Page 833 – Must Read Alaska

Notes from the trail: International news outlets salivating over Sarah Palin’s celebrity, campaign

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August 14, 2022

Notes from the trail: International news outlets salivating over Sarah Palin’s celebrity, campaign

The national and international media has been busy writing about Alaska politics, and mostly about Sarah Palin, Alaska’s former governor and would-be congresswoman. The New Yorker Magazine has a story coming out on Monday that runs 13,000 words, much of them about Palin’s celebrity run. Clearly Palin still sells newspapers, and reporters have been sent from around the globe to cover her race against Nick Begich III, the Republican Party candidate, and Mary Peltola, the Democrat.

Here are some of the stories from the past few days:

The Guardian: a British newspaper, was in Alaska reporting on the congressional race.

“Alaska election tests weight of Sarah Palin’s celebrity – and Trump’s sway,” the reporter writes at this link.

“More than a decade ago, she ascended to international fame as a vice-presidential candidate in the 2008 election, with her self-described ‘rightwinging, bitter-clinging’ persona. Since then, she has starred in several reality TV specials and in The Masked Singer, dressed as a fuzzy pink bear,” the writer said.

“But on Tuesday she is seeking elected office again, running for an open congressional seat with dozens of candidates. Voters across the 49th state will have to rank her against the tech millionaire Nick Begich III, a Republican, and the former state legislator Mary Peltola, a Democrat. The world’s best-known Alaskan politician faces an uncertain political future.

“’Palin gets people excited … She’s charismatic,’ said Zelda Marie Gober, 67. ‘Do I want her in my politics? Not really.’

“The election will not only test the weight of Palin’s celebrity, but also that of Donald Trump – in a remote state that fiercely values independent thought.”

The Telegraph, another British news outlet that sent in a parachute journalist, wrote:

“The 58-year-old has revived her famed slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill”, along with her populist appeal, as she champions energy independence with a late bid to represent her native Alaska in Congress.

“But in her hometown of Wasilla, where locals still simply refer to her as “Sarah”, many have soured on Ms Palin’s political ambitions.

“De Koranda, 62, said she was an early backer of Ms Palin, but, like many Alaskans, felt betrayed when she unexpectedly quit as the state’s governor 16 months early.”

“Coming soon after she and John McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008, the move saw her popularity nosedive amid speculation she was ditching Alaska for commercial gain.

“’That was the point of no return,’ said Ms Koranda, who described the ‘polarising’ effect Ms Palin still has in Wasilla.

Koranda said, “People here either love her or they wouldn’t touch her with a 10ft pole.”

The Telegraph story is at this MSN link (Telegraph itself is behind a paywall).

NPR reports on what Trump’s endorsement means for Liz Cheney and Sarah Palin this week.

“But under Alaska’s system, Palin must face a second round of voting that includes the top four finishers from the first round. One of the top four in the June vote has dropped out, but Palin is still battling two second-round rivals on Tuesday, including another Republican. He is Nick Begich III, the grandson of the last person to hold this seat before Young. His grandfather was a Democrat who was lost in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness in 1972; his uncle Mark, also a Democrat, was a one-term U.S. senator.

“The third candidate this Tuesday is Mary Peltola, a former state legislator who is a daughter of a Yup’ik Eskimo. A Democrat who has emerged as a factor in her own right, she could even win a plurality of first-place votes on Tuesday. But that would not be the end of the story, because a first-place plurality is not enough.” The story is at this link.

USA Today writes: “In Alaska primary, Murkowski and Palin show the deepening fissures in the Republican Party. The two candidates for two different offices – Sen. Lisa Murkowski and former Gov. Sarah Palin – represent a growing divide in the GOP.” The story is at this link.

NewsMax writes: “Just 48 hours before Alaskans hold a special election, no Republican who spoke to Newsmax was willing to predict whether Sarah Palin would emerge triumphant in the race for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat — the first contest to be held under the state’s new “ranked choice voting” law.

“It’s anybody’s call,” a former GOP statewide official told us on Saturday.

The writer goes on to say Palin won the primary with 30% of the vote. It was actually 27%, still an impressive finish in a field of 48 candidates that included Santa Claus and some sitting legislators.

The story is at this link.

Notes from the trail: Kenai Classic, a nasty Zoom-bomb at a Native forum, and keeping up with candidates

CDC’s unofficial admission: The mandates were pointless

Suzanne Downing

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August 14, 2022

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CDC’s unofficial admission: The mandates were pointless

For all the people who were fired, laid off, forced to work at home or part time, or who were punished or bullied for wearing or not wearing a mask, or not getting a Covid vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some new guidelines for you.

According to the CDC:

Those exposed to Covid-19 no longer need to quarantine.
Unvaccinated people may follow the same guidance as vaccinated people
Students can stay in class even after being exposed to Covid-19
There is no need to screen people who do not have Covid-19 symptoms.

Since 2020, the United States went from a nationwide lockdown, when commercial air traffic came to nearly a halt, to everyone being required to wear masks indoors, to forced vaccinations on huge segments of the population to this: Don’t pick on people who don’t wear masks and don’t want to get an experimental shot, and quit forcing people to take Covid tests.

The complete set of K-12 school guidelines, issued just five days before students return to school in Alaska, can be seen here.

The CDC says “Schools and ECE programs should consider flexible, non-punitive policies and practices to support individuals who choose to wear masks regardless of the Covid-19 Community Level.”

While not defining what the terms are for “flexible non-punitive policies and practices” the CDC is also unclear as to whether it’s really saying “don’t pick on people who wear masks” or “don’t pick on people who don’t wear masks.”

The CDC says, “Wearing a well-fitting mask or respirator consistently and correctly reduces the risk of spreading the virus that causes Covid-19.” It still recommends forced indoor masking “at a high Covid-19 Community Level” and “in healthcare settings, including school nurses’ offices, regardless of the current Covid-19 Community Level.”

Dance party protest goes footloose on mayor’s ban on dancing and loud music

And the CDC left the door open for local districts to enact forced masking at school during some activities, “to protect students with immunocompromising conditions or other conditions that increase their risk for getting very sick with Covid-19 in accordance with applicable federal, state, or local laws and policies.”

The information seems contradictory at best: Don’t bully people who wear masks, and force masks on students if your community is going through a Covid surge.

The CDC said, in announcing its new guidelines, that “COVID-19 continues to circulate globally, however, with so many tools available to us for reducing COVID-19 severity, there is significantly less risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death compared to earlier in the pandemic.

“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools—like vaccination, boosters, and treatments—to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” said Greta Massetti, PhD, MPH, MMWR author. “We also have a better understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus, like wearing high-quality masks, testing, and improved ventilation. This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”

The CDC insists that vaccination is an important way to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death. “Protection provided by the current vaccine against symptomatic infection and transmission is less than that against severe disease and diminishes over time, especially against the currently circulating variants. For this reason, it is important to stay up to date, especially as new vaccines become available,” the agency says.

The CDC recommends that instead of quarantining if you are exposed to Covid, you should wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested on Day 5.

The agency recommends you isolate for five days if you have Covid, or if you are sick and suspect you have Covid. But if your results are negative, there is no need to isolate.

Regardless of when you end isolation, avoid being around people who are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 until at least day 11.

You should wear a high-quality mask through day 10.

The CDC says that if you have moderate illness (if you experience shortness of breath or had difficulty breathing) or severe illness you need to isolate through day 10.

Those who get severely ill or have a weakened immune system should consult a doctor before ending isolation.

It may be more than two weeks before Alaska voters know who will be their (temporary) representative in Congress

Suzanne Downing

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August 13, 2022

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It may be more than two weeks before Alaska voters know who will be their (temporary) representative in Congress

By SUZANNE DOWNING

One consequence of the new ranked choice voting system in Alaska is that voters will probably not know for at least 15 days who will be the winner of the congressional race. That’s because, by law, the absentee ballots and overseas ballots have 15 days to get back to the Division of Elections.

And it’s because ranked choice voting seizes up the system until those mailed-in ballots are in.

In a normal election, it would usually be obvious who is ahead and whether the votes yet to be counted would be enough to change the outcome. As the overseas votes trickle in, they add to the totals and the ratios between candidates become evermore clear.

But with the misnomered “instant runoff” of the ranked choice voting system, there’s a built in delay because of the second and third round of counting. There’s nothing instant about it.

After the first round of counting is done on Election Night, Aug. 16, Alaskans will probably not be able to know who is eliminated in the first round of counting among the three candidates: Mary Peltola-D, Nick Begich-R, or Sarah Palin-R. They’ll only have a sense of the outcome if the result on Election Night is overwhelmingly for one of the candidates, and if one of the candidates lags far, far behind. That is unlikely in the three-way election for the temporary seat in Congress, where Peltola, Begich, and Palin could all get a fairly equal number of votes.

After all the votes are in two weeks later, the candidate who comes in third will see his or her votes eliminated and, if voters have chosen someone in second place for that candidate, those second place votes will then move up. That process won’t happen for 15 days, when all the first place votes are all counted.

Ranked choice voting is, ultimately, a way of allowing people who vote for a losing candidate to have another chance at voting. Critics say this allows some voters to vote more than once, while voters who pick the winning candidate only get to vote once.

That has 14th Amendment problems of unequal protection for voters, but Alaskans have to cope with the lopsided voting system they approved with Ballot Measure 2 in 2020.

On Tuesday night, some of the 23,884 absentee ballots that were mailed to voters will still be in the wild, not yet received by Division of Elections. Absentee ballots, historically, have leaned Republican in Alaska.

The first-choice results will be reported Tuesday night. That will be the totals of ballots the Division will have, but election workers will need to go through all the absentee ballots one by one to make sure people did not vote twice — one with an absentee, and one in person. The process is tedious and even if completed quickly, the second round of counting cannot take place until the Division can determine which candidate gets eliminated first.

The ranked-choice results will be released between Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, and election certification is scheduled for Sept. 2. If there are court challenges or a candidate asks for a recount — and that has happened many times in Alaska — that could delay the swearing in of the temporary congressional representative. Alaska has never used the ranked choice system, and a recount of this type of system must be done by the same machines that counted it the first time. There is no practical way to recount ranked choice results by hand.

The front of the ballot is easier. It’s a pick-one primary for governor, U.S. senator, and 59 state House and Senate seats. Those results should be known fairly quickly on Election Night or on Wednesday, for some rural areas.

Occasionally in Alaska, races are close and the final results are delayed until more absentee ballots arrive. In 2006, the tie vote between Bryce Edgemon and Carl Moses had to be broken with a coin toss, which is how Edgmon came to serve in the House of Representatives.

Notes from the trail: Kenai Classic, a nasty Zoom-bomb at a Native forum, and keeping up with candidates

Suzanne Downing

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August 13, 2022

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Notes from the trail: Kenai Classic, a nasty Zoom-bomb at a Native forum, and keeping up with candidates

Closing in on Election Day: As much as 23% of the vote has already been cast for Alaska’s primary, which ends Aug. 16. Here’s the analysis that gets us to that conclusion:

In Alaska’s 2020 primary for U.S. House, 130,317 total votes were cast. It was a presidential election year, which means the turnout was higher than in 2018, when 110,636 voters cast ballots in the U.S. House primary.

So far this year there have been about 23,000 early and absentee votes received by the Division of Elections (including online voting, fax, etc). That’s less than 4% of the registered voters in Alaska who have voted so far. (The Division of Elections says there are 598,083 Alaskans registered to vote. )

But if only 110,000 vote this year, as they did in 2018 (non-presidential year) then the 23,000 who have voted represent perhaps 21% of the expected total vote.

A reminder about where Alaska primary votes go: Two years ago during the Alaska primary, the Republican candidates received 47,482 votes combined. The Democrat candidates received 30,107 votes.

Kenai Classic: Lots of political leaders will be heading to the Kenai River after the primary/special general election on Tuesday. The Kenai Classic takes place Aug. 17, 18, and 19. The Classic is an educational, invitational fishing event that raises funds and educates policymakers and business leaders about Kenai River Sportfishing Association’s habitat-restoration and access projects, fisheries education, research and management. The event has raised $18 million during the past 25 years for fisheries conservation. If you want to find the big-name politicians, many of them will attend the banquet at least (it is sold out). For Alaska’s political class, it’s a must-attend event.

Zoom-bombing apology: A handful of the 19 congressional candidates took part in a get-out-the-Native-vote Zoom meeting when someone photo-bombed Sarah Palin with a line drawing that depicted a penis and vagina. It took up nearly the entire screen. Someone could be heard yelling obscenities at her during the video-conference. She was not amused.

The Native Peoples Action Community Fund issued a statement following the incident:

“The U.S. House Candidate Forum was a virtual event co-hosted by Native Peoples Action Community Fund (NPACF) and Get Out the Native Vote on August 11, 2022. … NPACF has a zero tolerance policy for unwanted, disrespectful and racist behavior and we apologize for any harm caused in the space we hosted. We do not condone any of the words or behaviors exhibited by the zoom bombers. We are modifying our internal protocols and procedures for hosting with hopes that this will never happen again. We are issuing apologies to all the candidates and we are issuing this apology to the public. We sincerely thank each candidate who participated for their role in upholding a respectful environment, for their insightful contributions to the forum, and for engaging with our organization and the voters of Alaska.”

2000 Mules: Rep. Ron Gillham of Kenai is taking it easy on the campaign trail, so much so that he even has time for a movie. Anyone who wants to see “2000 Mules” can stop in at the Kenai New Life Church starting at 5 pm on Aug. 15, where there will be a free showing of the election movie by Dinesh D’Souza, a film that shows evidence of coordinated voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. That’s at 209 Princess Street, Kenai.

Keeping up with Nick Begich: The busy congressional candidate from Eagle River voted and then had a meet-and-greet on Thursday in Wasilla with 50 people, flew to Ketchikan on Friday to meet with 60 people and do media interviews, and on Sunday will meet with voters in Kodiak at the Kodiak Island Brewery, 2-4:30 pm. He’s also meeting with the Filipino-American Association, with the mayor, and some more media.

On Monday, Jim and Faye Palin are throwing a huge party for Nick Begich out in Wasilla, with a co-host list of over 100. They are the former in-laws of Sarah Palin, clearly not impressed with her.

Mary Peltola is in Juneau: Peltola, running for Congress, voted on Friday in Anchorage. Then she went to Juneau for a fundraiser that had over 100 co-hosts. It was held at the home of Ken Alper and Jill Ramiel. On Saturday, she’ll still be in Juneau for a meet-and-greet at the Pioneer Pavilion at Savikko Park, Sandy Beach. She has a lot of voters in Juneau.

Tara Sweeney write-in: Sweeney, on the last day allowed, filed as a formal write-in candidate for the special general election for Congress. She said she gave it a lot of thought, but her main focus is going to be on making the final four for the general election in November.

Sarah Palin leaving the regional voting office in Wasilla.

Sarah Palin sighting: Palin voted on Thursday in the Valley. An anecdotal sampling of voters is showing that Palin voters are voting for her and not ranking anyone else on the three-person special general election ballot. As Palin marked her ballot on the video she posted, she, too, only voted for herself and did not rank either Nick Begich or Mary Peltola. There was no “rank the red” on her ballot.

Mailbag of Hate:

Lisa Murkowski talks Project Veritas: Murkowski had a grand opening for her campaign headquarters in Juneau, during which she talked about the Project Veritas undercover investigation of her campaign, when her staff members admitted they’d been part of tricking Alaskans into voting for Ballot Measure 2. Murkowski blamed the sting on a 50-year-old volunteer who had worn a camera while volunteering in Murkowski’s Anchorage campaign office.

“She sits with the volunteers for three weeks,” Murkowski told the Juneau Empire. “She’s just being the perfect volunteer. All the while she has a camera in her clothing and she’s talking to all these people trying to find some connection, some conspiracy.”

Out and about with Kelly Tshibaka: Just under 10,000 attendees were on the tele-rally Thursday with former President Donald Trump and Tshibaka, who is running for Senate against Murkowski. Tshibaka spoke to a group, Alaskans for Medical Freedom and Liberty, was at a gathering in Wasilla, and another in Eagle River at the Lions Club.

Shoshana Gungurstein road trip: The Senate candidate from Juneau who just moved to Alaska has traveled from Anchorage to Fairbanks and met with small groups, waved signs, and shot videos for social media in the Golden Heart City.

Bill Walker and Heidi Drygas lit drop: The gubernatorial campaign will be trolling for votes in the neighborhoods around Anchorage with “lit drop” activities, which means taking brochures to the doorways of homes in East Anchorage, starting at 10 am Saturday.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy: He was in Kotzebue earlier this week, then in Anchorage to toast Lt. Gov. Kevin Meyer and sign some bills. A fundraiser for Mike Dunleavy and Nancy Dahlstrom is planned for Aug. 19 in Kenai, at the end of the Kenai Classic.

Spotted in Seldovia: Rep. Sarah Vance, touring the Jakolof Bay dock, which needs to be replaced as a matter of public safety.

Endorsements: Ken McCarty won the prize endorsement of John Sturgeon as he runs for Senate for Eagle River. McCarty also received an A+ from the National Rifle Association. Tara Sweeney got the endorsement of Rex Rock Sr. and Crawford Patkotak for her congressional bid. Dan Fagan, radio show host and columnist at Must Read Alaska, said Friday, “If Trump is your guy, then Palin should be your gal.”

Project Veritas III: Dark money was just a cover to get ranked choice on ballot, Murkowski staffer says on tape

Analysis: Murkowski could place second in the primary

Warrant unsealed and list of removed Trump documents revealed

Suzanne Downing

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August 12, 2022

107

Warrant unsealed and list of removed Trump documents revealed

A Florida judge has unsealed the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence in Palm Beach. Along with the warrant is a list of documents removed from the Trump home when it was raided by the FBI on Monday. About 40 armed agents with military-style weapons took over the Mar-A-Lago residence for 9.5 hours in search of classified documents that the Department of Justice believes Trump took with him when he left office.

The agents listed four top secret documents, three secret documents, three confidential documents, “miscellaneous secret documents,” and a handwritten note, among items removed from the property. The FBI also took documents that referred to the pardon of Roger Stone, who was pardoned by Trump, and other files related to France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Other boxes had numbers assigned to them, but with no information about the contents.

On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he personally approved the raid. All week, the media and its allies have insisted that people not call it a raid.

The warrant and list is here:

search-warrant-trump-home Download

Dunleavy wins: Supreme Court says legislature can appropriate current funds, can’t forward fund education

Suzanne Downing

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August 12, 2022

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Dunleavy wins: Supreme Court says legislature can appropriate current funds, can’t forward fund education

Can the Alaska Legislature appropriate funds it doesn’t have for future fiscal years? No.

The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the legislature cannot dedicate future revenues for future budgetary cycles and make those budget decisions for future lawmakers. The Alaska Legislature can, as it has in the past, set aside funds from the current budgetary cycle to be spent in future years for Alaska’s school districts.

In Dunleavy v. Alaska Legislative Council, the Alaska Supreme Court reversed a Superior Court decision and agreed with the Attorney General that the practice of appropriating future-year revenues—referred to as “forward funding”—is unconstitutional.

The case centers on a bill the legislature passed in 2018 that sought to appropriate funds for education from revenues over the next two consecutive fiscal years, fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2020. The bill sought to authorize, more than a year in advance, the spending of future revenues to pay for education in 2020.

In 2019, Juneau Superior Court Judge Daniel Schally ruled that the Legislature could fund education for years into the future, if it chose, even if the revenues were not yet in the state treasury.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy had argued that the forward funding is not constitutional. The Department of Law said that it violated the state constitution’s prohibition against dedicated funds. The constitutional also specifies an annual state budget.

Schally, a far-left judge, said at the time that Dunleavy had violated his constitutional obligation to “faithfully execute the laws” of Alaska.

Schally was wrong, said the Supreme Court.

“The Alaska Supreme Court is upholding the Alaska Constitution with this opinion,” said Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor. “The ruling says the legislature is always okay to spend money they have in this year or future years. What’s not okay is to spend money they don’t yet have, because that takes away the funding prerogative from future legislatures.”

In an opinion by Alaska Supreme Court Justice Peter J. Maassen, the court wrote that the drafters of the Alaska Constitution “envisioned an annual budget that comprehensively addresses the State’s current needs and the resources currently available to meet those needs.” The court concluded that forward funding “undercuts an important aspect of the constitutional design: protecting the State’s flexibility in the future to respond to then-present needs with then-present resources.”

It explained that “allowing this form of forward funding for education a year in advance would open the door for forward funding in other contexts and more years in advance, weakening the annual budgeting process intended by the Constitution’s framers.”

The Court acknowledged the importance of providing school districts with advanced notice of their annual budget, but the Court emphasized that “there are avenues that do not raise constitutional concerns.

For example, as was the practice from 2010 to 2014, the legislature may appropriate public education funds from the upcoming fiscal year to cover expenditures in the subsequent fiscal year. Unlike the forward funding practice at issue here, this would ensure that education funds were set aside well in advance of distribution —giving school districts time to plan their budgets —without appropriating funds from future budgetary cycles.”

Project Veritas III: Dark money was just a cover to get ranked choice on ballot, Murkowski staffer says on tape

Suzanne Downing

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August 12, 2022

29

Project Veritas III: Dark money was just a cover to get ranked choice on ballot, Murkowski staffer says on tape

Project Veritas Action has published a third undercover video inside Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaign offices that shows a staff member admitting that the “dark money” messaging was a cover that was used to promote Ballot Measure 2, when in actuality the primary purpose of the ballot measure was to help Murkowski in 2022.

Josiah Nash, the Murkowski campaign interior coordinator, was recorded saying it would be “bad” for “Lisa if the other campaigns start highlighting it [dark money messaging].”

Project Veritas II: Murkowski, confronted by investigative journalist, says Ballot Measure 2 was led by ‘the people’

Nash said, “We messaged for ‘dirty money’ and we knew that that was something that specifically resonated with Alaska. And we could say, yeah, this goes in with voting reform and so, if people accepted that enough then the vote can pass.”

Nash said that voters just don’t pay attention to such details.

“Most people, you know, aren’t into politics as probably as much as we are, and so they don’t look for this stuff. Where it would be an issue is if the MAGA people and Kelly Tshibaka started [highlighting this] as a major part of their campaign.”

Emma Ashlock, campaign coordinator, was caught also featured in these new recordings discussing a Political Action Committee “which is kind of an outside funding source” that supports Senator Murkowski.

Ballot Measure 2 was passed by voters in 2020. It created some transparency for campaign funding, but not for funding of ballot initiatives such as Ballot Measure 2. It also redesigned the voting structure in Alaska, removing the ability of Republicans to have their own primary ballot. Instead, all candidates are on one “jungle primary” ballot. In the general election, the list of candidates is whittled to four, and voters rank them in what’s known as “ranked choice voting.” Such a system of jungle primary and ranked choice general has not been tried in any other state and is being tried for the first time in the special election to fill the empty congressional seat. On Tuesday, Aug. 16, voters will rank three finalists: Nick Begich, Sarah Palin, and Mary Peltola.

Project Veritas, in Anchorage, says it has smoking gun on Murkowski and ranked choice voting ballot mess

Analysis: Murkowski could place second in the primary

Suzanne Downing

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August 12, 2022

54

If the week’s political events showed anything, it’s how unloved Sen. Lisa Murkowski is by many, perhaps a majority, of Alaska voters. Murkowski showed up at an Americans for Prosperity event in Anchorage where people were filling up their tanks for half price, compliments of AFP.

The motorists and volunteers who observed Murkowski’s presence at the event were furious. People in line for the $2.38 gas wanted to know what Murkowski was doing at the event; they grew suspicious that this was really a stealth Murkowski campaign event. Keyboard warriors went to town on Murkowski and openly criticized AFP for allowing her to attend.

The truth is that Americans for Prosperity Alaska had invited both Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan to come and talk to real Alaskans, not just spend all their days with the high-and-mighties sitting in the conferences and board rooms trying to divvy up the federal broadband money coming from the government printing shop. AFP would have invited Congressman Don Young, if he was still alive. In this case, only Murkowski showed up, and it went downhill from there.

The lesson is clear: Murkowski makes everyday Alaskans mad, and makes Republican voters the maddest.

The senator, although she has a significant war chest, has headwinds in the primary on Aug. 16. She appears unworried, but her performance in the past two primaries is a warning light on the dash: In 2016, her last general election, she won just 44.4% of the vote, becoming the first senator in U.S. history to win three elections to the U.S. Senate without winning a majority.

Murkowski, the pundits say, is a shoo-in in November because she is protected by Ballot Measure 2’s ranked choice voting scheme and because she doesn’t face a Republican primary next week.

Notes from trail: Report shows Tshibaka has raised more funds than any past challenger to Murkowski

Republican analysts also say, however, she will not be in first place in the primary, and that as a sitting senator, it will look bad for her. She has Republican Party-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka on her right, and Pat Chesbro and Edgar Blatchford as her leading Democrat opponents.

Overall, there are 19 candidates on the Senate jungle primary ballot. Eight of them are Republicans and three are Democrats. This makes it hard for any Republican candidate to have a solid showing, but it’s hardest for Murkowski, who should be able to get over 44%. If she does not, it could be embarrassing for her campaign.

Some strategists now think there is a high chance Tshibaka will come in first on the primary ballot, and Murkowski may even come in third, behind Chesbro, the Democrat who has the Democrat Party’s endorsement. The Libertarian, Sean Thorne, may be the fourth-place winner for the November ballot.

The August primary is one in which super voters show up. It’s usually a low-turnout election because it’s fishing season, wood-gathering season, berry harvesting season and the final parties of summer.

Tshibaka’s base is invigorated. This is the best chance they have of replacing Murkowski.

Other pundits believe that the race becomes much tougher in November, when Murkowski expects to do well in ranked choice voting, with people who mark Chesbro first marking Murkowski second to give her the 50+1 she needs.

A Democrat-funded group called Protect the Vote, has now said the quiet part out loud: Chesbro can’t win in November. In its recent email, the group asked people to donate to its “Ally Protection Fund.” Here’s what else the group said:

“An Alaska Survey Research poll is showing Lisa Murkowski leading her Trump-endorsed opponent, Kelly Tshibaka, by only 4%.

“Yes, only 4%. This is not good. The Senator has proven herself to be a critical ally to Democrats. Because of her bipartisan support she now finds herself in a tough re-election fight against a well-funded MAGA-first opponent.”

The group, Protect the Vote, knows Murkowski can be easily linked to Biden, and Biden is very unpopular in Alaska.

“Donald Trump will do anything to see Lisa Murkowski lose. That is why we need to step in. We may not agree on every issue, but Democrats need her commonsense leadership in the U.S. Senate,” Protect the Vote says.

“Donate to our Ally Protection Fund today. Lisa Murkowski needs our help. Democrats need her to hold this Senate seat against her far-right opponent. Your leadership contribution will immediately go towards providing her with early television ads, digital ads, billboards, mailers, and boots on the ground,” the group pleads with donors.

Then it goes all-in to explain that Murkowski is a Democrat ally:

Protect the Vote PAC describes itself as a “Democratic organization on the front lines of providing critical support to federal campaigns for President, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.”

Murkowski’s coalition has always been a combination of nonpartisans, undeclared voters, libertarians and Democrats, according to Cook Political Report, which points out that Murkowski is financially stronger heading into the final stretch of the primary. As of July 27, Murkowski had $5.3 million cash on hand. Tshibaka had just over $808,000 cash on hand.

Murkowski has spent $1.1 million on television ads, and the superPAC, Alaskans for Lisa, has spent $1.2 million on TV.

Tshibaka has only spent $174,000 for television.

Senate Leadership Fund money, which is divvied up by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will add another $7.3 million for advertising for Murkowski, highlighting her seniority and ability to get money for Alaska.

Voter management system used in Alaska tied to leftist activists and Democrat operatives

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

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August 12, 2022

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Voter management system used in Alaska tied to leftist activists and Democrat operatives

By VICTORIA MARSHALL | THE FEDERALIST

A prominent voter-roll management system used by 31 states, including Alaska and the District of Columbia has politically compromised ties, according to a new report by independent research group VerityVote.

The Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, was sold to states like Alaska as a quick and easy way to update their voter rolls. Started in 2012 by far-left activist David Becker and the left-leaning Pew Charitable Trusts, the program is ostensibly run by the member states themselves.

But as public records show, Democratic operatives are working overtime under the cover of ERIC to accomplish their partisan goals and drive Democratic voter turnout.

Becker’s left-wing ties have long concerned Republican state officials participating in ERIC. Before he started ERIC, Becker worked as a lobbyist for People for the American Way, a George Soros-funded advocacy group best known for the Right Wing Watch project, a website that catalogs and attacks conservative politicians and movements.

Before that, though, he was a Justice Department attorney whom colleagues remember as a “hard-core leftist” who “couldn’t stand conservatives.”

While at the Department of Justice, Becker became the subject of an ethics complaint after he contacted Boston and offered his help in defeating a lawsuit made against the city by his employer for voting infractions. Becker “was supposed to be nonpartisan, but his emails uncovered in the Boston investigation revealed nasty, disparaging remarks about Republicans. Very unethical and unprofessional,” according to Hans von Spakovsky, former counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the time.

After his stint at the Department of Justice and People for the American Way, Becker became the director of election initiatives at Pew Charitable Trusts, where he organized the creation of ERIC in 2012. Though Becker officially left ERIC in 2016, public records show he has continued to play a strong role in the organization, coordinating with state officials on ERIC-related activities and even running ERIC meetings. Documentation of that role is provided in Verity’s report. This is in violation of ERIC’s bylaws as Becker is a “non-voting board member” of ERIC and should not have the power to direct projects.

While Becker is a shrewd activist, ERIC member secretaries of state describe him as charming and brilliant. Becker is known to host swanky, all-access-paid election integrity conferences for state election officials and their spouses.

Read more at The Federalist.

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