainly have been unable to survive in a straight Republican primary election this year. Her supporters point out that she lost a Republican primary once before, in 2010, and then won re-election in an improbable write-in campaign in the general election anyway. But that was then, and this is now.
The 2010 election was before President Trump enacted many policies which benefited Alaska tremendously, and also before Murkowski opposed Trump’s election in 2016, his re-election in 2020, and many of his efforts, like the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
It also was before Murkowski enabled all the horribly damaging policies of the Biden administration by rubber-stamping over 90 percent of his cabinet appointments, including casting the tie breaking vote to advance the confirmation of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who has led the charge on Biden’s assault on Alaska’s energy and resource workers and businesses. And it was before the Alaska Republican Party censured Murkowski and instructed her not to refer to herself as a Republican in Alaska any longer.
Murkowski’s team knew she would not survive her re-election bid in 2022 if the rules were not changed for her benefit.
So along came Ballot Measure 2, which was drafted and championed by political operative Scott Kendall, who previously served as counsel to Murkowski’s 2010 write-in campaign and subsequently was campaign coordinator in her most recent re-election in 2016.
So, there can be no doubt that the massive restructuring of our election process was done by Murkowski’s team for Murkowski’s benefit, and not for the best interest of the people of Alaska.
Once again, we see Murkowski’s concern for herself prevailing over the interests of the people. She was gifted the Senate seat by her father, Frank Murkowski, to fill out his own unexpired term when he was elected governor. In 2010, she ignored the clearly stated will of the Alaskan people by navigating around her primary election loss through a write-in campaign, despite promising to honor the outcome of the primary. And now she has countenanced a new election system that will leave all of Alaska undefended in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly half a year.
It seems that above all, what drives Lisa Murkowski is her desperation to hold onto the Senate seat she inherited from her father, at any cost.
And as a result, at a time when President Biden is running roughshod over Alaska, continuously dismantling our resource industries and destroying thousands of jobs, we are left with no one in the lower chamber of Congress to try to safeguard our interests and fight for us.
We Alaskans are used to the Lower 48 forgetting us, passing us over, and leaving us without a voice. It’s particularly devastating that this time, we don’t have a voice because of the self-serving choices of our own U.S. senator, Lisa Murkowski.
Kelly Tshibaka is a born-and-raised Alaskan, and a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Alaska who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump and the Alaska Republican Party.
Alaskans deserve better than the American two party ( its really one party) system.
Republicans exist to play weak opposition to communists, and then loose.
“Opposition” is being generous
Alaskans, like all Americans, deserve nothing better than what they willingly vote for. It appears the majority of Alaskans (and Americans) are steadily drifting towards favoring communist tyranny. When we make the bed we are going to find ourselves compelled to sleep in it. Make no mistake, the recent appointment of looney, communist, radical leftist, Ketanji Jackson to the US Supreme Court is a direct result of Alaska voters electing megalomaniacal Frank Murkowski as governor in 2002. He was unable to control his own hubris and appointed his own daughter to fill his seat in the senate. Then the same Alaska voters doubled-down on Frank’s legacy and kept re-electing Lisa ad-nauseum. Alaska voters are choosing to live in a communist cesspool. Hold your breath.
The Alaska Statute specifying how Special Elections are conducted was passed after Rep Begich died, over 50 years ago when Senator Murkowski was in grade school.
Did Lisa have to do grade school over as many times as she retook the state bar exam?
We’re not arguing about that Frank! We are talking about the calamity that is ranked choice voting. Not how or when the election is, but how the votes are counted and or allocated. Get a clue, keep your two cents and stay over at the landmine.
The Special Election primary has a single vote, that was established by State Statute many years ago. Kelly conflated how Alaskan elections are conducted either by design, or because she is clueless
Frank, it is best practice to remember to use facts that are provable when you make comments. Lisa was not in grade school 50 years ago. I know this because a certain screaming, doll clutching “Daddies Little Princess” shoved me and slammed a door in my face back in, what was it, 67′ or ’68? Lisa was in grade school at that time, Begich died in a plane crash in the fall of ’72. Lisa was in High School in ’72. There fixed it for you!
I was making dubious bank loans in the 1970’s and everyone knew it. That’s why I decided to go into politics in 1980. I had already fooled enough people in the business world. Politics just seemed like the next step. But I did NOT “gift” Lisa the US Senate seat in 2002. It was actually a “loan” to Lisa. I had previously told her that in case my governorship failed, I wanted my US Senate seat back. Well, everyone knows what happened in 2006. Palin and Binkley kicked my a$$ in the primary. And Lisa renegged on her promise to return my Senate seat. She defaulted on her loan promise. Now she’s a Democrat. That’s why Nancy and I are now backing Kelly T.
GO KELLY!
We really have no other choice but to back Kelly Tshibaka. The Democrats new hero is Lisa. Republicans will no longer tolerate her.
I don’t want to end up in the ground with this:
“Here lies the mother of all Traitors.”
Nancy,
You are hereby invited back to our Republican Women’s Tea and Luncheons.
We’ve missed you.
Thank-you Robert, I did not know the exact grade Senator Murkowski was in, so I used grade school, which covers elementary grades, middle school grades and high school grades. Maybe you could provide a doll clutching photo from then? That would be awesome
Frank, if special elections are stipulated in law, how did Lisa Murkowski get appointed originally?
Amen!!! This article needs to be distributed far and wide so Alaskans will really know what Murkowski is. I will certainly do my part to make that happen.
She has been re-elected three times; one with a statistically improbable write-in. Its obvious the Alaska electorate knows Lisa well and has decided she is their gal. I suspect it has to do with the highly-developed entitlement mentality of residents combined with the uniquely heavy federal footprint across Alaska as compared to other states. No complex political-science, just observations of facts.
Lisa is a flat-out liar evidenced by the lie she told claiming to abide by the 2010 primary result. But, that was when she thought it was in her bag for her.
Then, arranged for anything written with an “M” to count as a vote for her. In typical democrat fashion, spelling did not count.
Sad.
Prop 2 was unconstitutional, but our judicial system failed to recognize that fact. Perhaps they should suggest a cure for their failure, since they are so smart. And of course we should all call Lisa and thank her for introducing this great new system of voting. We are now the laughing stock of the nation. Don’t just vote, but educate yourself on the issues and candidates. Everything that comes out on TV in an add should make you suspicious.
I don’t think anyone in here gives two sh-ts what Frank Rast or anyone like him says. Lisa is yet another “chronic” candidate that needs to be pushed out just like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham. They’re ineffective and a detriment to the country. The photo of Diane Feinstein pinning The Murk to a wall says it all.
Let’s not forget that the Don & Dan also pushed Haadland into Her position! Sullivan needs to apologize for His vote to seat her, Murkowski is to arrogant to admit Her shiving the Residents & the State of Ak! You have my vote Kelly.
Kelly, Alaskans, look at all the evil Lisa,soros and her oath breakers have done to keep her in power shameless. Lisa GOD has had enough Alaskans have had enough bring a box to work Lisa time to SCAT MA’AM. Alaskans we are going to love Kelly. Kelly Kelly Kelly team Alaska wants Kelly.
This Murkowski/Kendall scandal, and that what it is, is hopelessly intertwined with Dominion voting systems (in the past and in the future), as it turns out is not just to the detriment of Alaskans, but to Americans, and good people around the world. The damage done to all of those by Lisa Murkowski’s actions continues to mount as she has abandoned the truth and God, and has no intention of yielding to the will of the people. I am not convinced that it is her choice anymore, or that it was in 2010. I believe that in this instance, she is just doing and has done what she is told, and when events align just right her choice is made for her by whatever unseen hand, and that is what you can continue to expect from Lisa.
–
She has been in Washington far to long for those who have the desire and capacity to obtain whatever information necessary in order to control her to not have been successful.
This is so awful. I hate this type of inefficiency and what expense for a whim. Why not in person and no Dominion machines. We don’t want Lisa’s scheme.
“We Alaskans are used to the Lower 48 forgetting us, passing us over, and leaving us without a voice.”
Tshibaka left Alaska at age 15 and established herself as a federal government bureaucrat in Washington DC after attending Outside universities before being, for some reason, brought back to Alaska to take a job in the Dunleavy Administration where she stayed just long enough to exhaust the repayment period for her $81,000 in state paid moving expenses.
Back in Alaska for only three years as an adult Tshibaka now ingratiates herself by making statements like “We Alaskans…” being abused by…ha ha…the very people she just spent her entire professional career working with and for.
Maybe We Alaskans can find a REAL Alaskan to represent us in Washington DC instead of a Washington DC insider who came home for just a bit before her yearning to return to her real home led her to attempt taking one of our two senate seats.
Go ahead Joseph. Put your name in….or shut up and let those interested in serving have the floor. Don Young was from California. Did he not serve? Was he less Alaskan? Keep voting for Lisa, I guess you like taste of boot.
Joseph, much of what you say about Kelly T is true, however I note that this Kelly -T woman is not LISA! That one element of her candidacy is enough to compel me to support her.
BTW, please define what a REAL Alaskan is. I was born in the Territory of Alaska and have resided in ALASKA during the last 8 decades and I am still puzzled about what qualifies one to be a REAL ALASKAN.
I ask this because I’ve noticed that this term is used mostly by people who reside in that tiny bit of ALASKA between Wasilla to Girdwood and who may be a bit provincial in their thinking. For what it’s worth, I’ve met Cheechako’s who had less than a year in the country who Qualified in my book as “REAL ALASKANS”.
A fellow came to Alaska from DC and got involved in Politics, some said he was a carpetbagger and not a real Alaskan. He ended up in the U.S. Senate, name was Ted Stevens. Was he a “REAL ALASKAN”? I think so, but then he had lived in Alaska for less time then this Kelly Woman.
You got one
Chris Bye for US House
Sean Thorne for US Senate
Two common Alaskan Veterans not enticed by party elites nor beholden to special interest like the Republicans or Democrats.
Really? one name Deb Haaland.
Way to capitalize on the man’s passing.
So was my comment offensive Ms Downing? Or
Alaska voted in Prop 2. Don’t blame Princess for our stupidity. Blame us for electing her in the first place.
Who wrote this drivel, it surely want KS
Sorry Kelly, but Alaskans voted to enact ballot measure 2. It was not imposed on us by Sen. Murkowski. Alaskans voted for ballot measure 2 because we were tired of the lame choices we were presented with when political parties selected their extremist candidates in closed primaries. I am sure you wish ballot measure 2 had not passed, so you could be anointed as the Republican candidate for Senate, and not have to run on an open ballot. Your decision to subjugate and debase yourself to Trump by repeating the lie that he won the 2020 election (which he lost by over 7 million votes) will not be forgotten by Alaskans. You have no chance of winning in November as long as you continue je to pander to the extreme right.
To write such nonsense is below that of a Harvard graduate. I find it ingratiating, full of pomposity, fabrications and downright exaggeration, a fairy tale to fit Ms Tshibaka’s narrative, only fit to be tucked in the playbook of the criminal she sought a pat on that pretty little blonde. Did she really author such drivel? Does she really want Alaskans to think she’s Messiah to issues she’s elaborating in her own mind?
I, too, was born in the Territory, and folks like Gruening and other hardworking visionaries not born in Alaska weren’t the fly-by-night scoundrels that some seem to think will do Alaska proud. Can you imagine this malleable shape shifter, Ms Tshibaka, standing up for dignity and doing what is right for Alaska AND ALL Americans by bucking the government groupthink in voting to impeach egregiously anti-American criminals in the last White House?
The election hasn’t even occurred and Tshibaka is already complaining about it. All she does is gripe. She’s tiring.
Auto Zombie, Kelly has every right and reason to complain, when every destructive policy that you radical leftists push and force down our throats in your typically arrogant, clueless and authoritarian way gives her, and us, every reason to gripe.
As a 20-year resident of the District of Columbia, I take this to mean that if Ms. Tshibaka is elected to represent Alaska’s 732,000 residents that she will act to grant full representation to the 693,000 residents of D.C., who pay federal income taxes and who have been a part of the U.S. since Alaska was still Russian.
The column is a red herring and is only designed to inflame.
Ms Tshibaka is going to have to come up with a positive case why she should be trusted to represent Alaska in the US Senate. Saying that she is not Lisa Murkowski and that, apparently, she will be Donald Trump’s puppet will not produce victory.
What, if any, contributions has she made to the people of Alaska? What are her accomplishments in Alaska?
For the record, I despise rank-choice voting.
What a joke of a column I think she’s exposed herself with her words. She clearly doesn’t understand what AK wanted or how elections work. But that’s what happens when you hang with Trump for too long.
Kelly Tshibaka is misinformed on ranked choice voting and trying to scare you into thinking it’s a bad thing. She makes it sound like Lisa Murkowski and Scott Kendall single-handedly enabled ranked choice voting. In fact, ranked choice voting is the law of the land because a majority of Alaskans wanted it and voted for it. The average Alaskan is a very independent voter. In fact, if you add the percentage of Republican and Democratic voters together you don’t even get 38%, so why should these parties without broad appeal be the gatekeepers of Alaskan elections? It’s like asking people to choose if the Bloods or the Crips should run your neighborhood; the answer is, of course, neither. Ranked choice voting benefits all Alaskans by ensuring that the winner of an election has a broad concensus. Traditional party primaries typically motivate the base to elevate the wing-nut candidates, not good candidates with beneficial ideas and policies. Ranked choice voting eliminates wing-nut candidates because it forces them to moderate their dogmatic tendencies in order to appeal to the masses. This is exactly why Tshibaka is so scared and why she is trying to scare you into fearing ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting is not complicated or mysterious, not prone to fraud, and is very beneficial to Alaskans. Despite Tshibaka’s rhetoric, there is nothing to fear here except the messenger.
Go away, you corrupt mini-swamp creature, and take Princess Lisa with you!
You and your establishment ilk are a blight on this state, and on this nation.
This is why Kelly is not fit for office. She’s a liar. Ranked choice voting did nothing to change the timeline to fill the House seat. The prior system also required a primary in 90 days and the general election 60 days after.
Go back to San Francisco, Lorenzo. Where you belong!
Voting in person and hand count ballots. No, we aren’t commies.
It’s amazing that anyone can continue to support RINO’s or the democratic party. High inflation, gas prices, open borders, rampant crime and homelessness, more COVID deaths and restrictions than the previous administration, firing heroic first responders over vaccines that do not prevent COVID, weak in Ukraine, leaving Americans and tens of millions in equipment in the Afghanistan debacle, women’s rights being overshadowed by transgender rights, loss of parental rights in the public school system. I’m an independent and fully support voting Lisa and the rest of the Biden admin out. Kelly’s got my vote!
Comments are closed.