I am not supporting Ballot Measure 2.  Let me make that more clear: I support any effort to defeat Ballot Measure 2. 

First, I believe in the right of political parties to select their best nominee in a primary. This ballot initiative would leave parties less effective by making their freedom of association less authoritative. 

Even though I was not selected as the Republican nominee this last primary, I support the process for Republicans to elect Republicans.

I am disappointed in the outcome of this year’s primary and think some of the policy priorities were not correct, however the voters spoke and I respect that. I firmly believe that too few vote in a primary, and that is a shame, but it is their choice to leave the outcome to those who do vote.

This initiative also changes some important reporting measures that should be debated in detail and be open to amendment through the legislative process. Too often, complicated measures are proposed to us Alaskans without a good understanding of the context of current law. This portion of the initiative should be rejected.

Finally, the change in voting is wrong. This has a style of first, second and third choice if no clear majority wins. If we can only support one candidate and cast our only vote for them and a majority for that person isn’t achieved, then our vote is thrown out and the others who have many choices will have their vote counted again.

Ballot Measure 2 takes the “one person one vote” away from us and I can’t let that happen.

Sen. John Coghill is the senator for Senate Seat B, Fairbanks.

Ballot Measure 2’s main purpose is not to rid Alaska politics of so-called dark money as its proponents claim. Far from it.

Backers of the 25-page, confusing, and convoluted proposition are trafficking in dark money. They’re deep in it. If dark money had that same red dye as money stolen from banks, you could spot backers of Ballot Measure 2 in a crowd of thousands. 

Ninety-nine percent of the money behind Ballot Measure 2 comes from out-of-state billionaires from New York and California. They aim to disrupt, corrupt and wreck Alaska’s election process. For these outside fat cat Leftists to sell themselves to Alaskans as anti-dark money represents the purest form of hypocrisy. 

What do they want? Most of all they intend to save one of their own. Prop Two backers have a lot riding on the vibrancy, health, and welfare of the Washington D.C. Swamp. 

Ballot Measure 2’s first and foremost objective is to save the Senate seat of the Alaska queen of the D.C. swamp, Lisa Murkowski. For the past 18 years, Murkowski has elbowed, nudged, and positioned herself into the deepest end of the D.C. Swamp. Her reelection is crucial to her fellow swamp creatures. 

Murkowski’s swampiness is why she so fervently and ferociously opposes President Donald Trump on just about everything. Trump came to D.C. to drain the swamp. Murkowski is the embodiment of the swamp. Ranked choice voting proposed by Ballot Measure 2 is a byproduct of the swamp. Ballot Measure 2 = Murkowski reelected = swamp sustainability. 

The ballot measure is intentionally designed to confuse. But its objective is simple: Weed out conservative candidates.    

Murkowski is toast if she runs for reelection under Alaska’s current primary system. She could never again win a Republican primary after she single-handedly saved Obamacare and refused to back U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The passing of Ballot Measure 2 is her only hope. The swamp needs her back in the Senate in two years. Screwing up Alaska’s election process is the only way that’s going to happen. 

What’s a few million here or there for Lower 48 billionaire swamp creatures to drop into the state to save one of their own?  

It’s important to note that Alaska’s current election system isn’t broken. We saw several Juneau swamp creatures like John Coghill, Cathy Giessel and Gabrielle LeDoux ousted in August. 

Swamp creatures tried this so-called rank choice voting in Maine and it was a disaster. Swampy billionaires spent enough to convince Maine voters in 2016 to fall for their scheme. Like Alaska, Maine is a cheap media market. 

In Maine’s 2018 Second Congressional race among four candidates, rank choice voting allowed the winner to get fewer than 50% of the vote. More than 8,000 ballots were exhausted through multiple rounds of counting. 

“A ballot becomes exhausted when a voter overvotes, undervotes or exhausts their choices. For example, a voter accidentally ranks two candidates as their first choice, or only ranks one candidate who is eventually eliminated from the contest,” wrote Jacob Posik of the Maine Heritage Policy Center.

“The ballot becomes exhausted and no longer contributes toward the final denominator used to determine a majority winner. It’s as if these voters never showed up on Election Day,” Posik concluded.

Ballot Measure 2’s greatest sin is to violate the long American tradition of one person, one vote. 

This is not the first time Murkowski backers were willing to manipulate the election process to make sure she kept her place in the D.C. Swamp. 

During her write-in campaign in 2010 after losing the Republican primary to Joe Miller, state officials changed election rules that year to benefit her. Murkowski’s name was prominently displayed on a list with other write-in candidates outside the polling place. That had never been done before. 

Native corporations danced around the edges of campaign finance laws and dumped millions into Murkowski’s election efforts. The oil companies, lobbyists, the nonprofit cabal, the healthcare industry, deep-state types, and anyone benefiting from federal government bloat and largess also poured in millions to help Murkowski return to the swamp. 

You must admit Murkowski is sly and conniving when it comes to keeping her place in the deep end of the D.C. Swamp. It’s no coincidence many of those working on promoting Ballot Measure 2 are former Murkowski staffers and current supporters. Will voters fall for it? Murkowski hopes so.   

Dan Fagan hosts the #1 rated morning drive radio talk show in Alaska weekdays on Newsradio 650 KENI. He splits his time between Anchorage and New Orleans.