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D.C. dark money pours into effort to block an Alaska Constitutional Convention

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D.C. dark money pours into effort to block an Alaska Constitutional Convention

By HAYDEN LUDWIG | CAPITAL RESEARCH GROUP

As the country prepares to head to the polls this November, Alaskans will also be asked if they want to hold a constitutional convention to decide important issues like reapportioning the Permanent Fund dividend, which has become a charged issue in recent years. 

As you might expect, where money’s involved D.C. special interests aren’t far behind.

The main group opposing the convention is Defend Our Constitution, which has been described as a “bipartisan” mix of Republican lawmakers, ex-Attorney General Bruce Botelho, and Big Labor. 

The group’s website explains that it was formed to stop “outside special interest groups and dark money” from promoting their own agenda over that of Alaskans. 

Left unmentioned is its top contributor: the “dark money” group Sixteen Thirty Fund, which dumped a cool $500,000—you read that right—into Defend Our Constitution’s coffers in July, accounting for 61 percent of the latter’s contributions since December 2021.

That name shouldn’t sound familiar… and that’s the point. Sixteen Thirty Fund is part of a $1.7 billion political machine run by Arabella Advisors, a D.C.-based consultancy for liberal mega-donors, many of whom share the same last name: Foundation.

It’s unclear why Arabella is mixed up in the convention fight. But after more than three years of tracking and reporting on this “dark money” giant, I’m certain of one thing: Left-wing donors choose Arabella because they want to fund politics, not philanthropy. 

The Arabella empire specializes in funneling secret money to the Left’s most extreme causes, including packing the Supreme Court with “progressive” justices and granting statehood to D.C. One of the network’s creations, States Newsroom, is already spreading partisan news to Juneau, Anchorage, and other cities across Alaska. 

Incredibly, this machine went totally unnoticed by the mainstream media until the Capital Research Center exposed it in 2019. Since then, Arabella’s become the poster child of “dark money” and its activist campaigns have been dragged into the light.

Because most of the Arabella network’s donors remain hidden, we don’t know who channeled the $500,000 grant through Sixteen Thirty Fund to Defend Our Constitution, or why. 

But we do know that the same sort of professional operatives we’ve exposed in the past are working on overdrive to defeat Alaska’s convention measure.

As of late August, Defend Our Constitution had spent over $278,000 in independent expenditures (largely campaign ads) opposing the measure since January. In comparison, the measure’s main backer, ConventionYes, has spent less than $5,000, according to steering committee member Jim Minnery. It doesn’t expect to spend much more than that.

On Aug. 9 alone, Defend Our Constitution dumped $18,634 into social media ads through Yuit Communications, an Anchorage-based P.R. firm with staffers drawn from the congressional campaign of Alyse Gavin (D) and Gov. Walker’s (I) administration.

Amazingly, no fewer than nine—almost half—of Defend Our Constitution’s board members come from Ship Creek Group, a prominent Democratic full-service campaign consultancy. The company’s website boasts voter registration and campaign services for a host of Democratic or left-leaning politicians, including congresswoman-elect Mary Peltola (D), former Anchorage Assemblyman John Weddleton, and state house candidate Genevieve Mina (D), whose resumé boasts “engaging historically low-voter turnout neighborhoods” in the 2018 election (translation: likely Democratic voters).

Ship Creek Group was founded in 2015 by political operative John-Henry Heckendorn—also present on Defend Our Constitution’s board—an ex-Walker political aide who managed the governor’s failed 2018 reelection campaign. 

Defeat aside, Washington elites were entranced by Heckendorn, whom liberal Politico gushed over as “reviving progressivism” in Alaska in an article titled “How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required).”

Here’s the bottom line: There’s more to this ballot question than meets the eye. 

Deciding on a constitutional convention isn’t a simple black-and-white issue. Alaskans should weigh the merits for themselves—and that starts with having all the facts.

Hayden Ludwig is a senior investigative researcher for the Capital Research Center.

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

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

In a widely panned speech on Thursday night in Philadelphia, President Joe Biden attacked Republicans and other supporters of former President Donald Trump.

The speech, given in Independence Hall, is being widely seen as a condemnation of Republicans in the same way that Hillary Clinton called Republicans “deplorables” in 2016, only this time Biden painted Republicans who support Trump with the “extremist” label and said they are a threat to democracy.

“Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal,” Biden said. “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.”

Biden said, “Not every Republican, not even a majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.”

The White House insisted the speech was not political, but Biden implored his listeners to “vote, vote, vote.” He brought up Trump many times, and spoke to the differences between his vision of America and what he perceived to be Trump’s vision. On the White House Facebook page, numerous messages condemning MAGA Republicans, including lawmakers, were posted throughout the day by the Biden social media staff. Some found his message to be menacing. Behind him stood two U.S. Marines, in uniform.

The bulk of his speech, after the introduction, focused on “MAGA Republicans,” the danger of Trump, and how scary these Americans are who have influenced the Republican Party. Watch the speech at this White House Facebook link.

The transcript of the majority of the speech not summarized above:

These are hard things, but I’m an American president, not a president of red America or blue America, but of all America. And I believe it’s my duty, my duty to level with you, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful.

And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love. They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fanned the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.

They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.

They tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. This time, they’re determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people. That’s why respected conservatives like Federal Circuit Court Judge Michael Luttig has called Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans “a clear and present danger” to our democracy.

But while the threat to American democracy is real, I want to say as clearly as we can, we are not powerless in the face of these threats. We are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy. There are far more Americans, far more Americans from every background and belief, who reject the extreme MAGA ideology than those that accept it. And folks, it’s within our power, it’s in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy.

I believe America is at an inflection point, one of those moments that determine the shape of everything that’s to come after. And now, America must choose to move forward or to move backwards, to build a future or obsess about the past, to be a nation of hope and unity and optimism or a nation of fear, division and of darkness.

MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live, not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies. But together, together, we can choose a different path. We can choose a better path forward to the future, a future of possibility, a future to build a dream and hope, and we’re on that path moving ahead.

I know this nation. I know you, the American people. I know your courage, I know your hearts, and I know our history. This is a nation that honors our Constitution. We do not reject it. This is a nation that believes in the rule of law. We do not repudiate it. This is a nation that respects free and fair elections. We honor the will of the people. We do not deny it. And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence. We are still an America that believes in honesty and decency and respect for others. Patriotism, liberty, justice for all, hope, possibilities — we are still at our core a democracy.

And yet, history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy.

For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it, each and every one of us. That’s why tonight, I’m asking our nation to come together, unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy regardless of your ideology.

We’re all called by duty and conscience to confront extremists who put their own pursuit of power above all else. Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy. And MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy.

We, the people, will not let anyone or anything tear us apart. Today, there are dangers around us we cannot allow to prevail. We hear — you’ve heard it, more and more talk about violence as an acceptable political tool in this country. It’s not. It can never be an acceptable tool. So, I want to say this plain and simple: There is no place for political violence in America, period, none, ever.

You saw law enforcement brutally attacked on January the 6th. We’ve seen election officials, poll workers, many of them volunteers of both parties, subject to intimidation and death threats. And, can you believe it, F.B.I. agents just doing their job as directed, facing threats to their own lives from their own fellow citizens.

On top of that, there are public figures today, yesterday and the day before predicting and all but calling for mass violence and rioting in the streets. This is inflammatory. It’s dangerous. It’s against the rule of law. And we, the people, must say this is not who we are.

Ladies and gentlemen, we can’t be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American. They’re incompatible. We can’t allow violence to be normalized in this country. It’s wrong. We each have to reject political violence with all the moral clarity and conviction this nation can muster now.We can’t let the integrity of our elections be undermined, for that is a path to chaos. Look, I know politics can be fierce and mean and nasty in America. I get it. I believe in the give and take of politics, in disagreement and debate and dissent. We’re a big complicated country, but democracy endures only if we, the people, respect the guardrails of the Republic. Only if, we the people accept the results of free and fair elections. Only if, we the people see politics, not as total war, but mediation of our differences. Democracy cannot survive on one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election: Either they win or they were cheated. And that’s where the MAGA Republicans are today.They don’t understand what every patriotic American knows. You can’t love your country only when you win. It’s fundamental.

American democracy only works only if we choose to respect the rule of law and the institutions that were set up in this chamber behind me. Only if we respect our legitimate political differences.

I will not stand by and watch — I will not — the will of the American people be overturned by wild conspiracy theories and baseless evidence-free claims of fraud. I will not stand by and watch elections in this country stolen by people who simply refuse to accept that they lost. I will not stand by and watch the most fundamental freedom in this country, the freedom to vote and have your vote counted, and be taken from you and the American people.

Look, as your president, I will defend our democracy with every fiber of my being, and I’m asking every American to join me.

Throughout our history, America has often made the greatest progress coming out of some of our darkest moments like you’re hearing in that bullhorn. I believe we can and must do that again, and we are.

MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies. Lies told for profit and power.But I see a different America — an America with an unlimited future, an America that’s about to take off. I hope you see it as well. Just look around. I believe we could lift America from the depths of Covid, so we passed the largest economic recovery package since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and today America’s economy is faster, stronger than any other advanced nation in the world. We have more to go. I believe we can build a better America, so we passed the biggest infrastructure investment since President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and we’ve now embarked on a decade of rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges, highways, ports, water systems, high-speed internet, railroads.I believe we can make America safer, so we passed the most significant gun safety law since President Clinton.

I believe we could go from being the highest cost of prescriptions to the world to making prescription drugs and health care more affordable, so we passed the most significant health care reform since President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act.

And I believed we could create a clean energy future and save the planet, so we passed the most important climate initiative ever, ever, ever.

The cynics and the critics tell us nothing can get done, but they’re wrong.

There is not a single thing America cannot do, not a single thing beyond our capacity if we do it together. It’s never easy. But we’re proving that America, no matter how long the road, progress does come.

Look, I know the last year, few years have been tough, but today Covid no longer controls our lives. More Americans are working than ever. Businesses are growing, our schools are open, millions of Americans have been lifted out of poverty. Millions of veterans once exposed to toxic burn pits will now get what they deserve for their families in compensation. American manufacturing has come alive across the heartland, and the future will be made in America, no matter what the white supremacists and the extremists say.

I made a bet on you, the American people, and that bet is paying off, proving that from darkness, the darkness of Charlottesville, of Covid, of gun violence, of insurrection, we can see the light. Light is now visible. Light that will guide us forward. Not only in words but in actions. Actions for you, for your children, for your grandchildren, for America.Even in this moment with all the challenges we face, I give you my word as a Biden, I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future. Not because of me, but because of who you are.We’re going to end cancer as we know it, mark my words. We’re going to create millions of new jobs and a clean energy economy. We’re going to think big. We’re going to make the 21st century another American century because the world needs us to. That’s where we need to focus our energy. Not in the past, not on divisive culture wars, not on the politics of grievance, but on a future we can build together.

The MAGA Republicans believe that for them to succeed, everyone else has to fail. They believe America, not like what I believe about America. I believe America is big enough for all of us to succeed, and that is the nation we’re building, a nation where no one is left behind.

I ran for president because I believed we were in a battle of the soul of this nation. I still believe that to be true. I believe the soul is the breadth, the life and the essence of who we are. The soul is what makes us, us.

The soul of America is defined by the sacred proposition that all are created equal in the image of God, that all are entitled to be treated with decency, dignity and respect, that all deserve justice and a shot at lives of prosperity and consequence. And that democracy, democracy must be defended, for democracy makes all these things possible.

Folks, and it’s up to us. Democracy begins and will be preserved, and we the people’s habits of the heart — in our character, optimism that is tested, yet endures, courage that digs deep when we need it. Empathy that fuels democracy. The willingness to see each other not as enemies but as fellow Americans.

Look, our democracy isn’t perfect. It always has been. Notwithstanding those folks you hear on the other side there. They’re entitled to be outrageous. This is a democracy. But history and common sense — good manners is nothing they have ever suffered from — but history and common sense tell us that opportunity, liberty and justice for all are most likely to come to pass in a democracy. We have never fully realized the aspirations of our founding, but every generation has opened those doors a little bit wider to include more people who have been excluded before.My fellow Americans, America is an idea; the most powerful idea in the history of the world, and it beats in the hearts of the people of this country. It beats in all our hearts. It unites America. It is the American creed.The idea that America guarantees that everyone be treated with dignity. It gives hate no safe harbor. It installs in everyone the belief that no matter where you start in life, there’s nothing you can’t achieve. That’s who we are. That’s what we stand for. That’s what we believe.

And that’s precisely what we’re doing — opening doors, creating possibilities, focusing on the future — and we’re only just beginning.

Our task is to make our nation free and fair, just and strong, noble and whole, and this work is the work of democracy, the work of this generation. It is the work of our time for all time. We can’t afford to leave anyone on the sidelines. We need everyone to do their part, so speak up, speak out, get engaged, vote, vote, vote!

And if we do our duty, if we do our duty, in 2022 and beyond, then ages still to come will say we, all of us here, we kept the faith. We preserved democracy. We heeded our words. We heeded not our worst instincts but our better angels. We proved that for all its imperfections, America is still the beacon to the world, an ideal to be realized, a promise to be kept. There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred. Nothing more American. That’s our soul. That’s who we truly are. And that’s who we must always be.

I have no doubt, none, that this is who we will be and that we’ll come together as a nation that will secure our democracy. That for the next 200 years we’ll have what we had the past 200 years, the greatest nation on the face of the earth. We just need to remember who we are. We are the United States of America, the United States of America. And may God protect our nation, and may God protect all those who stand watch over our democracy.

God bless you all. Democracy. Thank you.

Sixty percent of Alaskans voted Republican in August, yet a Democrat was elected to Congress; national Republicans condemn ranked choice as a scam, unfair system

Suzanne Downing
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Sixty percent of Alaskans voted Republican in August, yet a Democrat was elected to Congress; national Republicans condemn ranked choice as a scam, unfair system

Although 60% of voters chose a Republican — Nick Begich or Sarah Palin — during the Aug. 16 special general election for the vacant congressional seat, Alaska has elected the 40% candidate — Mary Peltola, a Democrat, who will fill out the remainder of the term vacated by the late Congressman Don Young.

The Alaska Republican Party has been silent on the result, but the party has been largely paralyzed by the ranked choice voting system now being used by Alaska.

Nationally some Republican leaders are speaking out about the system of jungle primaries and ranked choice general election voting systems that robbed either Republican from being able to advance to represent Alaska in Congress. The reliably red seat just went to a Nancy Pelosi-Joe Biden Democrat. Alaska’s congressional seat was won by a congresswoman-elect who has a D rating from the NRA.

“The race in The Last Frontier was the first federal test of the state’s unusual voting system that is gaining influence across the country,” writes Emily Brooks in The Hill. The story is linked here.

“Ranked-choice voting is a scam to rig elections,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas tweeted after Alaska’s results came in Wednesday afternoon. “60% of Alaska voters voted for a Republican, but thanks to a convoluted process and ballot exhaustion—which disenfranchises voters—a Democrat ‘won.’” 

Not all Republicans agreed with Cotton. Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, who picked Palin as his vice presidential running mate, said, “Political hacks will come up with absolutely any excuse for a loss other than just admitting their candidate was bad.” Meghan McCain has been a stinging critic of Palin, who she said brought too much drama to the McCain-Palin ticket.

But Republican National Committee national press secretary Emma Vaughn said in a statement to The Hill that the Alaska special election results “prove what we’ve known all along — ranked-choice voting disenfranchises voters. Our Republican nominees earned nearly 60% of Alaskans’ votes on the ballot, and now every single one of those voters lost their voice to choose their representative in Congress. Alaskans deserve an equal and fair process, two things this special election were not.”

Now, an RNC national committeeman from Arizona has told The Hill that he plans to lead a resolution for the RNC to formally oppose ranked choice voting at the party’s next winter meeting at the start of 2023.

Tyler Bowyer, national committeeman for Arizona, said he will offer the resolution. “It eliminates any possibility that someone that’s more conservative — and really, on the Democratic side, more progressive — can ever make it through that system,” Bowyer said to the newspaper.

“In the Alaska system, voters pick one candidate in a nonpartisan jungle primary. Then the top four candidates head to the general election, where voters rank their choices. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, there is an automatic runoff where ballots for the candidate with the least votes are reallocated to the next-choice pick, if the voter made one,” The Hill described in its story about the Alaska experiment.

Robert Dillon, a Murkowski ally, told The Hill: “The reason the party doesn’t like it is because it takes the decision about who the candidates are away from the party and gives it back to voters. The parties naturally, you know, find that threatening, but voters don’t.” Alaskans for Better Elections is the group that put ranked choice voting on the ballot, pushed it through, and is now defending it. The newspaper did not disclose Dillon’s paid association with Alaskans for Better Elections.

Win Gruening: Chasing ‘free money’ for electric buses

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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Win Gruening: Chasing ‘free money’ for electric buses

By WIN GRUENING

The country is awash in “free” money.  Two of the fastest growing job positions nationally are grant writers and grant administrators. Many grants target local and state government entities that are looking for ways to subsidize projects that might otherwise be fiscally unfeasible in today’s economy, or just plain unpopular with taxpayers.

Several municipalities in Alaska are currently exploring ways to cash in on the many grants available through a myriad of programs related to infrastructure, climate change, and education.

But is the money really “free”?

Projects, products, and services that are funded wholly or primarily through grants often are not subjected to the kind of hard analysis and objective vetting that are accorded similar projects that are chiefly funded through public tax dollars. After all, it’s free, right?

Often ignored are the long-term costs of operating and maintaining buildings and equipment, costs that can sometimes exceed whatever benefit is derived from the original subsidized purchase price. “Free money” can also fuel a temptation to try new and untested products, or experiment with a rapidly evolving technology not yet evaluated under all kinds of conditions and uses.

This brings to mind the glowing stories in the media about the current rush of cities around the country to acquire battery electric buses (BEB’s) as part of a larger goal to achieve reductions in their community’s carbon footprint. 

The community of Juneau is no exception. 

Juneau’s first municipally operated battery electric bus was put into service in April 2021. Funded by a grant, the 40-foot bus, manufactured by Proterra, soon experienced problems and couldn’t hold battery charges long enough to complete an entire route during cold winter weather.  Since then, other mechanical problems required the bus to be removed from service several times.

The battery electric bus was down for approximately six weeks from last Thanksgiving to after New Year’s Day due to powertrain and wiring harness problems.

City officials say they are still committed to electrifying Juneau’s entire 18-bus fleet. They intend to investigate other manufacturers and consult with cities in colder climates to learn more about electric bus performance before agreeing to purchase additional vehicles. 

However, a cursory Google search would have revealed that Proterra buses have been having issues for years.

The Duluth Monitor reported that the Duluth Transit Authority had purchased seven buses (at $900,000 apiece) from Proterra using a $6.3 million grant. The Duluth Transit Authority and Proterra engineers spent two years designing a bus for this pilot project that would operate in Duluth’s cold climate and steep topography. 

After delivery in August 2018, all seven buses were pulled from service after only two months for issues similar to those experienced in Juneau.

Foothill Transit, based in weather-friendly West Covina, California, had 13 idled Proterra battery-electric buses out of 32 in its fleet. At one point, the agency indicated up to 67% of its electric buses were not operating during 2019 and 2020.

There are similar stories involving Proterra buses in Los Angeles and Philadelphia.  

Yet, somehow, Juneau officials chose Proterra for their first electric bus. 

Apparently, supply was limited and, of course, the bus was “free”.

Admittedly, BEB’s have promise.  They claim to enjoy four times the fuel efficiency of diesel buses, lower maintenance costs, and zero carbon emissions (if you ignore the optional diesel heaters sometimes used in cold climates). Grants are mandatory because BEB’s can cost 75% more than a diesel bus in addition to the associated costs of charging equipment.

But they must work to be of any value at all. 

Juneau has grants pending now that will fund seven additional buses and is in the process of choosing a manufacturer.  One possibility is Gillig, the company that manufactures the city’s current fleet of diesel buses.  This could be advantageous as there would be maintenance similarities between the two kinds of buses.

But Gillig’s electric battery buses are relatively new to the market and, as of the beginning of this year, only about 100 had been delivered.  Is that enough experience to assure city officials of the kind of reliability and cost savings that are promised?

Or does it even matter since they are free?

After retiring as the senior vice president in charge of business banking for Key Bank in Alaska, Win Gruening became a regular opinion page columnist for the Juneau Empire. He was born and raised in Juneau and graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1970. He is involved in various local and statewide organizations.

Reasons for ballot rejection: Signatures, postmarks

Win Gruening: A poetic moment in Alaska history, with Don Young and Nick Begich III

Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney announces retirement

Suzanne Downing
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Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney announces retirement

Alaska Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney announced Thursday she will resign effective Friday, Sept. 9. Mahoney is leaving to refocus on her health and family. Must Read Alaska has learned that she has been facing health challenges.

“I want to acknowledge and celebrate Commissioner Mahoney’s many contributions to the people of Alaska,” said Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who will turn his focus on finding an acting Revenue commissioner. “Under her leadership, the state’s credit rating and overall fiscal health significantly improved. Oil tax credits have been paid off, the state’s public employee pension obligation has been significantly reduced, and school bond debt reimbursement is reinstated. She came into office just as the global pandemic was appearing in Alaska, and successfully managed the distribution of early PFD payments to assist Alaskans in 2020, and again this year for families struggling to make ends meet due to rampant inflation. The people of Alaska thank Commissioner Mahoney for her contributions to our great state.”

Stunning result: How Mary Peltola flipped Alaska’s congressional seat blue and toppled the Palin political juggernaut

Suzanne Downing
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Stunning result: How Mary Peltola flipped Alaska’s congressional seat blue and toppled the Palin political juggernaut

With Alaska voters turning out in historic numbers for a mid-August election, the 49th state has just elected a Native grandmother from rural Alaska as its temporary congressional representative. 

Mary Peltola, a Democrat, is someone with low name recognition from a town of 6,500, far away from the hustle of the political world. Before June, hardly any Alaskans even knew her name. 

How did this happen in a state where President Donald Trump won just two years ago by a 10-point margin?

Chalk it up to the new “ranked choice voting” method voted into law by Alaskans in 2020 and tried for the first time on Aug. 16, when Alaska held both a regular primary and a special general election.

In the special general election part of the ballot, Peltola beat the most famous person in Alaska history, Sarah Palin, to fill the remainder of the term of the late Congressman Don Young. 

Weeks ago, Dittman Research had accurately predicted Peltola’s strong chance of winning the special election. He and other pollsters who work in Alaska say that Palin’s 63% negative rating with voters, and Peltola’s lack of negatives make it unlikely that Palin could win in a head-to-head with Peltola.

Dittman Research poll vs. actual results of the Aug. 16 special primary election for Alaska’s one congressional seat.

In the second round of tabulating, half of Republican candidate Nick Begich’s voters heeded Begich’s call to “rank the red.” They picked Republican Palin second on their ballots.

But nearly 50% of Begich voters were not of the same “rank the red” mindset. About 29% of Begich voters picked Peltola second. Several conservative, lifelong Republicans told Must Read Alaska they voted for Peltola second to block Palin from office. They find her too polarizing.

Another 20% of voters didn’t vote for anyone else after they picked Begich. Thus, 11,222 ballots were declared “exhausted.”

This is a stunning defeat for Palin. She is a former governor, a former vice-presidential nominee, is endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, who won in 2016 and 2020. Trump went to the extraordinary length of traveling to Alaska to appear at a rally for Palin this summer.

Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, Rand Paul, Newt Gingrich, Nikki Haley, and a host of other luminaries endorsed the glamorous political star.

Palin also outspent Peltola by a factor of four in this race. She had super PACs from the Lower 48 dropping hundreds of thousands of dollars into supporting her.

Yet Palin was beat by a smiling Yup’ik who last held elected office under a different surname — Mary Sattler, a state legislator from 1999-2009. Peltola has no college degree. She is a Bernie Sanders-style Democrat who has been married three times.

Peltola is yet to be fully defined. Her negatives are mainly that she will align with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden – both are kryptonite to Alaska conservatives and to the state’s economic stability.

Alaska voters have an opportunity to reconsider this stunning upset in the regular general election on Nov. 8, when they will choose, in ranked choice voting, which of four candidates will be the two-year congressional representative starting in January: Peltola, Palin, Begich or Libertarian Chris Bye.

Some say Palin has cost Alaska a Republican in Congress because of her hubris and lack of self-awareness about how she stands with average Alaskans. In the meantime, after 49 years, the Alaska seat in Congress has flipped to blue, taking the political world by surprise, defying conventional wisdom. Why? Not enough conservative Alaskans view Sarah Palin as credible. Too few feel she has the intellectual prowess for the job. The election just demonstrated those views. 

The fight isn’t over: Now, Alaska conservatives are trying to figure out how to flip that seat back to the red column in November, knowing that Palin cannot break 50% in Alaska. And everyone from Biden to the local Democratic Party will pour everything they have into keeping that seat blue.

After 49 years, the Alaska seat in Congress has flipped to blue, taking the political world by surprise. On Thursday morning, Cook Political Report changed Alaska’s ranking from Likely Republican to Likely Toss-Up for the first time in history.

Breaking: Peltola wins temporary seat for Congress

Breaking: Peltola wins temporary seat for Congress

Suzanne Downing
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Breaking: Peltola wins temporary seat for Congress

Mary Peltola of Bethel, Alaska has won the temporary seat for Congress. She appears to have won by about 3 percent.

Peltola received over 91,000 votes and Sarah Palin received over 85,000 votes. Peltola appears to have 51.47%, Palin 48.53%. Results have not as of this writing been posted by the Division of Elections and are not final until certified.

The Division of Elections ran the count for the second choice made by voters who picked Nick Begich first for the seat, and assigned them to Peltola and Palin, according to how voters had indicated. The results were announced by a blurry and sometimes hard to hear livestream on Facebook almost immediately after 4 pm on Wednesday, when the second choices from Begich’s ballots were redistributed to their respective candidates.

  • – 50.3% of Begich second votes went to Palin.
  • – 28.7% of Begich second votes went to Peltola.
  • – 20.9% of the voters did not rank another candidate.

Alaska adopted a complicated ranked choice voting method in 2020, via Ballot Measure 2, a scheme pushed with out-of-state liberal billionaire dollars; it passed by a small margin. The special general election to replace the late Congressman Don Young is the first time it has been used in the state.

There were over 11,222 “exhausted” ballots in the final count. Those were voters who chose no one on the ballot after Begich.

Peltola is the first Alaska Native to serve in the one congressional seat that Alaska has. She will fill out the remaining term of Young, until the regular election decides who will serve in the seat for the two years starting in January. Peltola, who served in the Alaska Legislature under the name Mary Sattler from 1999-2009, has the least amount of funding in the race and had only received 10% of the vote during the jungle primary election on June 11, when there were 48 people on the ballot.

She is also the first Democrat to hold the seat since Nick Begich I died in a plane crash in October of 1972. And she will be the first woman.

For Palin, it’s a serious blow for her political comeback. She had been endorsed by former President Donald Trump but could not convince enough voters to put her first or second on their ballots. The conservatives — Begich and Palin — had 60% of the vote combined at the end of the primary, but it was Peltola who managed to get enough second place votes to put her ahead.

Peltola widens lead some more over Palin

Interior Republicans: Uniquely independent

Suzanne Downing
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15
Interior Republicans: Uniquely independent

Interior Republicans in Fairbanks, Districts 31-36, have organized separately from the Alaska Republican Party, creating their own group, and renting a temporary headquarters to last through Nov. 15. This move to create a separate operating group is so they can provide resources to people interested in running for local and state offices, to provide central location for meetings and to get candidate information out to the public.

Their location, at 59 College Road, across from Costco, is also the place to distribute candidate signs and information for conservative candidates. They will be engaged in get-out-the-vote activities for all Interior conservative candidate.

The group, Interior Republicans has also launched a robust website with candidate information and local event listings to help influence voters on “ranking red” in the November general election. The group is also holding election watch parties, and had Gov. Mike Dunleavy hold a meet-and-greet at the Interior Republicans offices. The Dunleavy campaign and numerous other candidates have rented space in the offices. At this point, the group has not hired staff, but is maintaining the offices with volunteer help.

“Donations are being accepted to help us keep the doors open,” said Cheryl Markwood, the founder of the group and longtime Republican activist. “After the November election, we hope to keep Interior Republicans active in recruiting candidates and providing education for more strategic political planning for the upcoming elections in 2023 and 2024.

The group sees itself as another resource, not replacing the Alaska Republican Party, which is based in Anchorage.

“We’re providing services that the arm of the Republican Party cannot fulfill,” she said.

Did parents know what the sex-ed curriculum really was teaching when they signed the consent form?

SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
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19
Did parents know what the sex-ed curriculum really was teaching when they signed the consent form?

By DAVID BOYLE 

Anchorage schools have not only taken over sex education for parents, they are teaching wokeism, gender neutrality, “pick your pronoun,” “change your name,” and techniques needed to be successful in sexual proclivity. 

In full transparency, they will provide a parental consent form that seems pretty benign.  

However, the description of the Academic Plan and Learning Outcomes is not informative to parents. Here is the form that informs parents of the curriculum and the learning outcomes:

This form meets the intent of the state law to get parental approval. Once the permission slip is signed by the parent, the school district is off the hook.   

The learning outcomes are vague and do not reflect what is being taught in the classroom. The permission form is misleading to parents. An argument can be made it is deceiving.

Based on the learning outcomes above, most any parent would sign the permission form. That is exactly the objective of the the Anchorage School District, which prides itself on its “transparency” and “accountability” principles.

The school district has stepped in as the surrogate parents in teaching sex education.

As noted in a previous article, the Anchorage School District is pairing boys and girls to ask extremely intimate and sordid questions of each other in a “speed dating” exercise.

Here is a second example of the questions the boy-girl pairs are to ask each other:

These questions are from a book, “100 Questions You Would Never Ask Your Parents” by Elizabeth Henderson and Nancy Armstrong, which is being used to teach sex education to Anchorage high school students.

What learning objective is aligned with question #41: “With all the condoms out there, how can I know which one to pick?”

There are also several questions about unprotected sex and pregnancy. Do these questions lead the student to Planned Parenthood rather than a conversation with their parent? After signing the permission slip, are these the type of questions you as a parent thought would be covered?  

This sexual movement is not limited to Alaska. It is happening in many schools throughout the nation. A poster in an Eau Claire, Wisconsin high school classroom portrays the school as “I’m Your Mom Now.”

This refers to the gender fluid, transgender, LGBQT+ effort to groom students to question their biological sex.

As noted in an earlier story, the Anchorage School District also intends to keep parents in the dark when a middle or high school student decides to change genders. It’s not just Anchorage.

According to The Federalist, teachers in San Francisco held a meeting in which a question came up as to how to handle a parent who asks teachers to use her child’s given name and biologically correct pronouns. One teacher conveyed an experience in which a parent stated to her, “I know you were using a different name than my child’s given name at birth and the pronouns we gave them, and I’m respectfully asking that you use the name and the pronouns that we gave them.”

The teacher proudly described her defiant reply, “So, in my classroom, I will refer to your child by whatever name and pronouns that they’ve told me they feel most comfortable with.”

Without a focus on the 3 Rs, more parents will be looking for other places to educate their children. More students will be leaving the public education system. If so, the public education system only has itself to blame.  

David Boyle is an education writer for Must Read Alaska.

What does it mean to ‘pop a cherry?’ Anchorage School District is teaching that to high school students
Schools vs. parents: Anchorage public schools secretly affirmed a student’s transgender leanings
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