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Donna Celia: Cynical view of Palin’s loss and what we voters can do about it

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Donna Celia: Cynical view of Palin’s loss and what we voters can do about it

By DONNA CELIA

We have just experienced the fruits of our first ranked choice vote and it is proof positive that Republicans can, and will, steal defeat from the jaws of victory every time. 

There are some die-hard Sarah Palin fans in this state. I am not one of them, but I wasn’t foolish enough to rank Mary Peltola behind Nick Begich, which is what 15,467 Alaskan did. I will call these Alaskans “Never Paliners.” These people aren’t voting pro-life, pro-Trump, or pro-conservative. These people are voting anti-Palin. We need to take this message seriously. 

According to Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times, Palin ranked Peltola #2 on her own ballot. It’s unclear what she actually did but this ought to send a clear message to Alaska Right to Life and any die-hard pro-life voters in Alaska: Palin is not voting pro-life in her own election. Get a clue, folks! She is pro-life in name only. If she meant it when she claimed to be the most pro-life candidate, she wouldn’t have ranked Peltola.  

I’m reading the tea leaves here. I don’t think Palin believed she would win. So, why did she subject herself to this humiliation? I propose that it was so that she could ensure Peltola’s victory and boost to her dwindling TV career while she’s at it. If I’m wrong, Palin will step down before the general election in November, and I will write her a personal apology. But if I’m right, then Palin will remain on the ticket and secure Peltola’s long-term placement into Don Young’s seat. If that happens, you’ll hear me crowing from 10 miles away. “Hate to say I told you so!” 

Conservative Alaskan voters need to wake up to the reality of that scenario: If Palin remains on the ticket in November, she will guarantee the same turnout that we’ve just experienced here. Let me illustrate for you what would have happened if Palin wasn’t on the special election ticket. 

Based on the newly certified election results, let us look first at what happened in Round 1: 

Begich lost Round 1, so his votes were redistributed.  27,053 votes went to Palin, and 15,467 votes went to Peltola.  The latter group is our “Never Paliners.”  These people would have taken Begich, if they could get him, but they would rue the day Palin wins a congressional seat. These people decided our election. 

In Round 2, Palin received 86,026 votes. That’s the sum of her original votes, plus the ones she picked up from Begich’s redistributed votes.  

In a hypothetical showdown between Begich and Peltola, only, you can assume that all of Begich’s voters will vote for Begich again. And most (if not all) of the people who voted for Palin will vote for Begich. This would mean Begich will end up with: 

Palin’s Round 2 votes:  86,026

Begich’s votes that transferred to Peltola: +15,467

Total: 101,493

This compares to the total Round 1 votes that Peltola received: 75,799. Therefore, in a hypothetical showdown between Begich and Peltola, Peltola will be sent packing. There are two ways we can accomplish this outcome: 

  1. If Sarah Palin steps down.
  2. If conservative voters treat the November election as if Sarah Palin doesn’t exist.

I believe Palin is both too prideful and too disdainful to her supposed “beloved” Alaska to do right by us.  I am betting we will NOT see her step down. After the low point in her TV career, the Pink Bear costume and rapping on The Masked Singer, she needed a boost. Alaska gave her that leg up. She has no real interest in us, our politics, our prosperity, or our livelihoods. She is acting, as always, in her own best interests. After she ensures Peltola’s win in Congress, she’ll add to her family’s coffers with the continuation of her reality TV career—a career that is substantially more lucrative, however humiliating (Pink Bear), than representing Alaskans in Washington. 

That leaves us with Option #2 as our only exercisable choice. From this day forth, we conservative voters need to cooperatively coordinate our strategy. We need to unanimously demand that Sarah step down from the General Election ticket (which I predict she won’t do). And then we need to vote only for Nick Begich in the #1 slot. Do whatever you want with your second, third, and fourth place votes, provided you do not rank Peltola.  

In essence: Treat our next election as if there are only two candidates. If we can agree to do this, we’ll send Palin’s politically disastrous failures, and Peltola’s brief political success straight into the dustbin of history. 

Donna Celia is a mother of two children who lives in Anchorage.

Biden pledged to stop oil in America. He immediately slowed energy leases to lowest levels since Harry Truman

Suzanne Downing
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Biden pledged to stop oil in America. He immediately slowed energy leases to lowest levels since Harry Truman

President Joe Biden promised as a candidate that he would end all oil and gas leases on federal land. During a debate with former President Donald Trump in October, 2020, Biden said, “I would transition from the oil industry, yes, because the oil industry pollutes significantly.”

“No more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore—no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill—period,” Biden said.

Who knew he would act so quickly to end oil production in America?

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden administration has leased fewer acres for oil-and-gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other administration in its early stages dating back to the end of World War II.

Since he took office in early 2021, Biden’s Interior Department leased 126,228 acres for drilling through Aug. 20, 2022. Leasing is down nearly 97% from the first 19 months of the Trump Administration.

“No other president since Richard Nixon in 1969-70 leased out fewer than 4.4 million acres at this stage in his first term,” the authors wrote.

President Harry Truman was the last to lease out fewer acres than Biden. Between 1945-46, his administration leased 65,658 acres. That was before offshore drilling was possible or practical, and just represented onshore acreage. Today, offshore leases represent most of the federal oil-and-gas tracts. It’s an apples and oranges comparison.

“The president said he was going to stop leasing. And he’s been remarkably successful,” said David Bernhardt, Interior secretary in the Trump administration, who in 2020 announced plans for an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an action undone by Biden on his first day of office, along with revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

The analysis was based on Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management data, and does not include land leased in Alaska since the late 1990s, little of which fell into the periods analyzed, according to the Wall Street Journal.

At the same time he has been shutting down oil leases, Biden has depleted the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Petroleum Reserve, which is at its lowest level in 37 years. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve page at the Department of Energy is broken and not reporting actual inventory at this time, but elsewhere it appears the inventory has shrunk to 450 million barrels of its 714 million-barrel capacity, as of August. The Administration has released 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Chart by YCharts.

At the same time, the Biden Administration is pressuring banks and investment funds to not lend to any company financing fossil fuels.

“While the Biden administration has been in office for six quarters, it has conducted auctions in just one of them. That happened in late June, after the administration came under increasing pressure to tame soaring gasoline prices at the pump in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” according to the story.

The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 requires onshore oil and gas leasing at least quarterly, the Journal reports. There appears to be no penalty from the Department of Justice for the president breaking the law.

“Former presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan boosted leasing to record highs in the 1970s and early ’80s in response to geopolitical oil crises. Mr. Reagan still holds the record, leasing nearly 48 million acres in his first 19 months, almost three times as much as any other president,” the newspaper reported.

Behind the paywall, the Wall Street Journal report is at this link.

Carol Carman: Polls and data reveal high-negative Palin is unelectable vs. Peltola, but Begich wins vs. Peltola

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR
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Carol Carman: Polls and data reveal high-negative Palin is unelectable vs. Peltola, but Begich wins vs. Peltola

By CAROL CARMAN

With 60% of the voters choosing Republicans (Sarah Palin and Nick Begich) in round 1 of the ranked choice voting system now being used in Alaska, it seemed like the final outcome should have been a Republican win.

One of the Republicans should have inherited the other’s votes with ranked choice voting. Instead, the Democrat won. This baffled my mind when I learned the results. I wondered what in tarnation happened. It was not until I looked at polling data, and took into consideration differing cultures in Alaska, that I found the answer. 

The factor that has not been considered in this race is Palin’s 63% negativity rating, as revealed by poll after poll. A high negativity rating gives candidates a low ceiling, and makes them unelectable. 

I thought Palin would be better than a Bernie Sanders-style, far-left Democrat any day of the week, but apparently about half of Begich’s voters did not agree with me. That seemed odd to me, given how conservative Begich is. We don’t know who those voters are, nor their motives. We can only speculate.

Some did not choose a #2 at all. There are probably many reasons for that, all of them negative. The ones that surprised me were the ones who chose Peltola as #2. There is no question about Begich being conservative, so that defied logic to me. Reasoning is not always political, however, especially in a state-wide campaign in Alaska. One man I met at a Republican meeting (who lives remotely in the bush) told me that in the Native culture respect is the utmost priority. If you come across as disrespectful, people will not listen to you or vote for you, regardless your political viewpoint. 

Sarah didn’t do any campaigning in Alaska, but she did show up for a couple of parades and debates. Many people in Alaska live remotely and may not know her history as governor, nor her status as a celebrity, but they may have watched some of the debates. Her persona on the debate stage probably turned some people off.

Additionally, Palin’s supporters are aggressive on social media, with many trolls in attack-mode against anyone who supports Begich. Her entire social media campaign was negative. All of that came to mind when I looked at the data and saw Palin’s negativity rating. Mary Peltola and Begich were well spoken and had low-key personalities at debates. Sarah is anything but low-key. I suspect this played a big part in the Peltola voters’ #2 choice, and a part in Palin’s negativity rating. 

A state-wide candidate just cannot overcome the low ceiling that a high negativity rating causes in Alaska. Joe Miller faced the same problem when he ran against Sen. Lisa Murkowski and against Dan Sullivan. Rep. Chris Kurka’s entire campaign was spent bashing Republican opponents. Kurka was so unpopular that he didn’t even make the final four during the jungle primary. Polarizing candidates just don’t win our state-wide races. They offend too many voters.

To further the point, Dunleavy is married to an Alaska Native woman and spent his working career in the bush. He has a very low-key, respectful personality. His campaign is low-key and positive. His ratings are the highest in the governor race. There are probably many reasons he is doing so well, but in Alaska’s statewide races, you simply must take the negativity rating into account. Polling data and round 2 in the Palin/Begich/Peltola race confirm that point. 

Pollsters asked questions like, “If Palin and Peltola are the final two, who would you vote for?” and “If Begich and Peltola are the final two, who would you vote for?” The resulting data verifies that a negativity rating is a very important factor. It also verifies that the Native culture plays an important role in the final outcome, because their vote is often all about that negativity rating rather than political viewpoints of candidates. I can think of no other logical explanation for the polling data and final outcome going to a democrat.

No one paid attention to polling data done in July, but now it all makes sense. It shows that if Palin were to be eliminated, Begich would beat the Democrat easily.

Since Palin beat Begich in round 1, there is no way for Begich to face Peltola alone at this point and win the seat for Republicans in November, unless something changes dramatically. 

The best solution for conservatives is for Palin to change that final outcome by dropping out. She is unelectable and cannot win. She prevents a Republican victory by blocking Begich from facing Peltola. I don’t see Palin as a team player, so that may be a long-shot. Palin would need to put the good of our state and our country above all else. It would be such a huge blessing if she is humble enough to do that. I bet it would do wonders for her negativity rating too. 

If Palin refuses to back down then we can only hope for the best. Begich will need to step up his campaign and Republican-leaning voters need to be convinced to rank the red. Which ever candidate is eliminated, their votes simply must go to the other Republican in this race. That is a huge hurdle to get over, as voters may not want to do that.

The bottom line: It is all about data-informed strategy at this point. If Palin is a good strategist she will see the writing on the wall, and if our state and country are most important to her she will do her part to help secure that seat for an electable Republican.

Carol Carman is Republican Party, District 29 chair.

Tax assessment doxxing weaponized: Borough assessors target Rep. McCabe’s home based on ‘reporter’s complaint’

Suzanne Downing
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Tax assessment doxxing weaponized: Borough assessors target Rep. McCabe’s home based on ‘reporter’s complaint’

A complaint filed with the Mat-Su Borough’s Assessment Office led to two property assessors showing up at the home of Rep. Kevin McCabe on Friday. They were there to do an inspection and reassessment because someone they would only identify as a “reporter” had made a complaint that McCabe’s property wasn’t assessed high enough.

None of the properties around that neighborhood have been assessed since 2013, and McCabe said he asked the assessors if they were also doing an assessment on any of the other seven homes in the area between East and West Papoose Lakes. No, they told him, just his property. They weren’t going to reassess anyone else’s properties.

McCabe says he has 40 acres, a house, and a pole barn, plus a couple of chicken coops. There’s nothing special about his place, he said, that would make it stand out for a targeted reassessment.

 “I welcomed the borough assessors to come look at my property. I have nothing to hide and they were consumate professionals and very pleasant (and apologetic). When asked, they admitted that they came only to assess my property at the request of some reporter,” McCabe said. “It sucks that people can weaponize the bureaucracy to harass a public official whom they disagree with politically. Where does that end? Can anyone ask the borough assessors office to go out and assess an opponents property? I don’t agree with some of the assembly members position on things, can I ask that they have a special assessment?” McCabe said. 

McCabe noted that the lack of property assessments in the area is emblematic of the growth the borough has experienced. “The borough provides no means to self-report ones properties value – and I am not an appraiser anyway,” he said.

McCabe was the subject of a lawsuit earlier this year lodged by former newsman Mark Kelsey, who complained that he had been blocked from McCabe’s official Facebook page. Kelsey, a Mat-Su borough resident but not a constituent of McCabe’s, filed the lawsuit June 1 in Anchorage Superior Court. Kelsey was a publisher of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman from 2011-2016, and had been a reporter and managing editor for the paper and other newspapers at various times before that. He also worked for the Department of Commerce for a few years.

Kelsey has, in the past, posted extensive social media comments specifically relating to McCabe’s property, including his tax assessment information that is available at the borough, and has called him out as a “tax chiseler.”

Kelsey’s lawsuit over being blocked on Facebook, and others similarly brought against legislators, have prompted the Legislature to begin to revise the wording on its social media policies. Lawmakers have to walk a fine line — they need to allow people to comment on their official pages, but also need to protect people from being abused, bullied, harassed, and elected officials have to monitor comments for vulgarity and threats.

The Legislature’s current social media policy was last updated in 2011 and Alaska has no case law to inform the issue about when a lawmaker can block someone for repeated instances of harassment.

But meanwhile, it appears a resident of the borough — maybe one with strong political and criticisms of Republicans — has elevated the doxxing of a lawmaker to a new level — sic’ing the property assessors on him to increase his tax payments.

Top medical schools are cutting applicants who don’t show enough devotion to diversity, equity, inclusion agenda

Suzanne Downing
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Top medical schools are cutting applicants who don’t show enough devotion to diversity, equity, inclusion agenda

America’s most prestigious medical schools are training a new crop of advocates for “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, as they bring onboard their new cohorts of medical students, according to a new report by a group that is pushing back on “woke” medical trends that are replacing science and medicine with social justice training. The report shows DEI advocacy begins during the medical school admissions screening.

Some 36 of the top 50 medical schools ask applicants their views on, or experience in diversity-equity-inclusion causes. Many of the medical schools come right out and ask whether applicants agree with certain political statements about race and the causes of different health outcomes.

“This focus on identity politics is not limited to elite medical schools. Schools outside the top-ranked tier are also probing for information about candidates’ attitudes toward race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and more. The goal, it appears, is to turn ideological support for health equity and social justice initiatives into a credential that increases an applicant’s chance of acceptance, to screen out dissenters, and to signal to all applicants that they are expected to support this new cause,” the Do No Harm report says.

Do No Harm’s review finds that 80 percent of the top 10 schools use probing questions that make it clear what response they are looking for from applicants regarding views about diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. Eleven of the top medical schools in the US News & World Report’s top 50 ask the most egregious questions, which appear to be intended to uncover the candidate’s true devotion to social justice and health equity.

Some medical schools take a subtler approach by requesting autobiographical or socioeconomic information or by asking applicants to self-identify with particular demographic labels, Do No Harm writes. But some institutions explicitly question applicants about their positions on, and commitments to, racial identity politics and institutional initiatives related to DEI. The message is: Comply with our politics or you will not be admitted. Examples include:

Duke University asks applicants if to explain their understanding of race and its relationship to health care inequitites:

“Potential sources of health inequities include race, gender, education, income, disability, geographic location, and sexual orientation. Moments to Movement (M2M) is Duke’s collective stand against systemic racism and injustice. The name signifies going beyond passive moments of reflection and becoming more active as we build to make lasting change for our patients, their loved ones and each other. Describe your understanding of race and its relationship to inequities in health and health care.”

UCLA’s Geffen Medical School asks applicants if they identify as “marginalized” when they consider access to education or health care.”

Marginalized includes “LGBTQIA, disabilities, federally recognized tribe,” and UCLA asks applicants “how this inequity has impacted you or your community and how educational disparity, health disparity and/or marginalization has impacted you and your community.”

Do No Harm links this question to a statement on the medical school’s DEI web page: “The core values of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion are inseparable from our institutional goals of excellence in all tenets of healthcare, research, education, and community engagement.”

University of Minnesota Medical School asks applicants about their identities as well as incidents in which they “personally experienced or acted with implicit or explicit bias.” In its application, the school asks students to talk about their views on racism:

“Our country is reckoning with its history, racism, racial injustice, and especially anti-black racism. Please share your reflections on, experiences with, and greatest lessons learned about systemic racism.”

Those who want to know exactly what the university is looking for in a response may look up key words on the ““Defining Our Terms” web page at the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, where applicants can find definitions for terms like such as “micro-aggression,”“privilege,” and “anti-racism.” Use of these words in answering the questions on the application may be helpful for gaining admission.

Florida Atlantic University’s application asks students how they will personally dismantle racism:

“As a community FAU Schmidt COM has made a commitment to be anti-racist and address systemic racism in education and healthcare. Institutionalized racism can be defined as “macro level systems, social forces, institutions, ideologies, and processes that interact with one another to generate and reinforce inequities among racial and ethnic groups.” As a future medical student at FAU, how can you play an active role in addressing and dismantling systemic racism?”

Read the report here.

Do-No-Harm-–-Only-DEI-Advocates-Need-ApplyDownload

Study: In 10 years, student loan debt will be high as ever

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Study: In 10 years, student loan debt will be high as ever

By CASEY HARPER | THE CENTER SQUARE

It will take less than a decade for student loan debt to return to the level it was at before President Joe Biden canceled nearly half a trillion dollars of the debt at taxpayer’s expense, a new report from a leading budget group says.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released the analysis. They estimate that Biden’s debt cancellation of $10,000 per borrower and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients will cost the federal government between $440 billion and $600 billion.

However, they say it will only take a few years for student debt levels to rise again, erasing the cuts of Biden’s cancellations.

“We estimate that if all eligible borrowers receive debt cancellation, the overall student debt portfolio would return to its current level of $1.6 trillion in five and a half years – in 2028,” CRFB said. “In inflation-adjusted dollars, student debt would return to its current level in 2031.”

CRFB also pointed out that the delay in payments, which has gotten little attention compared to debt cancellation, has a big cost for taxpayers as well.

“This four-month payment pause extension will add $20 billion to the deficit,” the group said. “The repayment pause has now been extended seven times, lasting 33 months, bringing the total cost of the pause since the beginning of the pandemic through the end of this year to $155 billion.”

CRFB isn’t the only one critical of Biden’s plan. Several economists have raised the alarm about how the cancellation will hike inflation.

Former Obama administration economist Jason Furman said the cost of forgiving the loans will be felt by the rest of the country.

“Student loan relief would lead some people to spend more,” said Furman, who also works as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “We can’t make more so others would consume less. The way that happens is inflation. Budget constraint. If you add hundreds of billions to the deficit, eventually taxes will rise or spending will be cut. Or some tax cut or spending increases that could have happened won’t. Either way a cost. A full evaluation of student loan relief would take this into account. You might still like it – it benefits recent college grads and hurts most everyone else, both rich and poor. But don’t assume it is ‘free’ money – it is not.”

Furman said the plan would be “gasoline on the inflationary fire.”

“Pouring roughly half a trillion dollars of gasoline on the inflationary fire that is already burning is reckless,” Furman wrote on Twitter. “Doing it while going well beyond one campaign promise ($10K of student loan relief) and breaking another (all proposals paid for) is even worse.”

The majority of Americans feel the same way. As The Center Square previously reported, a NBC/Momentive poll from last month showed that 59% of surveyed Americans report they are concerned that canceling student debt will raise inflation.

“Republicans are especially concerned: 81% of Republicans say student loan forgiveness will make inflation worse, nearly double the number of Democrats who say the same (41%),” Momentive said.

Lawmakers also blasted Biden for the plan, citing inflation, which has hit the highest level in over four decades.

“Now, President Biden is doubling down on his abandonment of working Americans by issuing an illegal order to use hundreds of billions of your tax dollars to ‘forgive’ the loans of college-educated individuals who voluntarily took on debt to finance their education,” U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said. “The American people, who are already struggling to keep up with Biden’s raging inflation crisis, are disgusted with the Democrats’ dangerous, socialist agenda and demanding action. Republicans must stand united to repeal the IRS supersizing and pass my bill to force every member of Congress to go on the record for student loan forgiveness.”

Casey Harper is a senior reporter for the Washington, D.C. Bureau. He previously worked for The Daily Caller, The Hill, and Sinclair Broadcast Group. A graduate of Hillsdale College, Casey’s work has also appeared in Fox News, Fox Business, and USA Today.

Biden’s use of U.S. Marines as props for speech draws criticism, but White House defends it as normal

Suzanne Downing
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Biden’s use of U.S. Marines as props for speech draws criticism, but White House defends it as normal

Two U.S. Marines in uniform, standing at attention against an ominous red background while President Joe Biden delivered a harshly partisan damnation of former President Donald Trump and his supporters has drawn sharp criticism. It’s improper to use the military as a prop for a political speech, critics are saying.

Thursday night’s speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia clearly was political, as it bashed Biden’s most likely opponent — Trump.

But the White House says it was all proper.

“The presence of the Marines at the speech was intended to demonstrate the deep and abiding respect the president has for these service members, to these ideals, and the unique role our independent military plays in defending our democracy no matter which party is in power,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

But even some in the mainstream media were shocked at the breach in protocol:

“Whatever you think of this speech, the military is supposed to be apolitical. Positioning Marines in uniform behind President Biden for a political speech flies in the face of that. It’s wrong when Democrats do it. It’s wrong when Republicans do it,” wrote CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Twitter.

“Like or loathe what he said tonight, it should be noted: The president spoke tonight on the grounds of a national park, flanked by US Marines, and took direct, specific aim at his predecessor and members of the Republican Party,” wrote CBS reporter Ed O’Keefe. “Another thing we don’t see everyday.”

Jean-Pierre said it is quite normal for presidents to use military as a backdrop, and that “Standing up for democracy is not political.”

“The president gave an important speech last night, a critical speech at an inflection point, and our democracy, our values, our values that our men and women who protect us every day and fight for every day believe in as well,” Jean-Pierre said Friday.

MAGA derangement syndrome: Biden condemns ‘Make America Great Again,’ says Trump Republicans are threat

Alex Gimarc: Voters sent a message to Sarah

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Alex Gimarc: Voters sent a message to Sarah

By ALEX GIMARC

The results for Alaska’s first rank choice election were announced on Aug. 31, with Mary Peltola being the first Democrat elected to represent Alaska in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly half a century.

A look at the numbers is instructive. From the Division of Elections results:

After round 1, Peltola held around a 17,000-vote lead over second-place Sarah Palin, and a 22,000-vote lead over Nick Begich III.  Around 40% of all voters voted for Peltola, the Democrat, while 60% voted for a pair of Republican candidates.  

In the second ranked-choice round, Nick Begich was the first candidate out, with his votes going to whomever was marked second on their ballots. Once that total was computed, the total was shrunk by the 11,222 votes Begich got in the initial round when voters didn’t make a second choice. This dropped the total by 6%. Remember that ranked choice voting is a subtraction problem, which is precisely what we saw Wednesday.  

On the Begich ballots, 27,042 were transferred to Palin, around 50% of the total. Another 15,445, around 29% went to Peltola. Finally, 11,222 ballots were exhausted (didn’t have a second vote), or around 21% of the total.

In the end, after the ranked-choice round, Peltola won by 5,219, just under 3% of the remaining 177,193 vote. There were 3,743 blank and overvoted ballots in the ranked-choice round. I do not know how this total was folded into the final number.  

What happened? We learned several lessons. First and foremost is that a single, bullet vote for a single candidate is a fool’s errand. Like I and others pointed out previously, a bullet vote is the functional equivalent of half a vote for whomever is left. Anyone telling you otherwise is at best woefully under-informed.  

Second and perhaps more importantly is that there are a LOT of Republicans out there still mad at Palin for her role in removing Sen. Ted Stevens from office in 2008, when she demanded he resign following a fraudulent prosecution. They are still mad at her for endorsing Bill Walker for governor rather than incumbent Gob. Sean Parnell in 2014. 

These actions stand out before any discussion about the breathtaking expansion of state government while she was governor and raising taxes on the oil and natural gas producers sky high.  

Clearly, Sarah has some fence mending to do between now and November. Like all lifestyle choices, it remains to be seen if she understands how this new world works sufficiently to do that. My guess is not, based on her initial response.  

Sarah’s first response to the loss? Demand Nick Begich drop out of the race for Congress. This is unhelpful, coming from a woman who has been instrumental in making sure Republicans don’t win statewide races over the last 14 years.  

Sarah could have done what Begich did during debates, push rank the red on the second and third choices. She chose to be cute, refusing to answer the question while showing a ballot with no second or third choices marked. Instead, she told voters to only vote for her.  

She helped turn three statewide elections since 2008 to democrats, U.S. Senate, Governor, and now U.S. House. Will there be a fourth?

Intentionally doing this is hardly the stuff of conservatism. As of this writing, it is roughly nine weeks until November. Sarah and her supporters have some work and “splainin” to do if they want to elect someone other than a Democrat to Congress. We will see if they are up to it.

Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.

Tim Barto: Ichiro and El Hombre had work ethic, practice discipline that kept them at top of their game for decades

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Tim Barto: Ichiro and El Hombre had work ethic, practice discipline that kept them at top of their game for decades

By TIM BARTO

Ichiro Suzuki was the best baseball player in the Japanese big leagues when he signed a multi-million dollar contract with the Seattle Mariners in 2001 and brought his game to America.

Despite winning three Most Valuable Player awards and seven batting titles in seven seasons in his native Japan, there were many Americans – fans, players, coaches, and owners – who doubted that the skinny 27-year-old right fielder with the unorthodox, running start swing could make it in the American major leagues.

But make it he did, winning Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player honors that season while leading the league in hits, batting average, and stolen bases. 

If there were any remaining doubters after his rookie season, Ichiro silenced them with his first 10 seasons as a Major League player. Each season from 2001 to 2010, the Mariners’ right fielder was selected as an All-Star, won a Gold Glove Award for being the best fielder at his position, and collected at least 200 hits. Each season.

In 2004, he broke the record for most hits in a season with 262. His statistical achievements invoke comparison with the greatest names the game has ever known: Honus Wagner, George Sisler, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, and Pete Rose. As he gained popularity in the United States, he remained as popular as ever, probably more so, in his native Japan. Japanese television carried Mariner games, and Japanese fans took vacation time to travel to Seattle to see their beloved Ichiro play.

How popular was Ichiro? When Paul Kariya, a Canadian of half Japanese ethnicity was playing hockey in the NHL, he dressed up as Ichiro for Halloween. 

After 11 and a half seasons in Seattle, Ichiro went on to play two and a half seasons for the New York Yankees and three for the Miami Marlins, before returning to Seattle in 2019 to finish out his career. This past weekend, the Mariners organization honored Ichiro with membership in their team’s Hall of Fame. In two more years, he is a shoo-in to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. 

While a player, Ichiro learned English, but being concerned that his words were conveyed properly, he relied on an interpreter. When giving his Hall of Fame acceptance speech in front of a packed stadium, he delivered it in English. In addition to learning English while a player, Ichiro also learned Spanish because of the influx of players from Spanish-speaking countries.

Albert Pujols stands for the National Anthem. Photo credit: Kevin Wong, 2014, Flickr.

Albert Pujols was born in the Dominican Republic in 1980, and made his Major League debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001, the same year Ichiro debuted with the Mariners. Over the same ten year period in which Ichiro was piling up hits in the American League, Pujols was tearing up the National League, averaging over 40 home runs and driving in over 100 runs per season while recording batting averages no lower than .312 each year.

As the Seattle fans endeared themselves to Ichiro, so did the St. Louis fans with Pujols, who they started calling “El Hombre,” Spanish for “The Man.” It was done out of respect for Pujols because the most popular Cardinal of all, Stan Musial, was known as Stan “The Man.” Pujols let it be known that he did not prefer the moniker, feeling it was improper to compare himself to Hall-of-Famer Musial, a man respected as a true gentleman of the game.

St. Louis fans began calling him “La Maquina” because he produced like a machine. That name stuck.

Pujols and the Cardinals won the World Series in 2011, with Pujols tying Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson for most home runs in a World Series game (three, in game seven). But in the offseason, Albert opted to exercise his rights as a free agent, leaving his beloved St. Louis for the deep pockets of the Los Angeles Angels and guaranteeing himself better than 25 million dollars a year for the next ten years. In 2022, Pujols returned to St. Louis to close out his career. 

As of Aug. 29, La Maquina has 694 career home runs, two behind Alex Rodriguez and only six shy of the hallowed territory of 700, achieved by only three players in history – Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Barry Bonds. Unlike Rodriguez and Bonds, Pujols’ achievements have been accomplished without the aid of steroids, and his reputation is of one who played the game clean. Albert is a man of deep Christian faith who treats fans well and is generous in his philanthropy. One of his daughters, Bella, has Down’s Syndrome and competes as a Special Olympics swimmer. Pujols has responded by setting up a family foundation that contributes generously to Special Olympics. 

Five years from now Albert will be eligible for induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and, like Ichiro, his election is guaranteed.

These two men with completely dissimilar builds but a deep love for the game and respect for its history, are remarkable athletes closing out their careers with class, returning home to where their American sports journeys began.

Sure, they’ve made mistakes and disappointed fans along the way, but their athletic achievements and commitment to greatness are deserving of respect. Their work ethic and practice routines kept them at the top of their sport for more than a decade. They were two of the ballplayers that would garner everyone’s attention when they came to the plate; Ichiro for his unique swing and style of play, and Pujols for his strength and clutch performances. They earned the admiration of their coaches, fellow players, and fans. Even fickle and highly opinionated baseball fans are able to stop, reflect, and appreciate the excellence these two ballplayers strove for and the entertainment they provided.

Well done, gentlemen.

Tim Barto is President of the Chugiak-Eagle River Chinooks baseball team, and Vice President of Alaska Policy Forum. Photo credit: George Oates, Flickr.com

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