On the Kenai Peninsula, District 29 (now District 8), District 30 (now District 7) and the Republican Women of the Kenai have all voted unanimously to endorse Charlie Pierce for governor. These are party activists who typically raise money and volunteer to support candidates.
Pierce announced in January that he would be a candidate for governor, running as a Republican against the sitting Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. The Alaska Republican Party, at its January meeting, endorsed Dunleavy, but since then Republican Chris Kurka, who announced his campaign in November, is working to get his district’s Republican endorsement.
Both Kurka and Pierce are expected to be nominated for endorsements at the Alaska Republican Party’s convention in Fairbanks, April 21-23. The party may vote to endorse them, along with Dunleavy, which would allow the party to spend money to support their candidacies; without a party endorsement, the party cannot financially support their campaigns. The effect might be slight, since the party doesn’t have a lot of cash anyway.
With ranked-choice voting, the top four vote getters in the primary proceed to the general election ballot, where voters rank them in the order they prefer. That means there may be two or more Republicans on the November ballot. Also running are fake-independent Bill Walker and Democrat Les Gara, both of which are aggressively raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and behaving as a friendly pair who understand how to work the ranked-choice ballot to their advantage.
